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Nigerian student adapts to American life




(9/21/09) By Jeniffer Berry - Pizza, football and washing machines. For Americans they are just everyday part of our lives.

But for one Nigerian student spending the year in Hastings they are about as foreign as you can get.

When Sam Bako came to America football was the last sport he thought he would be playing.

“I was telling myself I would never play this game. I would never play it,” said Samuel Bako, Nigerian Exchange Student.

You see, Sam is from Nigeria, Africa. Football in his country is soccer and American Football is virtually non–existent.

But in this new country he decided to give a new sport a try.

“It is hard, but when you are used to it, it is fun,” said Samuel.

So fun that every day after school you will find him on the football field, throwing around the leather with the Hastings High Football team.

“It is great, I really love it,” said Samuel.

It is of course where this foreign exchange student made his first American High School friends, where his first American experiences began. But his host family, the Pruitts, said it is not where they ended.

“It has been quite eye opening just watching him adapt to American life,” said Adam Pruitt, Samuel’s Host Father.

“The American time, the food, everything is totally different,” said Samuel.

“We had to show him how to do everything. Using a washing machine, a microwave, a toaster, you know something so simple as a toaster that we take for granted every day,” said Adam.

Back in Nigeria Sam lives in a suburb and not in the bush with lions like Americans assume.

But even near the city electricity is not constant and appliances are luxuries.

“That's why I say, America, it will make me lazy, back at home we use our hands to do stuff, and here, you use machines,” said Samuel.

Maybe he will leave the US a little more lazy, but he will also leave a little more open minded... a little more talkative.

“He said he was quiet in Africa and he's opened up a lot more now that he's come here because everybody talk a lot here, so he's had to learn how to talk to everybody,” said Vanessa Pruitt, Samuel’s Host Mother.

It is a trait he picked up from the American lifestyle, and he will use it... to tell everyone back home about the America he experienced.

“The mentality in Nigeria is that America is racism and when I go back there I will make them informed. Make them know that's not so. America, they love each other,” said Samuel.

Like he is learning to love football... even it means carrying the ball instead of kicking it.

“With time I'm getting used to it,” said Samuel.

Samuel has not gotten the chance to play in a football game yet. But he said that is okay... he will definitely be on the field this coming soccer season.

Attached Files: 0921celebrate-youth.jpg 


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