Welcome An Exchange Student This Year

By Kendra Bobowick

Excitement colored Patti Calderara’s voice as she said, “It was such a positive experience for me!”

She and her husband William had been one of several families recently to host Belek Toktosunov, an exchange student from the Kyrgyz Republic, also known as Kyrgyzstan in the former Soviet Union.

When her husband first suggested the idea, however, she had said, “No! No, absolutely not.” Looking back at her time with Belek reminded her this week, “I am so glad I did.”

As part of the Rotary Youth Exchange program, the Newtown Rotary Club is again welcoming a high school student to Newtown for the coming school year. Issyana (Inez) Indraswari will arrive in August, and she will need several households to welcome her until she returns to Indonesia next summer, explained Rotary President Carrie Swan.

The group is seeking three to four homes to split Inez’s extended stay in the United States. Families do not need to be Rotary members. Rotary splits a students’ stay throughout the school year among several families, she said.

“This is such a neat thing we do,” said Ms Swan, who noted one of the Rotary’s goals when she added, “Through exchange, one culture can understand another.”

“I loved it,” said Sharon Gardner. She and her husband Larry also welcomed Belek for several months. Her reasons were personal.

Ms Gardner recalls the feeling of being an exchange student herself, arriving in a foreign country, and facing an unfamiliar culture for the first time.

“It’s intimidating, no matter how good you were in school, it’s hard to get used to it,” she recalled. In the 1970s Ms Gardner was an exchange student in France through a youth program. She and her host family still stay in touch and five years ago she went to see them again and stayed for several days.

The experience proved good for her children, with which Ms Calderara agreed. The exchange student could be a friend for a son or daughter in high school, or like an older brother or sister to families with younger children, Ms Gardner said.

“I loved him like he was my own,” she said. “He fit in really well.” She learned about his country, culture, and language. “He talked about what his school was like and about his home. It was so enlightening,” Ms Gardner said.

When he first arrived, she thought: “How is this going to work?, but it didn’t take long to get comfortable.”

Her advice to families who may consider welcoming Inez this year: “Be open to the opportunity. I feel that we received so much more than we gave Belek. When you’re open to the gift of someone in your home, good things happen.”

She had hosted an exchange student as a way to repay her experiences in France, and she encourages others to do it.

Ms Calderara also offered positive memories of her time with Belek. “He was so easygoing,” she said.

Early in his stay the family brought him to Newtown’s Labor Day Parade, and she warned him to remember where they were standing as he left to walk up the crowded street. “And, he was gone!” Worried that he had become lost, she remembers her shock when she looked at the people marching past her and, “There he was in an Uncle Sam hat!” He had somehow worked himself into the parade. “He was a joiner,” she said. “We loved him. It was so hard to send him to the Gardners.”

Loveable and funny during his stay, Belek continued to be endearing after his visit. He sent a Mother’s Day card and he returned to visit the Calderaras over the winter. Remarking that her children missed him, Ms Calderara said, “He became part of the family.”

She recommends participating in the exchange program. “We’re thinking of doing it again.”

For information about hosting Inez, contact Newtown Rotary Club member Christopher Hoeffel at ckhoeffel@charter.net or Carrie Swan at 203-426-1230.