Aril 2005

Columbia Pacific News Letter

HOSTING

The hosting coordinator is a bit frantic and has no time to write an article. Suffice it tosay, that Columbia Pacific has a long way to go to meet our hosting commitment. Thereare still some great students available for placing, but time is very short and schools areclosing. If you know anyone who may be interested in hosting the coming year, even just first semester, please ask them yourself and then send their name on to the hostingvolunteer in your area. We need help getting these students placed. There will be aninsert of currently available students. Please review this and let us know what we cando for you to help you promote AFS. We need everyone working on this the nextcouple of weeks.Currently there are about 5 placements pending--waiting on school approval or someother piece of paperwork. It looks as though we have homes for our Global Educators,they just need to be interviewed.Let's all pull together for the home stretch and do what we can to get these kidscorresponding with their host families.

Attention

If you would like to keep receiving the AFS newsletter please return the enclosedpostcard.We need to know if you would like to get

ing

the newsletter by mail or e-mail. Either wayplease return the postcard marked with your selection. On the postcard please make surethat you enclosed your name and return address. If you want to receive a newsletter bye-mail please enclose

your

e-mail address and name so that I can update my mailing list.If you would like you can e-mail me at r1p2combs3@aol.com can give me yourinformation. I have received many postcards already. Some of you just returned thepostcard without the putting your name and return address on it. As a result I don'tknow how to update my mailing list.Thank you very much for your help with this postcard.Ron Combs

DEPARTURE

WHEN: Sunday, June 26TIME: Students must arrive no later than 4 p.m.WHERE: Lents Park, located at S.E. 88

and HolgateLUGGAGE:

Luggage will be weighed and placed on a truck. Once your luggage isloaded, you will not have access. It is important that you have the following items inyour carry-on luggage: passport, bathing suit, plastic bag for wet clothes

HOW TO GET THERE:

From I-205 South, take Exit 19. Turn left onto Powell, goto first light, and turn left onto 92

, go to Holgate and turn right. The park will be onyour left about 2 blocks.From I-205 North, take Exit 19 Division/Powell. Stay in right lane, heading towardsPowell. Turn right onto Powell and get into center lane. Go to first light and turn leftonto 92

. Go to Holgate and turn right at the first light. Entrance to the park will be onyour left about 2 blocks.

CONTACT NUMBERS

: Ron Combs (503) 777-8117 or cell 503 314-5243

WINNERS OF T-SHIRTCONTEST

Mariana Vargas, Mexico and Victor(Suparawee Katika) Thailand are thewinners of the T-Shirt Contest.Mariana’s entry will go on the frontof the T-shirt and Victor’s on theback. The prize was $50, but it wasdecided to use both designs so eachget one-half, or $25.

Essay by Kseniya Vizerova,FLEX student from Russia

“As soon as I found out about thiscompetition, I thought: "This is it.This is my opportunity to tell theworld what I have on my mind, and toshare my passion about building peace in the world.

Peace through understanding

The history of the human nation ismuch shorter than the history of theEarth, but people have never reallylived in peace. Historians estimatedthat there were only 25 years duringwhich there was no war at any placeon the planet! There were alwaysdisagreements and conflicts. Maybethe reason is just in the humannature? No! We are PEOPLE and aswe live in the XXI century, we can dosomething about it. Our civilizationgot to that point when we can controlour selfish desires. Furthermore, wehave too, or if the situation will stayhow it is now, our world will turn tochaos.People! Please hear the cry of mysoul! Open your eyes and see what isreally happening around you.Thousands of innocent people aredying for no reason, but they make itlook like they do: differences inreligion, trying to get more territoryand so on and so on. All of this is notimportant--we have only one shortlife and God did not give it to us tokill each other. We are here to live forpeople and to make their staying onEarth better. It is that simple.You may think: "What can I do? Iam just an ordinary person, I am not apresident. Right, but every one needsto realize that each one of us canmake a difference, or at least believein it. For example you have neighborswho are foreigners and you really donot talk to them, because theyare “weird," different and you do notknow about them, their culture andtheir way of life. You do notunderstand them and you do not wantto! Something unknown alwaysscares people, but you will befascinated how interesting andamazing it is learning about othercultures. We just need to be moreopen to things we do not understand.Everyone is sitting in their littlecomfortable worlds and do not careabout others. We need to stop this!Before blaming every thing on ourgovernments we need to ask ourselves: "What did I do to makethis world a better place?"Our generation will be the one thatwill make choices that will affect thefuture of our civilization (if we haveit). I feel a big responsibility onmyself too. I am an exchange studentfrom Russia in the United States of America now and I am only 16 yearsold. It has been really goodexperience for me. Before I camehere I had no idea about this country,furthermore I have had wrong ideasand stereotypes that were very farfrom the truth. It is nice to feel thatyou are doing your small part to helpunderstanding between people inthese two great countries. I take thiswonderful opportunity to spend ayear in the US like a God’s gift.Every day of my life I am trying tolive doing something to understandpeople, their needs and the reasonswhy they have these hopes andbelieves. My experience here showedone more time that no matter whatcountry people are from, what colortheir skin is, what language do theyspeak, what God they believe in theyall need to feel safe, they all needPeace.Some people may say that worldpeace is utopia. Who knows, but it isworth to believe in and try our best tomake this dream truth.There are many ways to promotepeace in the world, but perhaps thebest way is to promote it is to startwithin ourselves. Be the change youwish to see in the world. Peacebegins with you!”

