Ely’s exchange students adjusting to cold weather and small town life

Reasons for becoming a foreign exchange student or hosting a student can be as similar or different as Christmas… Rafaela Cavalcante, who is called Rafa (pronounced Hafa) and Carlotta Rodino are Ely’s 2004-2005 Foreign Exchange Students. They have had similar adjustments to leaving home, missing families, learning a new language, coming to a small town from large cities, but THE COLD temperature is a biggy. Rafaela and Carlotta have become good friends, sharing many of the same adjustments and joys of being in a different country, culture and climate. Rafaela is from the capital city of Fortaleza, Brazil, where it is summertime all year long, 82-85 degrees, to a place where cold seems to always be getting colder. Besides the temps, it’s a big change for Rafaela to go from a city of over two million people to the town of Tower, population 504, living on Lake Vermilion with her host family, Jill and Terry Wagoner and her host sister Liz. About nine years ago when Rafaela’s aunt Sonia Queiloz was 19 and desiring to travel abroad and become more independent, she was accepted as a foreign exchange student and was sent to Michigan. When Sonia’s year was over, she went home and shared her wonderful experience with her family. Since then, Rafaela is the 10th family member including sisters and cousins who have gone on to be foreign exchange students, influenced by Aunt Sonia’s experience. Rafaela has three sisters and her mother has three sisters and her father has six siblings so there are lots of cousins. Rafaela is the third of these 10 to go to the United States. Her own sister went to Germany four years ago and really enjoyed it. When Rafaela applied for the AFS scholarship, she was one of 15 in the entire country chosen, and the only one from the northeastern region of Brazil. She enjoys the Wagoner family where she is staying and a bonus is that she has a house sister, Liz Wagoner. She says they have an awesome relationship. At this time they are hockey cheerleaders together. Even though they do many things together they still have quite individual lives. Liz is a high school senior and is attending Vermilion College through the post secondary option program. She has some classes at the college and some at the high school and has a couple classes with Rafaela. Liz drives them to school in Ely from Tower. Jill and Terry Wagoner also have a daughter HollyAnn, 24, and son Jared, 21, who are not living at home. The Wagoners live on Lake Vermilion so Rafaela is enjoying the best of family as well as scenery in this northern climate. It is very beautiful with the woods and the lakes and she is intrigued by the wildlife with the deer, rabbits, ducks, blue herons, even chipmunks and squirrels. She tries to take pictures of everything. Host mother Jill says it’s interesting to see things through her eyes that we take for granted. Rafaela has been active in Young Life, Peer Helpers, and in volleyball. Now she is a hockey cheerleader and on the ski team. Rafaela keeps in contact with her own family mostly by email. At first it was very hard to understand English, and sometimes she would exclaim “Ahhhhhhhh!!!! HELP! I can’t understand English!…I can’t take any more of this…!!!” AFS counselor Gordy Jacobson assured her she would get better, to be patient and in two months she would be dreaming in English. Now, sometimes she does. She is enjoying the Amercan music now that she can understand the words and classes are also getting better so it is easier. This is a change from her big city where it is usually pretty busy, but Rafaela is enjoying the peace and quiet and it is safer. She likes the snow but sometimes not the cold all that much. This is her first winter. Everyone warns her that it is going to get colder and that gets kind of scary. When she is skiing she thinks, “It can’t get much colder than this, and every day it is always colder…” It’s hard to get used to, but she likes skiing… and she has her mukluks. That helps a lot. Most of the population in Brazil is Catholic. Their Christmas is celebrated much like ours. There are more specialized Christmas events and festivities in the bigger cities. In Brazil there are more apartments than houses so the apartments are decorated on the inside more than here where we often decorate on the outside as well. A tree is decorated and names are drawn for the ‘secret’ recipient of a present. The entire family with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents get together on Christmas Eve. Rafaela’s two aunts play guitar and the family sings Christmas carols. Rafaela loves getting together with her happy family. Most of the family lives close so they do see each other quite often. Christmas Eve is all the more special when the family gets together. Presents are exchanged and the youngsters put on plays. Grandfather dresses up as Santa. Rafaela’s family also takes time to pray and thank God for all the good things that happened in the year. Rafaela has been attending the Presbyterian Church in Tower and she enjoys helping with the little children’s Sunday School and she loves talking to the old people. “They’re awesome!” she said.She enjoys helping with the social time after church. She especially enjoys the cookies and even more special are the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She loves the peanut butter. They don’t have peanut butter in Brazil. Rafaela thinks when she returns home she will leave her clothes behind and fill her suitcase with peanut butter. Carlotta Rodino of Ostia, Italy Ely’s other foreign exchange student, Carlotta Rodino, 17, from Ostia, Italy, became a foreign exchange student after being influenced by a friend who had been a foreign exchange student a few years ago. He gave Carlotta all the information to apply. She was interested in learning better English and wanted learn about other cultures. Like Rafaela, coming to the small town of Ely was an adjustment. Carlotta’s home city is about a half hour from Rome. Carlotta likes Ely and thinks its wonderful how the people of Ely are so friendly and say “hi” as she walks down the street even when she doesn’t know them. She thinks people may even be nicer here than in Italy, perhaps because it is a small town. As with Rafael, the cold is the main adjustment. This is the first time she has seen snow. She likes going sliding and snowmobiling. “And it’s cold, so cold. And everyone keeps warning me that it will be colder. But it’s fine,” she said.Carlotta had played volleyball at home for eight or nine years. She joined the volleyball team in the fall where she met Rafaela and they played on the team together. Carlotta felt that playing volleyball was one of the best experiences