Just about a year ago, Hyrum Rich left his home to stay in Aguascalientes, Mexico as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.
Originally, he was to stay there for 10 months, both going to school and traveling the country, however, COVID-19 brought him home before the end of his stay.
Rich said Rotary itself did not tell him he needed to return to the U.S., but as he started seeing more and more flights being cancelled he decided he’d better come home rather than get stuck so far away during a world-wide pandemic.
That didn’t stop him from enjoying his stay in Mexico, though.
He traveled quite a bit during his stay, seeing about 30 different cities, learned Spanish and spent time with two different families.
“It was a good experience getting to stay with two families,” he said. “It gave me different reference points on everything Mexico.”
The first family he stayed with had a son, Alonzo, who was in Worland on his Rotary trip, so he was able to meet Rich’s family while he was here. Alonzo’s father spoke English during the first week he was in country, but after that, he spoke strictly Spanish to get Rich used to using it daily.
His first host mother was a chef so Rich was treated to a lot of cultural cuisine while he was there, saying its nothing like the Mexican food in the states, that its very simple.
“Tacos didn’t have ground beef in them,” he said. “It was meat, onions and cilantro mostly. Very simple. The best restaurants were way out in the boonies. You’d go out of town for a few miles, turn down a dirt road and a few miles later, out in the middle of nowhere, no trees, no grass, and there’d be a restaurant with all its lights on. Amazing food.”
He also got to attend a few football (soccer) games with his first host family.
That changed a lot when he moved in with his second host family as they had season tickets and they went to games all the time.
“I learned all the Spanish swear words at the soccer games,” he laughed. “I was surprised though at how much police presence there was at the games. I saw someone escorted out of the stadium by police at almost every game.”
With his second family he found they had a son who was doing his Rotary exchange in Brazil, but there was a little sister there that was just about the same age as Rich’s sister, so it was nice having her around.
As far as school is concerned, he went to an International School filled with students from all over the world, Brazil, Belgium, Canada and Latvia to name a few. In all, there were 14 Rotary exchange students in the area, so he wasn’t really alone.
Rich said rather than the six classes he takes here, he was required to take 10 classes a day. The interesting thing is the students didn’t switch classes, the teachers did. They would all be in one big room and the teachers would come up, do their portion of the class and then go back to their desk in the back of the class as another teacher walked up to do their portion.
“It felt harder,” he said. “It was probably because it was all in a different language and it was hard to follow sometimes.”
There were no school-sanctioned sports in Mexico, either. If you wanted to play a sport you had to join a club, like a soccer club, in order to play.
Other than that, kids are kids and they did normal things like hanging out and having lunch at the mall.
Ground rules while he was in Mexico were very important, such as what modes of transportation were safe to take and curfews were a must, especially for the girls. Even though there were no cartels in the area he was in, being aware of your surroundings was important.
There were about a million people in Aguascalientes, but by Mexican standards, that was still considered a small town.
While in the states most homes are built of wood products, in Mexico everything, from homes to businesses, were constructed of cement. You could tell the more affluent areas from the poorer ones by how the cement was treated, whether it was painted or not or had some kind of skilled work behind it or if it was just a block in the middle of a lot.
“The economy is very different there,” he said. “My hosts would work 40-hour weeks and still struggled sometimes. The wages are very low.”
Would he do it again?
“Absolutely,” he said. “It was an awesome experience. I got to live in a different culture, something I think would benefit anybody. It really gives you a sense of empathy for other cultures and what they deal with on a daily basis.”
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