Wally Pangilan

(YES program) hasbeen very active in the Skyview HighSchool Concert Choir and the JazzChoir. At a recent choir competitionin Pasco, Washington, judges gaveWally the "Best Soloist" award. At aMay performance at Skyview highschool, Wally sang a solo with cheersand standing ovation. Recently, thecombined choirs of Skyview HighSchool had a" Disney Musicale" andWally had a solo and performed an"Arabian Sword Dance" which wasnoted in the high school newsletter.Outside of school, Wally won a $25gift certificate for being the"American Idol" in a contestsponsered by the Fort VancouverRegional Library District.

Student News

A DREAM FULFILLED

By Noemi Serdino“The first time that I heard about AFSwas one year and one-half ago, in myschool.Initially I wasn’t paying attentionbecause I assumed I needed money.When I heard the word

scholarship

,my ears started to work more thanever. Thanks to my love for theculture, my good grade, and the

misfortune

to be born in a not-richfamily, I won a scholarship thatcovered completely my AFSexperience. I could not believe it wastrue; I was selected to go in UnitedStates of America. To me it was likea dream fulfilled; it was a place that Icould only dream or see in themovies. To come to America was apossibility to learn an importantlanguage that the whole worldspeaks; it was a possibility to bring anice word to my town that wasalways in the newspaper for not goodthings.The orientation followed theselections soon, which was a niceway to talk about what I was going tosee, and where I was going to live.We answered as best as possible allthe questions they asked us. We triedto come with our minds prepared fora life that could have big difficultiesfor us.August came so fast; it was a day forcrying and for saying good-bye to ourfamilies. It was a day to cry and tosalute our families. It was a day inwhich I said good farewell to mywhole life because I knew thatcoming back home next June I wasgoing to be different.My expectation? That I would learnEnglish; I would learn about a newculture, and I would bring a little bitof my culture to show to theAmerican people.When I came, my dreams and myexpectations changed to a nightmare.America was not a movie backgroundanymore; America was my new life. Idid not speak English at all; the onlythings that I could do were smile andsay “hi”, “hello” or “yes”. Thewelcome orientation was horrible; Iwas in a group where everybodycould speak, and understand, andlaugh and I was cursing in Italian.When I met my host family all thingsgot worse: there was no one whocould translate English into any otherlanguage that I knew, who was withme. I think God had mercy of mebecause when I came to my house,two exchange students from Italywere there. They came with anotherassociation for the summer time, andthey reassured me. Riccardo, whowas one of them, said that thesepeople were crazy but that I wasgoing to be fine. It was true, theywere so patient with me, and theytried in everyway to help me.The first days in the school wereterrible. That big place made me feelso small; the teachers were nice tome, but the students were not. Ithought that everybody was going tobe nice and interested about a personcoming from another place, but I wasnot big news. Most of the studentshad emigrated from another country; Iwas equal to everybody else.The whole first month I felt alone,and sometimes I would cry because Icould not be “normal”. By that time, Istarted to make some new friends, but just a few; many people looked melike a freaking Italian, like a freakinggirl with a mafia’s accent: most of them would not stop and talk to mebecause of my accent. My school’sgrades were lower then ever, and mysocial life was almost non-existent.I was angry, I was starting to detestAFS, and all the stupid orientationsthat we did.To say and to do were two words sodifferent and so far one from eachother. They were as far as the USAand the Europe.My mind changed so fast, I wasappreciating the new cultures in theschool and during the orientationwhere I could make confrontationbetween myself and the otherexchange students like me. It was inthat period that I stopped being aracist; I admit I was it. I understoodwhat it was being different and whatthe different persons felt. I think thatwas the most important change thatAFS made on me. Time started torun from November to now. I spentbad and good days, but I was alwayswith people who loved me. OnChristmas, it was the first time that Ireally missed my family. I alwaysbelieved that Christmas was the“family-day”, and being far from myreal home was hard. One of theamazing days in this year was March31, when in a school academyassembly they presented some goodawards to the students who passed thefirst semester with a GPA higher than3.0 point. My name was on the list, Iwas so exited and I came back homeimmediately for lunch to call mymother in Italy; all my family was soproud of me. When I read “B” on theweekly English grade on my name, itwas also my happiest day.Coming here, I thought I was going tofind a new world, and I did it, but themost important things that I foundwere a wonderful family, a sister(Lucrezia), and two musketeers thatcompleted the trio. Who were thosetwo musketeers? They are Laura andNicola, who are two people that I metat the orientation in Italy whomhelped me in the hard moments. Iunderstood that the entire world iswonderful, but nothing is better thanthe own country. Every country isdifferent, and most of the things,which apparently are stupid, are justdifferent.I understood that America to me wasa time machine that put my mind andmy behavior thirty years later, whichleft my physique in the 2005 as it was(but just with some pounds more).Now I am scared by this timemachine. Coming back home, I willbe different, may be too muchdifferent than my friends. My mindwill be too old, but I still have mygrandma, and maybe we will be like“same age”!Italia, altritre mesi e una delle tue figlietorna a casa. Ti amo! Noemi