Columbia Pacific Hosting/Departure News

THANK YOU, HOSTFAMILIES & VOLUNTEERS

By Bernice Schuchardt

The year is quickly coming to aclose. I would like to thank all of thevolunteers who willingly set asideweekends and evenings to supportour exchange students and theirfamilies. You have made yourcontribution towards world peace.Thank you to our volunteers whohave worked as area leadershipmembers, group leaders,chaperones, have housed studentsfor overnight, been drivers foroutings, spent time counseling withfamilies and students, organized andheld special activities in their homes,went out on interviews, helped findhost families, and in all have spentmany, many hours making sure ourexchange students had a memorableyear.Thank you to all our host families!You have opened your homes andhearts to our students from aroundthe world. You have been there forthem, helped them celebrate their joys and achievements and alsostood by them through difficult times.This is not the end of yourrelationship. Most of you willcontinue to keep in touch throughoutthe years, and many of you will meetagain either in their countries or herein the USA.I know from past experience. I amleaving for Italy on the 30

of June tovisit my AFS students who lived withour family in 1978-79 and 1993-94. Ihave two very special Italiandaughters and two Italiangrandchildren who have a specialplace in my heart, and four otherspecial sons and daughters fromGreece, Ghana, Peru and CostaRica. I have visited all of them andseveral have visited me. We arealso in contact through e-mail andphone calls. So when you say“goodbye,” just remember it’s notforever—your exchange students willmost likely remain your sons and

daughters for a lifetime.

The end of the year is upon us!

It seems like the year has flown by.Now you have reached the point whereyou need to start packing for yourreturn home.

JUNE 27 STUDENTDEPARTURE!

3:00 to 4:00 at Lents park is a point ofdeparture and goodbye’s from familyand friend.

What’s next?

The students will spend timetogether as a group waiting for thebus. They will be invited to join inactivities or permitted to just hangout and chat with friends. They willbe fed. Sometime that night thestudents will be bused to a centrallocation in Seattle. There they willmeet with any other students in thePacific Northwest (includingAlaska) who traveled with themfrom their natural country for theirreturn flight home. Again, most willhave time to shower before theirflight. Some may even have timeto nap. It all depends upon theirflight schedule. AFS will providefood for students in transit.If you have any questions aboutthe bus trip, please contact the tripchaperones. Maggie Frieske at503 659 7958 or by email:maggiefrieske@attbi.com NOTE: This information will alsobe posted on our website athttp://afscolpac.org.Thank you once again for all thatyou have done to make this yearpossible for your student. Wehope that you will continue to stayconnected with AFS by joining ourworld-wide family of volunteers.

AFS T-Shirts and CD’s

AFS T-Shirts and CD’s for the 2003-2004host season are available for host familythrough Ron Combs. If you are interestedin either one or both please callRon

503-777-8117 or E-Mailr1p2combs3@aol.com. Please giveshirt sizes.

June 2004

Student News

From Gabriele:

First is from "Prom" and it's a picture of myself, my date (Karissa) and her dog (Karmen);Second picture has been taken beforethe graduation ceremony and I'm torturingmy friend John;Last but not least a picture of me and Shioriright after the last AFS orientation.

Volunteer spotlight

We are blessed with a leader amongvolunteers. Ron combs is one of thehardest working people in the northwest.Ron’s wife Pat also helps with severalevents including the Christmas partywhere she provides that fun Bingo gamewith Holliday characters. You will findRon enjoying himself at almost all of theevents because he is a part of theexcitement and not on the sidelines.This is evident when you look at thepictures in this newsletter.

From Mohammad:

Time Goes Fast, Graduation what aWord.

