05048 - Hartland, Vt.
Divine McLorrain, 9, of the Bronx, N.Y., is spending two weeks this summer with Nissa Kagle and Molly Shaw at their home at the Cobb Hill Cohousing community in Hartland. Divine’s visit is sponsored by the Fresh Air Fund. The following is an edited interview.
I have two younger brothers and I live with my mom in an apartment in the Bronx. I share a room with my little brothers, so there’s three of us in that room. It’s white and it has a bunk bed. With my brothers we play with toys and video games. My favorite is a racing car game, I forget the name of it.
To get here, we took a train to the station, then I got on the bus in Manhattan. I felt good when I first showed up. I wasn’t nervous about it because it’s my second year with the same family.
I miss my mom sometimes but I don’t get that homesick. When I’m here, I share a room with Diego. He’s nine years old, too, and we’re pretty good friends now.
I had never fed animals before I came here. There’s horses, cows and some chickens. I’d seen them on TV and in the zoo sometimes, but when I come here I get to feed them. I like to do that a lot. There’s a lake to go swimming up the block and sometimes we bike there. We also work in the garden picking food and stuff.
My mom wanted me to come out here, I don’t know why. There’s not that big a difference between the Bronx and Vermont. It’s all the same — both places I get to play with my friends. But here, sometimes we eat in the common house or we read books. And we eat plants and stuff.
I’m not sure if I’ll be back next year but I want to. It feels like a good vacation.