When Khomotso Modise set her eyes on her new East Lansing home, she stared in bewilderment at the wood-frame house and felt homesick for her native South Africa.
“I was kind of sad, and I was thinking we were going to be cold in the house because it was made out of wood,” she said while tugging on her USA T-shirt. “I’ve never seen one before - we make all of our houses out of bricks.”
Modise, 21, has been in America for the past year with Au Pair in America, a program that matches 18- to 26-year-old foreigners with American families who want live-in child care.
An au pair, which means “on par,” is responsible for dressing children and preparing their food and laundry. Au pairs also take the children to school and clean up after them but are not responsible for messes that don’t result from the children.
Modise shared some of her perceptions of the United States on Sunday at the region’s monthly au pair meeting at her host mother’s house, where 11 women from all over the world gathered around a kitchen table eating pizza and drinking cola from paper cups decorated with the American flag.
The girls giggled about gaining weight from American food and gushed about the MSU football team.
Modise expressed her newfound love for driving big cars, listening to American accents, eating at McDonald’s, watching snow fall and spending time in basements - something homes don’t have in South Africa. She plans to return home in October.
“I’m excited to go home, but I’m going to miss my American life,” Modise said. “I love my host family and meeting the others in the exchange program. You make a very worldwide friendship.”
Au pairs work 30 to 45 hours per week for 12 months and are allowed a one-month travel period. They are paid $205 to $328 per week and are given a private room and three meals a day. Host families are also required to give au pairs $500 to $1,000 to attend a postsecondary institution in addition to transportation to class.
Modise’s host mother, Helen Hartford, is an East Lansing attorney and a single parent who contacted the au pair program so she could balance her job with the demands of her three boys.
“It’s like having a family member around to help you out,” Hartford said. “During the year it’s consistent. You know who’s going to be watching your kids, and you’re not always getting on the phone looking for someone.”
Hartford said she never refers to Modise as a nanny.
“She’s very well-loved and we treat her like a member of the family,” she said.
Au pairs are required to speak English and have at least 200 hours of child care experience, a secondary school diploma and a driver’s license. They must also pass a background check.
The organization is a division of the American Institute for Foreign Study Inc. and has placed more than 48,000 au pairs from 40 countries with American families since 1986.
Tootsie Panayotou, a community counselor for the 17 au pairs from Jackson to Grand Rapids, helps the women make a smooth transition into America.
“They come with the idea that the whole United States is like the television show ‘Dallas,’” she said.
Panayotou meets with the au pairs once a month to help them schedule classes and handle personal problems including homesickness and boyfriends.
“I’m like a grandmother to them,” she said. “Every one of the girls you really become involved with and it’s really hard to send them back.”
But Modise said the atmosphere she found during her American orientation made her want to head home. She came during the week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“It was scary and it was a challenge to really tell yourself that you’re going to stay all year long, but I did, and I love it,” she said.
Modise said that since her arrival she’s learned about a different way of life and has vastly improved her English with the help of the children.
But the au pairs are not the only ones who benefit, Panayotou said.
“It’s brought a whole new dimension in my life,” she said. “I’ve learned so much about so many countries and about so many cultures. It also teaches the children of the United States that I believe are very tunnel vision. They teach these children that there is a bigger world out there and that we can all get along in it beautifully.”
Kendra Snyder can be reached at snyderk6@msu.edu.