Time is going so fast, faster thananything I have ever experienced....faster than lightning, faster than sound,....faster than cars, trains, and aero plans,so fast that I thought, that I just camehere yesterday... or maybe I never cameat all... maybe this was actually adream... maybe I am still in Egypt, backthere at home... no wait that can't betrue… I remember memories, I seefaces… I look at my self in the mirror, Isee someone different... Someone wholooks older and more mature, than I everwas… some one that is not me…. I knowthat I have been there; I have lived allthis year. But it just feels that it was a dayor a week, it doesn't feel like it has beena year, and now they are telling me that Ihave to go. And suddenly my heartstarted to cry… I have to leave now,leave forever. And then this was themoment when I wished that time wouldfreeze. That time would go so slow likethe matrix, that every second would belike a new day. But then reality just hit meagain. it made me realize that I mightcome back someday, I am sure I will…my second family will always be herewaiting for me… my friends will alwaysbe my friends… maybe I will never seethem again…. But they will always be inmy heart …. And then my heart smiledagain… because I just realized that evenif I leave… they will always be there withme… there, deep in my heart.Written by: Mohamed IbrahimEL-Naggar, Egypt YES-AFS 2004

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Graduation, what a word! A moment thateveryone waits for and at the same timewishing it never happens. It’s a mix offeelings and emotions. You feel happythat you are done with high school, andthat you are moving to the next level ofyour life. At the same time, you feel thissadness, of leaving home and leaving allyour friends. Its like a puzzle that has nosolution, it’s a riddle that you can't solve.That’s how graduation felt. It’s a feelingthat doesn't exist in our vocabulary, afeeling that has no name. A feeling thatyou can describe, but at the same timeyou can't. It’s a moment in whicheverything seems to be over, and at thesame time it feels like you just started, it’sa new journey and a new adventure. Tome graduation will be even morecomplicated than that. I knew I wasleaving, leaving forever. Who knows if Iever come back again? I was scared,scared of this moment. I wanted to cry,but I didn't. I felt I was strongI am a man.Men don't cry. But I still felt sad. But Ididn't let this feeling take over me. Idecided I was stronger, so I felt happy,happy for everything and for everyone.Happy that I am done and that my friendsare done. And then I realized something.I realized that I already choose to takethat step, much earlier before that. Ichoose to come here, and leaveeverything back there at home. And this

time I will be the one to take that stepagain. A step to

my new

journey.

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO A HOST MOM

By Yulia Fabrovska“It can be so difficult to be alone in anunknown country; stay with an unknownfamily which speaks a different language. It isimpossible to show my gratitude to somepeople who worked so hard to help me notonly when I felt bad, but everyday. One ofthose people is my host mother Deane. Youwould have to read this article for a reallylong time if you would like to find out all thegood things she did for me.On Easter in Ukraine people are going to thechurch at night to bless the food in theirbaskets. Deane was very kind to take me tothe church. The service lasted for couple ofhours during which we were not aloud to sitand most of it was in Ukrainian. She wasthere all the time. I do not think I could makeit, to stand at night and listen to the weirdlanguage not understanding what are peopledoing and why. And this was not the onlytime when she did that for me.She has always been a person I could leanon when I had problems and be sure that shewill help me. She would also share my joy,too.There are no words in the world to say howthankful I am to her and how lucky I feel forhaving had such a wonderful host mother.Now I have two mothers.Photo of Meng Sirirattanaphonkun fromThailand (2002-2003) becoming a monk.Meng attended Tillamook H.S. and lived withhost dad Don Shenenberger. Don tells us thatMeng will become a Buddhist monk for 8days, which is what many Thai boys do.

ASHLANDEarly Saturday, May 8, 23AFSers and volunteers departed fromPortland in a rain storm on their way toAshland for the weekend. The plan was toarrive in Ashland mid-afternoon, getsituated in our rooms and just enjoy thecity. The rain stopped shortly after we leftPortland and we had no more rain untilSunday evening. We stayed at the PlazaInn & Suites and from the commentsbelow, you will see everyone loved thehotel. Saturday evening we all met andhad dinner together at the Jade DragonRestaurant, and then everyone spent theevening just hanging out, playing cards,hot tubbing, and working out in theexercise room. The hotel provided peanutbutter and jelly, milk, and chocolate chipcookies each night. Sunday was the daywe seen the plays:

The Royal Family

and

Comedy of Errors

. Before going to theevening play, we had a pizza party in thehotel’s snack room. Monday morning weheaded home. Special thanks to ourdrivers: Brenda Langer, Maggie Frieske,Lynette and Rebecca Ledgerwood, Ronand Pat Combs, and Garry and MarilynHays.Special thanks goes out toMarilyn Hays for putting this trip togetherand for doing such a great, efficient job.Here are some comments from the kidswho attended:“Great trip! I loved it. The hotel isawesome and the plays were terrific. Toobad we were there for such a short time.”“I really enjoyed spending time inAshland. I loved the plays so much. Iwish we could spend more time in Ashlandand see more plays.”“Not only were the plays strikinglybeautiful, but these kinds of trips alsobrings AFS kids together. Everything wasso great that it seemed to be a dream. Iwish more people would come and wecould spend more time together.”

