September 5, 2003/Elul 8 5763, Vol. 55, No. 54
Expanding cultural awarenessValley students spend summer sharing life with international teens
BETH OLSON
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 Donald Benjamin, a participant in the Youth Ambassador Exchange Program, is pictured, center, with his host family, the Funahashis of Himeji, Japan. Photo courtesy of Corinne Benjamin |
Jason Apfel worked on his Spanish and ate tacos and carne asada - in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Donald Benjamin and Stephanie Marsh made community service part of their summer vacation - in Himeji, Japan.
These four high school seniors, along with 20 others from Phoenix, participated in the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission's Youth Ambassador Exchange Program.
The program sends high school students on a three-week trip to live in each of Phoenix's sister cities - Catania; Hermosillo; Himeji; Calgary, Canada; Ennis, Ireland; Grenoble, France; Prague, Czech Republic; Chengdu, China; and Taipei, Taiwan. Each student from Phoenix then hosts a student from their sister city for three weeks. This year, teens were unable to travel to or host students from Chengdu and Taipei due to the SARS virus.
The youth exchange pro-gram is one of many pro-grams created by the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission to further their mission, which is "to enable citizens from throughout the world to learn more about each other through educational, social, cultural and business exchanges. The goal is to promote understanding and appreciation at all levels of a community on a continuing long-term basis," according to Sara Elgin, program director of the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission.
The local students left for their sister cities June 20-22. Most students, with the exception of the 10 from Japan, then hosted their counterpart July 16-Aug. 10. The teens who traveled to Japan hosted different students, also from Himeji.
Their three-week experiences involved becoming totally immersed in another country's culture.
"I really liked the luxury of getting to pretend that I lived in Italy and pretending that I was one of the people there because they live a really relaxed life and it was nice to be away from people who believe you have to be stressed to succeed," says Epstein about her experience.
Epstein felt lucky in that her counterpart, 17-year-old Carla Licciardello, as well as her host father, spoke English.
For Benjamin, on the other hand, none of his host family members were fluent in English, but he relished the opportunity to become part of their life for three weeks.
"I think everybody should have the opportunity to experience another country's culture - not as a tourist, but as a citizen and that's what this program has let me (do)," he explains. "It shows you the world and how different and similar people halfway around the world can be. Also, the whole language barrier helped me develop more patience."
Technology aided some of the teens overcome the language barrier. Marsh found that one of her host sisters spoke limited English, but it didn't prevent Marsh from communicating with the family.
"We had personal handheld dictionaries, where I could type something in English and press 'enter' and it would go to (my host sister) in Japanese," recalls Marsh. "I would talk to her mom on the computer through an online translator and she had this friend who spoke both Japanese and English, and I'd type to him in English and he'd type to her in Japanese."
Apfel had the advantage of four years of high school Spanish before he visited Hermosillo. When asked if he speaks fluent Spanish, Apfel says with a laugh, "I do now."
Some of the teens spent time in their sister cities doing community service work. The group in Himeji volunteered in an orphanage, a nursing home and cleaned tourist sites. They also visited with residents and students at local elementary schools.
"They treated us like movie stars and took care of us. We all had fun doing it," says Marsh.
Apfel also did community service, working on a farm for people with physical and mental disabilities, and volunteering at a home for disabled children, making pi¤atas.
Epstein's trip didn't include any community service or ambassador duties. She spent her days sightseeing and going to the beach - an experience she found both similar and different from American beaches. While she played beach volleyball, swam and had picnics, she also acknowledged some cultural differences.
"I was the only person on the beach with a book. A lot of people were really intent on tanning. They would lie in the sun and oil themselves - that was really important to them," she recalls.
As tourists in Japan, Benjamin and Marsh had the opportunity to visit the museum in Hiroshima, where they heard a talk from a survivor of the bombing, who told the teens that she didn't blame Americans for what happened and that Japan would have done the same thing if they had the technology first.
"We thought that was a really brave thing to say from someone who had lost their sister in the bombing," says Benjamin.
Of course, an important part of participating in another culture is the food. All four of the students reported that they ate regional foods nearly exclusively on their trips.
"The food in Japan was very different. In America, there are so many varieties of food at our disposal and in Japan, it's just Japanese food all the time," explains Benjamin.
Benjamin says that produce was scarce and that dairy products were a staple. Marsh recalls that they were told before going to Japan that they were likely to lose weight. She, however, enjoyed the food.
"My host mom was an amazing cook. ... I ended up gaining five or six pounds because she was such a good cook," Marsh says.
Breakfast was unusual to the students who traveled to Japan, where they reportedly had everything from soup to salad to hot dogs for the first meal of the day.
Apfel ate authentic Mexican food in Hermosillo, which he says was very different from the Mexican food he's had in the Valley.
Epstein says she indulged in pasta and seafood, and that her host mother was a "wonderful cook." While here, Epstein's host sister, who had never really tried anything other than Italian food, enjoyed Mexican and Greek food, but steered away from Chinese.
While visiting the Valley, the international students participated with their host students in community service projects for Special Olympics and in senior service centers.
Along with experiences with their host families that ranged from hanging out at the mall to ice skating to visiting local museums, the entire group traveled to the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Disneyland.
The ambassadors also joined Mayor Skip Rimsza and city council members for dinner.
For Epstein and Apfel, who spent six weeks with their "sister" and "brother" in the two-way exchange, true friendships have formed. Epstein says Licciardello is "like my sister now." And both Epstein and Apfel have plans to spend time with their counterparts next summer.
"I would definitely en-courage kids to try out for this because it's such a good program," says Epstein. "In the worst-case situation, you can still tolerate the person and learn about their country. In the best case situation, like I had, you can have a lifelong friend."
More than 350 students from Phoenix have participated in the ambassador exchange program since its inception in 1988. For more information, call the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission at 602-534-3751.
Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.