WILLIAMSPORT. March 19. KAZINFORM. Foreign exchange student Fiola Rondonuwu portrays the character of a princess as she tells a story through a traditional Indonesian mask dance. She is a senior at Williamsport Area High School.
There are places in the world we may never visit.
However, through foreign exchange programs bringing international students here, American families and classrooms are able to at least get a sense of other cultures.
Program of Academic Exchange (PAX) high-school students showcased their talents and shared a bit about their cultures at Lycoming College’s Mary Lindsay Welch Honors Hall on Sunday afternoon.
Students from the Philippines, Venezuela, Indonesia, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Germany, Indonesia and Ukraine each presented a posterboard and information or a talent representing their culture.
“All the students this year are very good and eager. They’ve been placed with excellent host families,” said Charles Haun, PAX cluster leader for Lycoming County.
Haun’s host daughter, Dina Irawati, played and sang a popular Indonesian song on her guitar in her first public performance. She and Fiola Rondonuwu demonstrated how to use an instrument from their country — the angklung, which is made of bamboo tubes. Both girls attend Williamsport Area High School.
The open house featured the 12 international exchange students who are attending high schools in Lycoming County this school year and allowed host families to meet and greet.
Among other presentations were traditional dances, topics on history and culture and how their home countries differ from the United States. In some cases, the differences were noticeable.
“Before I ever came here, I thought I’d see big buildings like in pictures I’d seen of New York City, and when I first got here, I looked out the window and was like ... ‘This is America, right?’ ” said Anup Parackal of India of his first impression of Hughesville.
He adds that the area and his host family have grown on him.
Other students focused on the similarities, saying the town they came from was about the size of Williamsport or the popular music was nearly the same.
Many could not believe how much cars were used when, for them, walking is the only form of available transportation. Even the thought of having McDonald’s food whenever they wanted was a new concept for Alina Beskrovna of Ukraine.
“In my country, McDonald’s is only for rich people, and there are very few of them,” she said. “Then when I came here and saw you could get it all the time, I was excited ... but now I don’t like it.”
For Valeriya Ivanova of Kazakhstan, becoming part of the student exchange program was life changing. She, like many of the others, said she is going to miss her host family and new friends the most when she has to return home at the end of the school year, Kazinform quotes DANIELLA De LUCA/Sun-Gazette.
Source: www.inform.kz (2 April 2007)
