6/13/2008 - AFS Students Experience Cultural Immersion
By Sandi Hansen
INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Each year, Sonoma Valley hosts several American Field Service exchange students from any of 40 countries participating in the year-long, intercultural learning-experience program. And it’s hard to tell who benefits most, the students or the host families who open their homes and hearts to those who, at first are strangers.
Eighteen-year-old Benjamin (Ben) Brett, of Germany; 17-year-old Khairurrijal (RJ) Adhar, from Indonesia; and 16-year-old Sirush Khalatyan, of Armenia, are strangers no more to their “second families” or to the many students, teachers and other friends they’ve made in nearly a year since they arrived in America for the first time last August. Sonoman Jean McQuady, long an AFS program coordinator, has the unenviable task of finding host families for the students whose English can range from very good to just beyond basics and hand signals. None of this year’s three students had trouble communicating with others as they each spoke fluent English.
Ben, who has two brothers and a sister, has stayed with Kristen Armstrong and her sons, Nigel, 18, and Peter, 16. Ben is interested in getting a pilot’s license and studying economics. RJ, who has two sisters, has lived with Saied and Lori Molavi and their daughter, Sophia, 17 and son, Tony, 15. RJ is interested in a career in engineering. (Sirush, who was hosted by Reann Dukes and Richard Hodges, left in May to return to Armenia for a university interview and was not available for this story.) Asked what their initial impressions of North America were upon arriving, Ben said “It’s like the movie, ‘American Pie.’ Every weekend there are parties and things going on and I didn’t think that parents would be so cool with their kids.” He said the similarities between the United States and Germany include mountains and lakes, the natural landscape, houses, streets and city structure.
RJ said he was surprised how open people are. “I’d go jogging in the early morning and people would say hello and were friendly to me as a stranger.” Initially he though most Americans were real strict and he said he was amazed that parents are loose with laws such as their kids drinking or allowing young drivers without parents or adults in the car.
RJ added there is a lack of knowledge here about other countries and cultures. When he gave a presentation to the Boys & Girls Club Valley of the Moon he said the middle school students asked him if he slept indoors and had indoor plumbing and electricity. He does.
During the students’ stay, the AFS program and host families make sure students get a variety of experiences including visiting other places and observing different customs among Americans. Ben liked hiking in Montana and said the lack of hot water, the 55-degree lake temperature and hunting their own food was exciting. “I liked going into the wild and living off the land. It was a different experience you don’t find back home.”
He traveled to six states and spent Christmas in Honolulu. “Standing in the middle of a sub-tropical island and surfing when it was snowing back home was really weird,” he said.
RJ went to Florida on spring break and first visited Disney World where, in Future Land, he went on the “Mission to Mars” ride which he described. “It was very scary, we were moving very hard and the launching was like a G-force on our bodies.” He then went to the Kennedy Space Center and got as close to being on a Space Shuttle as possible. “We went on a Space Shuttle simulator that was just like the real thing, but not as scary as the Disney World ride.”
Both boys competed on the same team in tennis tournaments in Fresno and Fremont as well as the Sonoma County League when they were on the Sonoma Valley High School tennis team. In the Boys Classic tournament they went up against 100 other schools and came away with 22 wins and two losses.
The AFS students also got a taste of California government when they met with Lt. Gov. John Garamendi in Sacramento and later received a mayoral proclamation from Sonoma Mayor Joanne Sanders. In addition, they observed a real-life courtroom judicial procedure, called Peer Court, in St. Helena, where a teenager, convicted of stealing was sentenced to punishment.
Both Ben and RJ, who return home at the end of June, said they have enjoyed their new-found friends, experiences, connections and educational opportunities here, and they expressed their gratitude to all who made it possible including their host families, the high school, their friends and McQuady who somehow manages to connect all the dots between Sonoma and AFS participating countries.
In just a short time – mid August – three more AFS students will begin their exchange program here. Ben’s younger brother, Florian Brett, will be coming to stay with Gail and Barney Rinaldi.
The other two students still need host families in the Valley. Basant Baskharon, is visiting from Egypt and loves to cook, read, play guitar and be around animals. She is curious about learning and wants to be a veterinarian because she says “this career is full of mercy.”
Rizna Said, is from Indonesia, and she likes to read, write poetry, listen to many kinds of music and is presently preparing for a major chemistry competition in her country. Her goals are to study medicine and write a best seller. The most important thing, she says, “is to be better than yesterday.”
Anyone who would like to host either of the two girls is encouraged to contact AFS.
Reprinted with permission from Sonoma Index-Tribune. This article was originally published here.
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