My dear Mr and Mrs Pimtong,
I have been an AFS for 40 years and I have met so many AFS students ( and so many host families!) all along my life with AFS. This is the reason why I have wanted to write to you since Winner's departure and I am very glad to manage to do it now.
I just wanted to tell you how nice Winner has been as an AFS student. I was Winner's contact person when he arrived, but after a couple of weeks we thought that Jose Manuel would be a better counsellor for a boy and he took over .
However, I was in charge of supervising the students' work at school and always continued to be in touch with Winner all along the year.
He proved to be a very respectful, polite and nice young man, always eager to learn about our culture and willing to participate in every activity that would make him part of our community.
At school all his teachers thought he was a very nice young man and praised his efforts to learn the language. I visited the school every month to ask about the AFS students' behaviour and performance, and not once did they complain about Winner. On the contrary, they have always told me how much both his classmates and teachers appreciated his being in the class.
As regards his family, I think he did his very best to adapt to them all and even took up some activities just to share time with his host brothers.
As far as his relationship with Ariana is concerned, it is absolutely normal for a boy his age to meet a girl!!!! And to tell you the truth, he dated ( very respectfully!) a wonderful girl, not only cute , intelligent, and hard-working student but also an excellent sportive girl with the best ways and habits.
As AFS volunteers we felt down-hearted with Winner's host family's atitude which we do not aprove of in the least. The only reason I can find to that is jealousy and, this is unacceptable for adults.
I told Jose Manuel that I also wanted to write to you because I am also the mother of 3 children , aged 23, 21 and 19 and would feel very worried, sad and disappointed if I received a letter like the one Winner's host family sent to you.
I am sure that with time they will regret having finished Winner's stay in such a way. I am really sorry for Winner, who is so affectionate and sensitive. He DID NOT deserve that at all! Believe me, he will remain in our hearts forever and will always be welcome in Reconquista, our homes, my home, because he has been an excellent AFS student and one of the Thais who adapted the best to our culture, from the very start.
Yours.
Marilena Landi