David Etienne, AFS Switzerland in Reconquista, having mates in Puerto de Alicante, Spain in one of many trips back in the old continent.AFS in Reconquista

E-mail: rl.reconquista@afs.org.ar 1544-4471

Number 7, July 2011

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”Mahatma Gandhi

Digital NewsAFS Reconquista Local Chapter

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

Franco Lorenzini and Ma. Laura Buyatti are two teenagers from Reconquista who participated in the Pre-

Orientation Camp which took place in Buenos Aires. They tell us about their expectations and their wishes.

Pre-Orientation Camp (in Buenos Aires)

I am María Laura Buyatti and I will be in Germany for 11 months. I chose

Germany because I consider it to be a developed country which is pretty different to what I am used to here in Argentina. When I get to my host country, just as Franco, I would like to

know new places, play different sports like Hockey. About my family, I have already been assigned to one in Bavaria. There I will have a sister my own age with whom I would like to

share million of things and obviously to get on well. I am not leaving with high expectations because I can be wrong and get down or, on the contrary, think that everything is better that

I expected. In the POC I could talk to one volunteer who had his exchange experience in Germany. He told me about the customs, the way people relate to each other and also how

his first months were in his new family and with his new friends.

Hi, my name is Franco Lorenzini and I am going to live my exchange experience for 11 months in Finland. I chose this country because I wanted to experience a totally different

culture. When I get there, I would like to get to know the most important places and also to learn how to Snowboard and Ski. As regards my new family, I believe it is the most important part of the experience. Being able to live with them, with their customs, food, etc. would

be really exciting. Knowing them, understanding their characters is also interesting, as well as they knowing me. I will be myself, so that they can receive all my love. My goal is that, by living with them, I get to know the family well and feel like they are my own, and that they accept me as another family member. In the POC I had the chance to be with two volunteers who had lived their experience in Finland, so they told me a bit about their culture and how people relate to each other. Also, there was a girl from Finland in my town too who taught me basic things about the language to make my fist months there easier.

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Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

Sergio Sanchez was with Franco and Ma. Laura in the AFS Pre-Orientation Camp (POC) for three days (9, 10 and 11/07) in Buenos Aires. “We shared this experience with other teenagers from all over our country and also from Uruguay. This Camp was really enriching for us because it taught us a lot more about our exchange experience and about our host countries. We could also make new friends and we realised that, even though we are from the same country, we are really different. In the POC we had activities which are connected to our future experience. That is to say, about how communication and living somewhere else would be, and it made us become aware that our first months with other people, who have a different language and another culture, will be very difficult”.

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We are really happy about doing this intercultural exchange experience. We believe it

is going to be a unique experience and it will help us mature and open our minds.

THANK YOU AFS!!!

Sergio, “Lali” and Franquito in CPO (Pre-Orientation Camp)

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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July is one of the saddest months for AFS and all the people who feel part of the Organisation. It is the time when the Exchange Students have to leave their Argentinian families, their friends and their host communities who received them not so long ago. About one hundred people gathered at the Reconquista Bus Station last Sunday, 17th to say farewell to Niklas Schnierstein (Germany), Eveliina Valkola (Finland), Myrthe Hanckman (The Netherlands), Ida Kjoes (Norway) and Lisa Volpi (Italy) who were

travelling back to Buenos Aires to get a plane which would get them to their native lands. All of them arrived in August 2010, and almost a year later, the Local Chapter accompanied them in the hardest part of the experience: saying „Adiós‟.

July, month of AFS Goodbyes Niklas, Myrthe, Ida, Eveliina

and Lisa leaving the city. Family Quatrin-Nóbile saying goodbye to Eveliina.

Family Senestrari-Schaumburg saying goodbye to Niklas.

Family Stechina-Bais saying goodbye to Myrthe

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

The AFS volunteers from Reconquista local Chapter want to thank all of you, host families, for your generosity, openness, tolerance and

intercultural sensibility. All of them AFS values we promote and which were openly shown by you all during the last 11 months of intercultural

sharing.

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Family Fabrissin-Vanrell saying goodbye to Ida.

Family Sartor-Sartor saying goodbye to Lisa.

Every time we have to say farewell, the same feeling of sadness and broken hearts is in the air. The never-ending hugs, the chanting, the crying

eyes and the final waving of hands are parts of this last picture which puts an end to the hardest

time in the AFS experience. It is a difficult time not only for the students who are leaving a great year

behind, but also for their families who hosted them. It is also a time of growth and meditation.

The AFS students left to Buenos Aires with a volunteer, Claudia Lanteri, who would accompany

them in the End Of Stay Camp. This last meeting intents to prepare them emotionally for their

return to their natural families, friends and country.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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Meet them! They arrive in August 2011

On one side, there are eight young peoplefrom seven different countries, whodreamt about living a year or a semester with anArgentinian family. On the other side, thereare eight families who liked the idea ofliving an intercultural experience intheir own home, and committedthemselves to receive and treat theseadolescents as their own children.

