My Half-Year of Hell With Christian Fundamentalists

[Orrin_73]

When Polish student Michael Gromek, 19, went to America on a student exchange, he found himself trapped in a host family of Christian fundamentalists. What followed was a six-month hell of dawn church visits and sex education talks as his new family tried to banish the devil from his soul.

"When I got out of the plane in Greensboro in the US state of North Carolina, I would never have expected my host family to welcome me at the airport, wielding a Bible, and saying, 'Child, our Lord sent you half-way around the world to bring you to us.' At that moment I just wanted to turn round and run back to the plane.

My host parents treated me like a five-year-old. They gave me lollipops. They woke me every Sunday morning at 6:15 a.m., saying 'Michael, it's time to go to church.' I hated that sentence. When I didn't want to go to church one morning, because I had hardly slept, they didn't allow me to have any coffee.

67 days later, I was finally in a new family. They were young, actually more friends than host parents, and I was very happy there. Because my new family was only 50 kilometers away from the other one, I was distrustful at first and afraid that things wouldn't be any better. But the change was worth it.

My Half-Year of Hell With Christian Fundamentalists

I know its old news but still very interesting. I love travel/vacation stories that go wrong.

[Downtown Hound]

1. Jeez, poor kid.

Glad he got out of there. What a miserable situation to be in.

[billyskank]

2. WTF

Don't they do any checking before they set exchange students up?

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Considering little to no checking is done in some Foster Care situtations

This doesn't surprise me.

[Initech]

4. If I were that kid, I probably would have been in the same situation.

:scared:

[Lavender Brown]

5. I can't believe he wants to contact them

I wouldn't even want to hear their names again after all that.