A full year

An earthquake rocked the town of Los Andes, Chile on Sunday night. Buildings shook 80 kilometres to the south in San Bernardo. It was the tenth earthquake of at least a 4.2 magnitude to shake central Chile since my daughter, Grace, arrived for a year-long exchange in August.

The place is riven with fault lines, and is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Much of Chile clings precariously to the edge of South America, threatening to fall away from the Andes into the Pacific Ocean.

Yet life goes on amid the shaking and regular reminders of potential cataclysm. The Gran Torre building, finished just last year, rises 70 storeys into the Santiago skyline. The country is currently constructing a 2,750-metre suspension bridge, linking Chiloe Island in the Pacific Ocean to the mainland. It turns out humans can get used to anything—even the possibility the ground might truly disappear under our feet. Grace reported that the latest quake was barely distinguishable from the vigration of the Metro snaking under the street nearby.

Grace arrived in San Bernardo in August. She will be there until July 2015. A full year. She is 17.

The program is sponsored and managed by the Rotary Club of Picton, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Santiago. Each year the Rotary Club arranges for thousands of students to criss-cross the earth—to explore the world beyond their homes. To leave the comforts and confines of home and family— to go out and forge new friendships and shape their own view of the world.

The program has arranged for County kids to experience far-off places such as Finland, Japan and Germany in a way most of us never will. They form lifelong friendships and connections. The world beyond the County takes on added dimension as these human connections help transform colours on a flat map into the homes and communities of folks with whom they have much in common.

Grace feels less of an oddity at Instituto Sagredo Corazon de San Bernardo these days. She is adjusting to the smartly professional uniform, complete with black watch tartan skirt and blazer. She is bristling a little at some of the ideas of family, and the role of women in this society. She remains unclear how much of a debate on some fundamental Catholic precepts may be tolerated. Or polite.

Occasionally, still, a fellow student will approach her in the hallway or lunch room to inquire shyly but with steely determination: Does she know Justin Bieber? What’s he like?

The Rotary student exchange program is a well-organized and highly trusted bridge for young people to venture forth. On arrival, Grace was met at the airport by both her sponsoring family and a Rotary volunteer. We were notified while she was still in the baggage area our daughter had safely arrived.

Grace is certain that Lilian, her host mother, speaks English, but she has never heard her utter a word other than in Spanish. Lilian is a teacher. By inclination and by vocation. Almost everything in the home bears a handwritten label—identifying the object in the local language. Each Saturday morning, Grace and Lilian go to the market. Lilian patiently picks up item after item asking Grace to identify it. There are fruits and vegetables that Grace can only identify by their Chilean names.

Lilian’s daughter is also taking part in Rotary exchange, living in Prince Edward County. Amanda is her only child and Lilian misses her immensely. It is hard. This is the beginning of letting go.

It all happened too soon. Just a short while ago they were small—comforted to sleep by rocking in our arms. Now they are carving out their own lives 10,000 kilometres away.

Parents who have participated in the Rotary exchange program invariably tell the same story: the child you put on the aircraft isn’t the person who will come back in a year.

It is a year of change, of growth, discovery and unfathomable experiences. I know this is a good thing.

I’m just not ready to let go.

 rick@wellingtontimes.ca