They have already met on the Internet, talked onSkype and have already exchanged photographs.However, they still have to wait some more daysto each other’s faces and hug.That moment will be a landmark in their lives.It means the beginning of a new life, a time togrow and enjoy something different.That would be thanks to the AFS Experience.

Eight AFS Exchange Students are coming to our Local Chapter. Seven of them will be here on Sunday, 21st August and one of

them on September, 7th.

TimMa. Grazia

JohannaBaraAugusta

AnneLaurinCarlo

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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The new AFS exchange students are from Italy (Carlo and Ma. Grazia), Australia (Timothy), Denmark (Augusta), Faroe Islands (Bára), Island (Johanna), Germany (Anne) and Austria (Laurin).

The families from Reconquista are: Robert-Maurencig; Ortolani-Perone; Pellegrini-Villalba; Tomadín-Masat. From Avellaneda: Regonat-Menichelli; Sosa-Luna. From Malabrigo: Scalini-Nardin and from Calchaquí: Redigonda-Rodriguez.

Saturday, 23rd 2011

2nd Orientation for AFS Host Families

The eight families who are about to live the AFS Experience, participated in the 2nd Orientation for the

AFS Host Families. Once more, it took place in Dante

Alighieri N° 384 School. We thank all of them who lent us their classrooms for this activity.

This opportunity, AFS showed the families different key concepts such as ‘intercultural communication’ and its main

obstacles, and ‘behaviour and conduct’ depending on the culture and context people live in.

Other concepts were Ethnocentrism, Ethnorelativism, Multiculturalism, Interculturalism, High and Low

Context, Chronemics and Proxemics.

As promised, AFS Local Chapter will meet the new host families one more time next Saturday 20th of

August to give the last Orientation before the students arrive. AFS commits to the task of preparing the families before living the experience and to support them during the year.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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Teachers Romina del Valle Dotti and Silvia MartaBerli, both teachers from Centro de Enseñanza de Inglés(CEI), received the AFS volunteers from Reconquista LocalChapter last July, 1st.

Calchaqui opens doors to AFS and one student from AFS Island

Silvia Marta Berli, José Manuel Buyatti, Sergio L. Sanchez and Romina Del Valle Dotti

Thanks to Centro de Enseñanza de Inglés from Calchaquí, AFS Programas

Interculturales arrives to this small town from northern Santa Fe Province.

Motivated by the AFS Mission, both teachers committed themselves to the AFS cause becoming volunteers of AFS Programas Interculturales Argentina &

Uruguay. They started working in August 2011 supporting the Redigonda-Rodriguez family from Calchaqui, who will receive the first student from AFS Island in the

community.

Some local families joined the meeting, moved by theurge to become a volunteer host family. Mr AngelMiguel Milessi, Secretary for Tourism and Environmentof Calchaqui, was also present. The AFS volunteersoffered to participate in cultural activities organised bythe Secretary and the Town Council, with the aim ofgiving the local teenagers and people the chance tomeet eleven AFS Exchange Students who will be in ourLocal Chapter, thus spreading the AFS Programmes,Values and Mission.

The meeting was meant to be thefirst of many in an attempt tobring and start a differenteducational programme toCalchaqui, so that local youngpeople and families canexperiment the richness offered byInterculturalism.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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AFS Programas Interculturales offers intercultural learningexperiences for a school semester or year, but theexperience does not end there. The bonding and friendshiplast for longer and keep on growing throughout time anddistance.

A proof of this is the return of former AFS exchangestudents to Reconquista who, taking advantage of theirsummer holidays, came back to town to visit their „fosterfamilies‟.

They are:

• Gabriella Schivardi (Italy): she lived for a semester

between August 2007 and January 2008 with theMoschén-Vogel family.

• Giulia Bonaglia (Italy): she lived for a semesterbetween August 2009 and January 2010 with theDonatelli-Pando family.

• Valentin Smutny (Austria): he lived for a semesterbetween January 2009 and July 2009 with theGraziano family.

• Stefan Maschel (Austria): he lived for a semesterbetween January 2010 and July 2010 with the Mina-Lanter family.

Back in Reconquista, visiting their families

Gabriella Schivardi Valentin Smutny

Stefan Maschel Giulia Bonaglia

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

David Etienne was a student in Reconquista from AFS Switzerland. He

was in our town from February 2008 till July of the same year, in a semester programme. He had his exchange experience in Raúl Mina and Claudia

Lanteri’s house. He was a student in Instituto San José School.

In the front page of this issue, we can see him having mates opposite the Puerto de Alicante and the Castle of Santa

Bárbara on Mount Benacantil.

Here, we see David having mates opposite the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia (known as The Sagrada Familia Temple).

It is a Catholic Church and Basilica in Barcelona (Spain), designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. The construction began in 1882 and it

is still being built (July 2011). It is Gaudí’s masterpiece and it is the best example of the Modern Catalan Architecture.

The AFS mate from Spain.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

AFS Reconquista ContactsJosé Manuel Buyatti 1544-4471 María Elena Landi 421350 Claudia Lanteri 424507Sergio Sanchez 1545-7527

E-mail: rl.reconquista@afs.org.ar www.afs.org.ar

AFS RL RECONQUISTA