*sigh* My Israeli exchange students go home tomorrow.

[Pacifist Patriot]

We participate in a program that sends 14 year old students from Be'er Sheva Israel to our area for a week every year. This is a competitive scholarship program established in memory of the Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died on the Columbia. We take two boys each year and have fallen in love with each and every one of them. Having this experience gives me such hope for the future because these kids are so bright and compassionate.

They go to Kennedy Space Center, the Astronaut Hall of Fame, the planetarium, area high schools and colleges during the day and we get them in the evenings and over one weekend. We were able to take the boys on an airboat ride (5 big gators!), to Universal Studios where we totally lucked into two-park passes for them for a song, an Orlando Magic game (lost big time), and think we taught them the rudimentary rules of football even if it was a crappy game for the Patriots.

I'm going to miss these two sweethearts. But I plant a hibiscus bush in my yard for each and every exchange student so I'll have them in my garden as well as my heart.

I was really thrilled with a writing assignment my 11 year old submitted today. "What I like best about my family." He talked about our exchange students (we also host Basque teenagers for a month every other summer) and what a wonderful experience it is for him to meet people from different backgrounds. He brought up the fact that he has learned that people have the same concerns all around the world and language and religion are really minor differences in the scheme of things. I swear he wasn't coached.

I may not appreciate policy decisions on the part of the Israeli government, but I wouldn't want anyone judging me based on Washington's policies either.

One Human Family

So may it ever be!

Shalom

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. What a great idea to plant flowers for them :^) And how cool your kids are really getting

something from the experience.

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. If they don't turn into total liberal hippie tree hugging nuts I'll be amazed.

Cheers!

[PassingFair]

4. Be careful...

They'll turn into exchange students themselves :(

My daughter has been gone for 6 months.
She turned 16 -- 8,000 miles away from home!

SHE is having the time of her life.
I am NOT!

[malta blue]

3. Good on you...

and kudos to your son...

Shalom

[Corgigal]

5. I had a foreign exchange student

for a full school year. She is from Serbia and we will email all the time. She got married and now has a second child that I call my foreign exchange grandbabies. I try to send them Christmas presents every year because the ecomony is so bad in Serbia.

I miss her too and you might want to consider a student for the full school year. You can pick which country you will like, boy or girl and the age. We took our Dragana (foreign exchange student) to Disney World while she was here and was so amazed. It's nice to see our country anew from the eyes of these kids. Might do it again but I doubt I will ever find another child like my Dragana, who we nicknamed Drag because we drug her all over the place.