I haven't read such a heavily editored story in a very long time now. The motif of "HOME, MEMORIES, FEELINGZ, PEOPLEZ" was laid out so bluntly and so thickly, that even a B-rated movie from the 90s wouldn't hammer-in those same subjects over and over again so relentlessly. It'd totally be a 90s thing, though, if the MC would to flip through the radio, and every station would blabber about home-sickness. These characters never feel like actual people, but more like a walking trope or a metaphor waiting to complete.
Also, the children are way too intimate. They're a tad TOO cute, aren't they? It's an odd thing to say, but the MC doesn't even have to earn their intimacy, they just vomit it all over him. It comes across as cheap.
There, I'm done. That's all I had to fart on this thing.