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The Rotary Club of Lancaster is seeking a second host family for Eduardo Nobrega, our 18-year-old exchange student from Brazil. We urgently need a family willing to host Eduardo from roughly December through February.

This is a unique opportunity to share your holiday traditions with a remarkable young person from another culture. Eduardo speaks fluent English and is a hardworking student at J.P. McCaskey. Prospective host families must either live in the School District of Lancaster or be willing to provide daily transportation to/from McCaskey. The application process also involves required background checks and an in-home interview. We can certainly provide an opportunity for your family to meet Eduardo before you commit to hosting.

Please contact Jamie Alton at jalton@northmuseum.org or 875-4142 (cell) for additional information or to request an application. Hosting an exchange student can be an incredibly rewarding experience for everyone involved.

First Thursday Latino
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The next one is coming up…NOVEMBER 4TH! Mark your calendars.

The Kingdom of Bhutan, which literally translates as Land of the Thunder Dragon, is a small nation in South Asia, bordered on the South, East, and West by India and sits just beneath the Himalaya Mountains.  It is a country known for its natural beauty, deep cultural heritage, and diversity of faiths.  It has also, for the last few decades, been marked by strife and a government that evicted tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalese people.

Over 100,000 ethnic Nepalese, or one-sixth of Bhutan’s population were either forced out or fled in the 1980s.  Most lived in refugee camps in Nepal for over two decades, when countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, and many in Eastern Europe began an international resettlement effort to help Bhutanese refugees find new homes around the world.  Due to the efforts of refugee assistance organizations, most of them faith-based or administered by church communities, over 17,000 are now living in the United States.  This LA Times article spotlights about 20 families living in Philadelphia, PA.

In April of 2010, local media outlet LancasterOnline.com reported on the work being done by faith-based refugee agencies – Church World Service and Lutheran Refugee Services – which are helping the Bhutanese make a new life in Pennsylvania.  Check out the article and read more about the local Bhutanese who now call Lancaster home.

If you’re interested in learning more about this diverse and complex kingdom and its people, visit this site. Lonely Planet describes Bhutan as a land that exists both in the old and the new: “Bhutan is straddling the ancient and modern world and these days you’ll find monks transcribing ancient Buddhist texts into computers as traditionally dressed noblemen chat on their mobile phones.”  It is indeed a nation in transition, for both those who still live there, as well as for the thousands of Bhutanese resettling across the world.

On Monday, July 19th at 6:30pm, Jörg Gestchke, a German musician, will be performing as well as talking about German folk music. Some of the folk music focus on love, freedom, forests, etc. He will also be discussing the importance of the Molln Festival, which works towards building friendships among various cultures in the Molls area. Come out to Ephrata Park and enjoy the sounds of the talented Jörg Gestchke.

I’m sure that you have seen the tango and watched the infamous sport of fútbol, but have you seen the two together?
Check out this link, in light of the Fifa World Cup, to see tango being performed while playing fútbol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imc7yMY9amc

Now give it a try!

Here are the answers from the newsletter. Are you an expert of the World Cup?

Q. South Africa has ___ official languages.

A. 11

Q. The FIFA Website has six foreign language versions. Can you guess what they are?

A. They are: English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Arabic.

Q. English is the official language of how many World Cup teams?

A. 7 – Australia, Cameroon, England, Ghana, New Zealand, Nigeria, and USA

Q. Even prior to preparing to host the World Cup, South Africa’s road signs were written in _____.

A. English

Q. Broadcasts of the 64 games are also available for online viewing with: 1.) International Sign Language OR 2.) American Sign Language?

A. International Sign Language

LANGUAGE CHALLENGE!

Check out these websites where you can watch the games in a foreign language:

To visit the official website for the 2010 FIFA World Cup: http://www.fifa.com.
For more information on the World Cup and up-to-date statistics of the games, visit ESPN’s Soccernet site: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/

This week was great! We ended the week tasting rice and beans, plus had some roasted chicken. It was delicious! We also learned how to make Sangria.

*Recipes and a video of the afternoon’s class performance yet to come!

Jumping right into the culture, the Japanese class took a trip to the Lancaster Barnstormers to support the Japanese player. The class was given 6 free dugout box seat tickets to enjoy the game. This is just another activity that goes to show the numerous cultural activities in Lancaster County. Below is the group with the baseball player: