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Second of three parts:
It should have taken Sean Obi some time to get acclimated to his new surroundings at Greens Farms Academy when he arrived from Nigeria last summer as a 15-year-old. But the transition has been seamless. The school community accepted him with open arms, and he has just been just as quick to embrace it.
"There aren't too many 6-9 kids in the school,'' says basketball teammate Hunter Eggers, whose family is hosting Sean during his stay in the United States. "You walk by the lower school, and kids are always hugging him. Somebody said he doesn't go two feet without getting a hug." And Sean enjoys it's the attention. "What can I do,'' Sean says, "but hug them back."
Obi is a gentle giant with a disarming smile and an engaging personality except on the basketball court. For his 16th birthday earlier this month, he tried bowling for the first time. He reeled off three strikes, and his friends roared with delight. "It was like the Beatles were bowling,'' says Bobbi Eggers, Hunter's mother. "He just turned around and shrugged his shoulders."
Obi has excelled on the basketball court, where he is averaging 21 points and 16 rebounds per game. He has also been brilliant in the classroom, due in large part to an unparalleled work ethic in which he's often up at 4 a.m. preparing for the school day. In a bit of irony, one of the first books Sean read for class was "Purple Hibiscus," a story about a 15-year-old Nigerian girl. His classes at GFA average seven to 12 students per class, whereas in Nigeria there was more than 100 in a classroom and teachers did not know the students' names. "We have to give a tremendous amount of credit to the school,'' said Steve Eggers, Hunter's father. "It's been the perfect place for him."
Some circumstances have challenged Sean. He's not fond of American food. "I don't like anything about it,'' he said. And the cold? Sean arrived in the summer but quickly learned about Connecticut winters. "The first time it got below 70 degrees, he rushed upstairs and put on a jacket,'' Hunter said.
Sean misses his family in Nigeria but talks with them frequently via Skype and other communication tools. Essentially, the transition has been about as smooth as it possibly can be for a young man coming to a new country, a new school and a new home. "Greens Farms is the perfect place for him,'' says his coach, Doug Scott. "There's a lot reasons the way it worked out the way it did."
Tomorrow: A glimpse of Sean's host family.
Have you had a child from a different country live with you? How long does it take for students from different countries to adjust to new surroundings? Start the discussion below!
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