Exhange Students coming and going.
Jose is from Ecuador and from Rotary District 4400. His mom is an oncologist and his father teaches criminal law at the University. He has two brothers, 17 and 9 and his main interest seems to be sports. He plays them all but his real enthusiasm is soccer with a minor in tennis. He thinks he'd like to follow his father into law but is trying to figure out how to make a living at soccer.
Ecuador is a small country with about 16 million people and is divided into distinct geographical regions - the Coast, the Hills and the Woods. It celebrates its biodiversity - the most in the world - and its gastronomy. The whole country shares Jose's enthusiasm for soccer. It is divided into 25 Provinces and Portoviejo, his home town, is the local capital with about 300,000 people which makes it small enough to get around in and to get out of - there's a great beach only 15 minutes away.
Jose had pictures of his family, his town and country and some attractions of the area which gave us an idea of how he lives. He finished up by presenting a banner from his home Club to Maureen.\
Colin Best has recently come back from Belgium with his coat of many attachments - must have bee fun getting through security. He and the other outbounds first went to Ottawa for an orientation session which he found useful, plus he made a lot of friends. Then it was off to Belgium which he found a challenge because he was still learning about the country and trying to master French. His new home, Arlon, was in the south east of the Country which is about twice the size of Georgian Bay and is home to about 11 million people.
His host Club had 4 inbound students at once and Colin commented on the different formats of the meetings - no fines and lots of beer. They do a lot of celebrating there and it involves a lot of street parties. They celebrate the four major food groups - fries, waffles, chocolate and fries. Colin had lots of pictures of his host families, their homes, his unmade beds and the countries he visited.
He went everywhere. Between the moderate climate and the rapid transit it was easy to visit other countries. The Netherlands, Paris, the Alps, Portugal. He felt a little uncomfortable because his predecessor, from the States, had arrived bringing straight A's and fluency but Colin found the transition to this new place to be smooth and enjoyable. He graduated while he was there and the grad class visit was to Venice and Rotary took him on trips to Spain and Prague. It was all great but kind of tiring.
When he came back they had a meeting in Sudbury and then a trip to the Conference. The whole experience has bee incredible and wonderful and he is grateful for the opportunity. He says it's a wonderful and important program and he hopes the Club carries on with it. He grew and matured and learned a lot and will certainly explore becoming a Rotarian.