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Intercollegiate Leadership Wilkes-Barre holds 2019 commencement

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Your view: George Brown is the man for Wilkes-Barre

<p>He&#8217;s just turned 2, so Luca Duguet isn&#8217;t talking much yet.</p><p>But when he does start chatting, &#8220;Bonjour&#8221; and &#8220;Ola&#8221; will likely come just as easily as &#8220;Hello.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Hello&#8221; is a word he&#8217;ll probably learn from his mom, Dr. Lindsey Duguet, who grew up in Berks County.</p><p>&#8220;Bonjour&#8221; will probably come courtesy of his dad, Michael Duguet, who is from France.</p><p>As for the Portuguese greeting, that probably will come from Larissa Leite, a 23-year-old au pair from Brazil whose stay with the Duguet family, of Dallas, has been arranged by AuPairCare of San Francisco.</p><p>The Duguets said they like the idea of exposing their two children &#8212; baby sister Alexandra joined Luca six months ago &#8212; to more than one culture and they like having an au pair live with their family.</p><p>&#8220;The hours are flexible. It&#8217;s not like a day care with hours of nine to five,&#8221; said Dr. Lindsey Duguet, an emergency medicine physician whose own hours aren&#8217;t nine to five, either.</p><p>Michael Duguet had been working as an mechanical engineer but stayed home with Luca as a full-time dad for the first year of his son&#8217;s life. Now he works from home for an on-line high-end men&#8217;s clothier.</p><p>For Leite, a typical day begins with preparing breakfast for Luca.</p><p>&#8220;We play a lot,&#8221; she said.</p><p>&#8220;And they go to story time at the library,&#8221; Dr. Lindsey Duguet added.</p><p>Sometimes, there&#8217;s even a totally new experience &#8212; such as the chance this past season to play in the fluffy, white stuff that doesn&#8217;t often accumulate near Leite&#8217;s hometown in Brazil.</p><p>&#8220;It was Luca and Larissa&#8217;s first time to enjoy snow,&#8221; Dr. Lindsey Duguet said with a smile. &#8220;They made snow angels. They ate snow.&#8221;</p><p>The Duguets are happy with their au pair arrangement and want to extend Leite&#8217;s stay for a second year when her first year is up this summer.</p><p>&#8220;We can tell she loves them,&#8221; Dr. Lindsey Duguet said of the relationship between the children and the au pair. &#8220;She&#8217;ll be walking around singing to them.&#8221;</p><p>AuPairCare can match families with an au pair from any country with which the United States has diplomatic ties. Their website contains a data base which a host family can search, looking for someone who speaks any of 16 languages from Afrikaans to Japanese to Swedish and someone who has experience with children younger than 2 versus older than 2.</p><p>Biographies on the website state an au pair&#8217;s level of experience with driving a car and with swimming and include in-their-own-words essays about how they like to spend time with children.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to play outside with children on a sunny day. Then I make a box lunch and go to a park,&#8221; one young woman from Japan wrote. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to read books to children and to dance to music on a rainy day.</p><p>&#8220;I believe children should have as much fun as possible while they are young,&#8221; wrote a young woman from South Africa. &#8220;So my main point will be to do something which they will enjoy and brings them happiness. Which will include, parks, cinemas, playing games where they could learn something.&#8221;</p><p>The young people also listed some of their positive qualities.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m trustworthy, diligent, responsible and kind,&#8221; one young woman from Thailand wrote. &#8220;I like kids and I treat them as my own child.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I love to learn new things,&#8221; wrote a young woman from Colombia. &#8220;I&#8217;m very willing to do it.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You can rely on me, 100 percent,&#8221; wrote a young man from Denmark.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m also very responsible person,&#8221; one young woman from Poland wrote. &#8220;I don&#8217;t smoke and don&#8217;t have any other addictions. I even don&#8217;t have addiction to phone, what it&#8217;s very common nowadays.&#8221;</p><p>AuPairCare estimates the cost of hosting an au pair as $18,708 per year or $360 per week. For more information, see aupaircare.com or call local representative Bonnie Witkosky at 570-417-3418. Witkosky also arranges student exchange programs for students in high school.</p><p><ins>Witkosky can be reached at: http://refer.aupaircare.com/share/bwitkosky</ins></p><p><ins>or through email at bwitkosky@aupaircare.com</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL040719au-pair_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Au pair Larissa Leite, of Brazil, right, plays Pat-a-Cake with 2-year-old Luca Duguet at his home in Dallas. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL040719au-pair_2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Au pair Larissa Leite, of Brazil, right, plays Pat-a-Cake with 2-year-old Luca Duguet at his home in Dallas. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL040719au-pair_4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Au pair Larissa Leite, of Brazil, has a quiet moment with 6-month-old Alexandra Duguet at the Duguet home in Dallas. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL040719au-pair_4.jpg</photo1><caption1>Au pair Larissa Leite, of Brazil, has a quiet moment with 6-month-old Alexandra Duguet at the Duguet home in Dallas. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL040719au-pair_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dr. Lindsey Duguet, right, holds her 6-month-old daughter, Alexandra, on the sofa next to her husband Michael, au pair&nbsp;Larissa Leite of Brazil, and au pair coordinator Bonnie Witkosky at the Duguet home in Dallas. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_TTL040719au-pair_1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Dr. Lindsey Duguet, right, holds her 6-month-old daughter, Alexandra, on the sofa next to her husband Michael, au pair&nbsp;Larissa Leite of Brazil, and au pair coordinator Bonnie Witkosky at the Duguet home in Dallas. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Au pair adds cultural exchange to home