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August 2005

Columbia Pacific News Letter

HOST FAMILY-FINDING --AN ON-GOING, NEVER-ENDING PROCESS

For this AFS hosting year, 2005-2006, Columbia Pacific has 21boys and 31 girls from 23 different countries, attending 36different schools. Three of these students were our winter arrivalsemester students from Malaysia, who have returned home. Inaddition we are most happy and proud to have four AFS VisitingTeachers from Thailand and China.We could not have accomplished this task without each andevery one of you host family recruiters, lead followers,application reviewers, host family interviewers, schoolrelationship cultivators, orientation leaders, student supporters,gateway and welcome families and of course, primarily, our dearhost families who have opened their homes and hearts tochanging the world person by person. The staff and volunteersworking together make this happen, but it is the families and thestudents who make it possible at all.THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE HELPED IN ANY WAY!Best Wishes to all for a life-changing, wonderful year!23 Countries: AUSTRIA; BRAZIL; CHILE; CHINA; COLOMBIA;ECUADOR; FRANCE; FRENCH BELGIUM; GERMANY;ICELAND; INDIA; INDONESIA; ITALY; JAPAN; MALAYSIA;MEXICO; NEW ZEALAND; NORWAY; PERU; PHILIPPINES;THAILAND; TURKEY; TURKMENISTAN.36 High Schools: ALOHA; BATTLEGROUND; BEAVERTON;CAMAS; CANBY ; ESTACADA; GLENCOE ; HAWKINSON;KALAMA; KELSO; LAKE OSWEGO; LAKERIDGE; LIBERTY;LINCOLN; MADISON; MOUNTAIN VIEW; NEAKANI; PACIFICCREST; PARKROSE; R. E. LONG; REX PUTNAM; REYNOLDS; SAM BARLOW; SANDY; SKYVIEW; SUNSET; THE DALLES;TILLAMOOK; TRILLIUM; VANCOUVER ARTS; WASHOUGAL;WILSON; WILSONVILLE; WOODLAND; WOODSTOCK;YAMHILL-CARLTON.

As always, I'd like to encourage everyone to "speak AFS" atevery opportunity. We want hosting tobe a privilege and joy andwe'd like to get our kids placed earlier in the year, so they can becorresponding with their families before they ever arrive. Thatwill only happen if each of us takes the responsibility to shareour experience and plant the seed for others to share the joy andchallenge.

Student News

Hi you guys! I am so sorry if i send thissame email to everyone. It's not becauseyou're not special, or I'm lazy, butbecause I have no time to tell everysingle one of you in a different email. Iam still in Washington D.C right now,in fact I'm in American Universitylibrary, escaping myself from the superbusy schedule just to tell you guys whatI have been experienced in the past fewdays. So, on midnight the 28th I arrivedin D.C. after i missed my flight fromSeattle :), took some rest for the busyday ahead. The next day on the 29th, wewent to the State Department (all 76German students, 17 Turkish Students,40 Malaysian students, 40 Pilipinostudents, and of course 38 IndonesianStudents) and there we met some StateDepartment's Staffs and Mrs.

Condoleeza Rice

herself. She was withus for like an hour and I was so luckybecause I got to talk to her and askedher a couple of questions. The first thingthat I said to her was about myexperience in Mt. View HS and I alsotold her about Building Tolerance inAmerica (a class that I took 1st sem.)and how it would be very great if itcould be a "mandatory" class or offeredin highs schools all over U.S.. She wasvery interested and she explained howthat class would help Americansunderstand and being tolerant to oneanother since America is a very diversecountry with a diverse culture, she'svery supportive of the idea and that she'sdoing the best she can to provide thatclass in American schools. The secondone, I told her that in Indonesia peoplestill not very acceptable to the fact thewomen can be as good as men inleadership, and women aren't seen andtreated as equal as men in politics, evendo we have the rights. Even though wehad a woman as president, it wasn'tbecause she was elected, but becauseshe was the vice president for Indonesiaat the time our former president "gotfired". So, I asked her for advice onwhat characteristics / personalities / skills that are needed to be possessed inorder to be a leader in a (predominantly)Muslim like Indonesia. And sheanswered that question with a very longbut really good advice, simply to say shesaid that I have to have it in myself. Ihave to decide for myself what rights doI deserve, will I fight for it, is it what Ibelieve in, will I stand for it, I have tohave faith in myself, because it allcomes from within myself and not from

anyone else. After that we went to theCapitol to meet

Senator Kennedy andSenator Lugar

. Senator Kennedy wasvery nice and down to earth, heexplained to us what's going on thesenate floor, the "debating / lobbying"process, and he also told us how muchhe's so proud of us being here in the U.Sand helped Americans expand theirhorizon about the world. We took pictures in front of the capitol and thenwe had an assignment to lobby ourcongressmen to support the interculturalexchange bill.I went to see

Congressman Baird

fromVancouver and we had a nice little chatabout exchange program. It turned outthat he hosted an exchange student fromMexico and Bosnia and he's supportedthe programs that we have. That day wealso met the

Turkish Ambassador

andhe lectured about leadership & exchangeprogram and we had a Q&A sessionabout leadership. The rest of the day weprepared for our talent show. The talentshow was really fun because instead of showing each other country's culture, weexchange it and involve one another ineach other's show so we all now knowphilipino/indonesian/turkish/german/malaysian/egyptians songs and dances.Today was super busy too. We had tonsof sessions about leadership esp.leadership skills & attitudes, we also haddiscussions with Imam Arafat aboutworld religions and relationship betweenIslam and the world. The day wrappedup with our graduation ceremony.Robert Persiko from the StateDepartment conducted the ceremony,and yeah, I graduated!!! Again!!!Tomorrow, we'll be visiting all theembassies, meet with ambassadors, andhad some formal appointments andmeetings to attend.So, yeah I am busy and tomorrow at 6pm I'll fly home. ..:(:(:(:(:(I'm missing all of you already and pleasereply to me!Keep in touch, okay!!!Much love, (seriously for real),Shanna WalundaruFrom IndonesiaExchange Student from 2004/2005

ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS

Entertainment 2006 books are nowon sale for $30. They are packedwith 50%-off and 2-for-1 offers atthe best places in town as well asdiscount offers from local andnational restaurants, hotels andresorts, entertainment venues andmuch more.If we sell 10 books or more, we willearn $6.00 per book. The more bookswe sell, the more we make per book.Books will arrive the week of August23, 2004. Funds earned on thisfundraiser will help us keep down thecosts on some of our optionalactivities.CONTACT: Bernice Schuchardt,503 775-4161 – e-mailbmschuch@aol.com. You may orderand pre-pay by sending a check toBernice at 4806 SE Long, Portland,OR 97206. Checks should be madeout to AFS.

GRAPEFRUIT SALE

In late October/November AFS sellsgrapefruit. The grapefruit costsbetween $13-15 per box. Delivery isusually the first week in December;deadline for ordering will be in mid-November. Watch for moreinformation in the October issue. If anyone is willing to help with thissale; i.e. take orders, etc., contactSally Ann Wells at 503 452-1868 ore-mail sawells@teleport.com.

DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR AFUNDRAISER??

We need your help. If you have anidea and wish to coordinate thefundraiser, please contact RonCombs 503 777-8117. Some of theoptional activities that will benefitfrom these fundraisers are PendletonRoundup, Jagow Ski Trip, andAshland Trip.