of her life. Everyone on the team helped her adjust to being here. It was fun and they were a close team. She is now trying to playing basketball for the first time in her life. It is more difficult and another new thing to adjust to, but she says she has time to learn. Practice takes up most of her after school time, practicing every day with one or two games a week. She wanted to be in skiing but it was too cold. She said you stay warm in basketball. Christmas in Italy is similar to America with a tree, decorations and family. Carlotta’s family has an artificial tree that they decorate. They spend Christmas Eve with her father’s family, his three brothers and three sisters and they eat fish. At midnight they go to the Catholic church to celebrate the birthday of “Jesu.” Christmas day is spent with Carlotta’s mother’s family and they play cards and games. Carlotta has one little sister Carolina, who is 12. One highlight of Carlotta’s time here so far was when she went snowmobiling with her friend Mary Anderson to Echo Trail Lodge. “It was so fun!!” Mary later shared a little incident about their crash course in snowmobile driving. The crash or abrupt stop into a wood pile is all part of the winter experience in the northland. And if you haven’t seen snow before it’s a must to make a snow man… or a snow girl… with a dress. The next event they plan is to go snowmobiling with a video camera and videotape the Christmas decorations and lights around town for Carlotta to take back to Italy. Carlotta is hoping that during her time here she will “become more mature and get to know more people, have fun…and learn more about the American culture, of course.” Carlotta would like to thank everyone who helps her every day and has been so kind. She especially wants to thank Candice Smrekar and Barb Klun who give her rides to school and home. A huge part of being here is the host family’s willingness to have a foreign person in their home, for whatever reason, and to be willing to provide a bed, food, personal supplies, transportation. A warm heart and patience in the language barrier for awhile, is also part of sharing your home, life and family. The Wagoners, who are the host family for Rafaela, are first time hosters. Their daughter Liz originally wanted to go abroad to Finland. But when it got closer to the time for her to leave and her senior year, she was getting reluctant to go, so instead they decided to host a student. It is the reverse of what they planned but they are happy they did so. “It gives Elizabeth an opportunity to share her life with a sister, it prepares her more for dormitory life, and it introduces another culture in the home,” says her mom. The family also spends more special time together due to having some else with them. Rafaela’s host parents, Michelle and Robert Anderson, have opened their home four times to foreign exchange students. Michelle herself had been involved in AFS when she was in high school with AFS weekends and picnics and garage sales. She always wanted to be an AFS student but wasn’t able to do it. One day, five years ago, when Michelle’s youngest daughter Christine was in ninth grade, she brought home some information on the AFS program and thought this would be fun. Michelle was aware of AFS but hadn’t thought about it for a long time, but she took up Christine’s idea and as a family they discussed it and decided to sponsor a student. Michelle’s oldest son was a senior when their first foreign exchange student, Katri Nyyssonen, from Finland came to live with them. They had a good year with her and this laid the groundwork for future AFS students in their home Katri left in the beginning of July and a month later, in August, Michelle got a phone call saying, “We have all these students who are arriving but they don’t have housing yet. Do you know anyone interested in housing in Ely?” The Anderson’s ended up taking another student, a young man, Julian Jaquman from Belgium. The next year they took the year off. Then the next year they took in a girl from Japan - Kanari Ishikawa. This year all of Michelle’s three children have graduated and left home. Michelle is used to having a household of people around. Michelle even has day care with a few more extra kids around. Once again, Michelle and Robert were thinking about hosting or just staying involved with the AFS program. Michelle attended an AFS meeting to see who is hosting, and again found out they didn’t have anyone to host. When she came home, Robert asked who’s hosting and by the end of the night they decided they would host again. Now they have Carlotta. After a year of having these students in their home, it is like they are your own kids, the Andersons say. Gordy Jacobson, AFS coordinator for Ely, says that you can tell when a family has had a good year by what happens the day when they send them home on the bus in Duluth. All the AFS students from the area have their quick little breakfast and then they get on the bus to leave. While the bus drives away with all the kids on it, the kids are crying so hard they can’t talk. The kids often don’t want to leave. They don’t know if they will ever return. When they leave from their own countries they know that this is only a year away and they will return home. It becomes harder to leave the host family than it was to leave their own family, if they had a good experience. And most of them do. Host mothers Michelle and Jill wish more people would think about hosting a student. Ely’s AFS chapter is one of the best chapters that help out as much as they do. When a student is chosen, Gordy Jacobson sends a yearbook to the chosen students so they can get familiar with the school and students before they even get here. Students arrive with between $1,500-2,000. The field trip to Washington DC costs over $800. There goes half their money. This trip is an excellent way for students to get a glimpse of the United States and some history. The AFS chapter, which operates by donation, helps students with lunch tickets, gives them a small allowance every month and other donations such as $50 toward a prom dress or tux. There is a need for host families again. Right now is the time to be thinking about your interest in hosting a foreign exchange student. Ely is a very unique place for anyone to live or visit and to share this part of the world. Having a foreign exchange student is like raising another kid for awhile. It enriches your life, but you also enrich their life. You learn just as much about their country as they do about the United States. You also have a connection with someone to go visit and see other parts of the world yourself. If you are interested in hosting or donating or have any questions, contact Gordy Jacobson at 218-365-5228.