YuliyaFabrovska from Ukraine

“The Ashland trip is going to stay in mymemory forever. I enjoyed the plays.Also I enjoyed spending time with otherAFS students because I know that it is notmuch time left for us here…so that was just wonderful.”

Lola Aminova fromUzbekistan

“I thought the trip was great! I liked theplays. The hotel was great. I liked it howwe were free to go and explore the city. Iwould do it again!!!”

Noemi Giuliette from Belgium

“I had a lot of fun this weekend. It was areal blast. I particularly liked having thefreedom to do pretty much what wewanted to do (within reason)—like goingshopping, hot tubbing, or sleeping in somecases. I really enjoyed the two plays thatwe saw. They are both very entertaining.All the students (I think) enjoyed themequally as much.”

Tegan Hastings from Australia

“I think that, generally, the trip went verywell. I really liked the fact that we hadsome free time to go exploring or just sitback and relax. It is always a good idea toleave free time. The choice of shows tosee was well chosen. Both were traditionalShakespearian plays and also a classics butin plain English. I wondered whether theold English would prove to be a difficultyfor some of the students, but I wasdelightfully surprised. Everyone reallyseemed to enjoy themselves and had agreat time! My suggestion….a hotel witha hot tub and a swimming pool!!! [ThePlaza Inn had only a hot tub]

Holly Nunn,USA, a host sib

Lola Aminova

has found out how PR andadvertising pay off in the USA. Lolacompleted the Red Cross BabysittingClass, made up a resume for herself,passed them out in her neighborhood (hostparent along), and within two days had twobabysitting jobs. Way to Go! Lola. Theseskills came in handy when Lola served asJunior Counselor at Outdoor School thisspring.(FLEX might consider hooking up withRed Cross to have students take this class.It's a FLEX-acceptable way for them tomake money and also meets kids andadults in their neighborhoods. Accordingto Lola, it would not be acceptable for herto do this in her country. It's just sociallynot acceptable there for kids to be outlooking for work.)

Student News

Yuliya Fabrovska

has chosen to spendone of her school class times as a peerhelper in a classroom of multi-handicapped students. She works andplays with teenagers with many differentlevels of handicapping conditions.Yuliya's been a rousing success. Lana's(Younglove) students look forward toYuliya's arrival every day, and compete forher attention. Its especially nice as onestudent comes from a Russian-speakinghome, and with Yuliya's English-Russianskills, we've had a chance to comparewhether the student's level of understanding is language based or IQbased. Thanks Yuliya for all you are andfor all you do. We will miss you greatlywhen you return home. (Yuliya returnedhome in May).

Fee Schaefer

(Washougal, WA viaGermany) and her partner ReevaWebberley finished first in the districtplayoffs for tennis doubles. They earnedthe right to play in Seattle in the statetournament. They did not do as well therebut they did win half of their matches for a7th place finish. They had a wonderfultime and Fee said the experience was the“best ever” and she will go home toGermany with a 1st place trophy fromdistrict and wonderful memories.

Matti Kolehmainen

, Finland played forWashougal High varsity soccer this spring.Having never played organized soccerbefore Matti had a remarkable year. Heplayed in many of the games and receivedhonors as the most improved

player at theend of the season. Congratulations Mattifor the courage to make it happen.

CONGRATULATIONS TOFRANCISCO GARCIA AND WIFEKELLY ANN

Congratulations to Francisco and hiswife Kelly Ann on the birth of AnaFrancisca Myers Garcia on April 21,2004 at 12:23 a.m. She weighed in at7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 inches long.Francisco is a long-time AFS volunteerand a former AFS staff member. Hehas been a chaperone and van driverfor Pendleton Roundup, and manytimes a group leader.