THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019
THE CHRONICLE — 3
SPOTLIGHT
COMMUNITY
B O L I V I A-B O U N D
Emily Garcia Anson (right) with her host family Ada Suáraman and Lorena Jimenez.
Anson will be in Bolivia until June 2020. PHOTOS PROVIDED
Student leader expands mind,
experiences culture shifts
BY ALIYA HALL
THE CHRONICLE
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia
– Emily Garcia Anson, 17,
of Creswell, is following her
dream of seeing the world by
partaking in a Rotary Youth
Exchange, which has placed
her in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
for a year.
These exchanges give
students who are “leaders in
their schools and commu-
nities” the opportunity to
attend local schools and
live with host families in a
city abroad. Students range
from 15 to 19 years of age,
and Rotary pays for room,
board and school fees, with
students responsible for
airfare, documents and
spending money.
“Emily’s exchange to
Bolivia means to me that
she is achieving her goals,”
Alejandra Garcia, Anson’s
mom, said. “She has a plan
and travel is part of it. I am
fi ercely proud of her tenacity
and clear direction.”
Anson said that her dad
was in the Navy for 20 years
and that inspired her to see
more parts of the world.
She was originally chosen
as an alternate, but another
student dropped out, and she
Administration and
Finance Committee
Meeting
The Administration and
Finance Committee will
meet on Thursday, Oct.
3, 2019 in the City Hall
Conference Room begin-
ning at 5:30 p.m. The
committee will continue
working on updating
the Mayor/City Council
webpage.
was able to take her place.
She said she was asked if she
wanted to go to Bolivia, and
she told them yes.
In order to participate,
she had to graduate early
from Creswell High School.
Anson started the applica-
tion process in July 2018 and
Garcia said she made it clear
to her daughter that “this
was her project.”
“She did ever ything,
including applying for her
passport and driving herself
to the appointment,” Garcia
explained. “Rotary requires
that parents and students
attend many meetings and
weekend-long t ra in ing
sessions prior to the selec-
tion process and even after-
ward.”
Anson has been in Santa
Cruz since mid-August
and will be staying there
until June. She is attend-
ing classes as a junior in a
Catholic high school and
said that it’s a stricter envi-
ronment than in the U.S.
The classes she’s taking
are all in Spanish, and she
said that reading has been
the easiest for her to under-
stand. While she under-
stands the math equations,
she said the math teacher
talks fast and it makes it
harder to know what’s going
on; however, her Spanish
classes are quickly improv-
ing her language skills.
“Every day I know more
than the day before,” she
said.
She also has opportuni-
ties to practice her Spanish
outside of the school
setting, because her host
family doesn’t speak a lot of
English. She is staying with
Lorena and Chuly Jimenez,
and their daughter is doing
an exchange in Grants Pass,
Oregon.
“My family has been
really great,” Anson said.
She added that they make
sure to have things in the
house that she likes.
Family is a big part of
Bolivian culture, and Anson
said that they will have four-
hour dinners each Saturday
with multiple courses and
a break for espresso; she
added that the food involves
a lot of rice.
Another cultural shift,
outside of eating patterns, is
that Bolivians do very little
driving to adjoining cities
because the roads aren’t as
easy to drive on; instead,
everyone fl ies to other desti-
nations. She also added that
Bolivians don’t drink water
straight from the tap; they
have to either buy it or fi lter
it.
Santa Cruz is the largest
city in Bolivia and Anson
said she hasn’t ever lived
in a city this large. At the
moment, it’s the rainy season
and she said that everyone
has been bundled up in coats
and all she needs is a light
running jacket.
“It feels like Oregon in
September,” she said.
Despite it being the rainy
season, it has done little to
help the Amazon rainfor-
est that has been burning
in Brazil; the fi re has since
spread into Bolivia near
its borders with Brazil and
Paraguay, the BBC reported,
and Anson said that it is
smoky.
“You see it on the news
every day,” she said. “People
are talking about it in
America but it’s a big deal
here because it’s so close.”
Garcia said that she
“cannot praise the Rotary
Club enough for their amaz-
ing work” and she has been
impressed by their dedi-
cation, kindness and thor-
oughness. She added that
she hopes Anson’s experi-
ence in Bolivia through the
Rotary Youth Exchange will
teach her the value of human
connection.
“I hope her Bolivian expe-
rience brings her back into
the real world and shows her
that digital platforms are no
equivalent to the experience
of actual life,” she said.