By Carolina Carniero, Summer Times Staff Writer
Phillips Exeter Summer is embroidered with different cultures and identities. It is as if a crimson thread was stretching across the world, sewing multiple countries together and eading their young citizens to the thread’s endpoint, Exeter, New Hampshire.This connection is the reason PEA is a unique, enjoyable program.
Inspired by the prominent and evocative photoblog, Humans of New York by photographer Brandon Stanton, Humans of Exeter provides brief descriptions of several countries, such as Mexico, China and Italy, from Exonians’ perspective. Students do not have the chance to speak about their backgrounds due to the rigorous classes that occupy their time; this piece is a way of providing students the opportunity to speak about their cultures.
Gabriel Delgado
15 years old
From Xalostoc Guerrero, Mexico
SUMMER TIMES: Describe what someone would see or hear while walking down your street to go to the store…what is the weather like…what are people doing?
GABRIEL: “In my town, [the climate] is just like [Exeter’s] right now, very quiet, very great environment, I used to live in the mountains mostly… in the city, there is a marketplace, there is a smell of chiles and pepper, and like other foods, vegetables. There is a sense of business, like everybody tries to make a living…like [the sellers would yell] ‘hey come over here, it’s cheap’ or try to convince somebody to buy their products …[the marketplace] would be full of people, it would be very crowded and just some memories is that sometimes we would get lost in there.”
Anita D’Alisera
Age: 16
From Rome, Italy
Describe what someone would see or hear while walking down your street to go to the store..what is the weather like…what are people doing?
“The weather there luckily, is sunny most of the time, but these past few months though, right before the summer, it has been raining in Rome, since like November to like literally May…but now it is really hot, the summer is really hot. The last time a summer, at least in Rome, was this hot was in 2003, so it is really really really hot…probably I would imagine right now, is two old people… you like hear them saying e, sí, pero and I feel like you can hear two old people discussing about their jobs…with like a really rough and tough accent with a lot of hand movements….and I always seem to find pieces of plastic right as soon as I step out my house which is so sad…sometimes the smell is not pleasing but there are some places in which it smells great and looks good.”
Viveca Anaab-bisi, 17
Senam Anaglate, 16
Accra, Ghana
Viveca (left), Senam (right)
What national traits of your culture do you represent?
“I think one of the traits that Ghanians usually have, they are very welcoming…everywhere you go, Ghanians are going to be like ‘Oh, hi, welcome!’ and like, you know, sharing things with you, it’s not like, ‘oh you’re from this place, we don’t like you, bye.’ So I think that’s one thing that helps me adapt, it helps you make friends easily because you talk with everyone, you are trying to not exclude people.” — Viveca
“Another thing about Ghana is that we are actually very lively, we know how to party, so it’s really cool. Silence is very rare, and then usually when [my friends and I] go to each other’s house, we usually have like dance parties for like no reason whatsoever.” –Sanem
What is one thing that is overlooked about your country or culture?
“Well the fact that we are educated, I guess. A lot of people don’t think like we are very literate and I think that’s a very horrible misconception cause I mean, it is the 21st century, like there are people who go through education. I also think a lot of people have misconception that we do not have a lot of infrastructure that they have in first world countries…that’s very much not it, like some of the houses are like huge! Huge, Huge! I also think people do not consider the fact that [Ghana] is also like a modernized place.”– Viveca
Sameer Issa
15
Daraa, Syria
What national traits of your culture do you represent?
“Kindness, one of the keys in our culture, is loving your family, one of the cultures we have is if you have a family you cannot live without them, they have to be in your house or you have to be in their house, so you know, you do not leave your family.”
What is one thing that is overlooked about your country or culture?
“The history of Syria, Damascus, which is the capital of Syria, is the oldest capital on earth, but no one recognizes that cause the civil war, and no one knows that there is a lot of history in Syria, and some other parts of Syria.”
Can you give me an example of a historical event that occurred there?
“When there was the Palestine war, Syria was inviting all the people, the refugees from Palestine, to come into our country.”
Juliana Arteta
Age:16
From Quito, Ecuador
What national traits of your culture do you represent?
“One of the best traits that my culture has is how kind and nice we are to other people. And how we like to include everyone, we do not like to see other people be excluded from groups or feel excluded or feel like they do not belong.”
Can you give me an example of this happening in Ecuador?
“There are a lot of tourists in Ecuador and for example, if we are dancing to like national music, we will include them in the dances, make them feel like not like tourists but like part of [Ecuador]… [Tourists] can dance with Ecuadorians like Ecuadorians, they can sing, they can, you know, have the full experience in Ecuador as someone who is from there.”
What is one thing that is overlooked about your country or culture?
“I think that something that is overlooked by my culture, is how hard working we are. I think that everybody works for like a cause, they don’t just work to like, you know earn money, and buy stuff. They work to help their families, to make Ecuador a better place. They work to share their talents, and that gives them the motivation to work even harder…we have a lot of passion for everything we do, and i think that sometimes that’s not really appreciated. You can see it in the products we sell., its like everything is so detailed, and you can see like everything is done with so much care”
Owen Zhang Oliver Zhang
Shang Hai, China Qingdao, China
14 15
Oliver (left), Owen (right)
What is one thing that is overlooked about your country or culture?
“Most Chinese do not believe in religion, not because they have no life aim, not just to have no faith, but because they have love and faith in their family, and in their society, and in history…We all have faith but more western people, their faith is in religion, but our faith is in more reality, like to the family, to society, to the people around us.” — Oliver