A Service of The Arrow           Friday December 17, 1999 7:52 PM

Foreign Exchange forms connections across the world

ARROW STAFF

Four months ago Manuela Donait was dreading her voyage to Kalispell, Montana.

“I really was like kind of scared. The stereotype of Montana, in Italy, is cowboys, ranches, and cows. What if I ended up on a farm and had to ride a horse to school?”

Today, though, she is glad she came to this little city. She loves her family, the mountains, and the sky that reaches from horizon to horizon.

“I am really lucky,” said Donati. “I love Kalispell, my family, and my house. I really like skiing too, so it's all good for me.”

Donati came to the Flathead through the intercultural exchange program AFS. AFS exchanges more than 10,000 students a year. Donati was just one of those 10,000 that were picked to spend their time abroad, here in Kalispell.

Sancho Zion came here from Borkum, Germany, through AFS, and she's still trying to figure out exactly how she got here.

“My first choice was Australia,” said Zion. “I'm not sure what I'm doing here in Kalispell, Montana.”

Although the exchange students don't always wind up where they had planned, they seem to acquire a new outlook on the world.

Senior Genevieve Thomas, who spent a year in Venezuela last year, found her experiences abroad changed her perspective dramatically.

“I'm much more culturally influenced now,” said Thomas. “I'm more aware of the rest of the world, and what's going on in it.”

Exchange students learn to cross cultural boundaries and see the world and its people from many angles. They become global citizens and gain foreign language skills, which enable them to break down language barriers and open up lines of communication. Living in another country can open your eyes to a world you don't normally see.

“You become so much more aware of what life is really like for people outside Kalispell's city limits,” said Thomas. “Like, you always hear that people are starving and hungry, but until you see it for yourself, day after day, you never realize what a problem it is. There are so many of them, you want to help them all, but there are too many to help. It really changes the way you see things.”

All of the exchange students' experiences, good, bad, hard, fun, or just plain strange makes each exchange a memorable experience for the students traveling abroad. One underlying factor that seemed to be vital in every student's adventures were the friendships that they made along the way.

“The best part of my trip was the people I met,” said Thomas. “I met some of my best friends there (Venezuela), people I will never lose touch with.”

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