Exchange student calls two countries home
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By Anne Morter
B E S S I E WE T Z F L L
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HEPPNER
350
azette
imes
VOL. 112 NO. 8 8 Pages Wednesday. February 24, 1993 Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
Cardinal team s sweep district tourney
lone Cardinals with their first place bracket
Photo by Wayne Hams
\ 1
Lady Cardinals with their first place bracket
By Anne Morter
determined Dufur
The lone Cardinals swept both
the boys and girls district cham
pionship last weekend in Umatilla
and now advance to the state
basketball tournament in Baker
City, March 3-6.
The boys repeat as district
champions by powering past a
team in the nament play on Wednesday.
final quarter. The girls won their March 3 at 3 p.m. against St.
first Big Sky League champion Paul. First round action for the
ship since 1990 by blowing out girls will pit them against Alsea
Wasco County in the champion on Thursday, March 4 at 7 p.m.
ship game.
The boys will open state tour-
Cards win sportsmanship award
By Anne Morter
lone High School was once
again awarded the Pat Gillette
Sportsm anship Award last
weekend at the District 1A
basketball tournam ent in
Umatilla. The award is voted on
annually by the Blue Mountain
Officials Association and is
presented to one of the 14 schools
that the Blue Mountain officials
cover.
The Lady Cardinals brought
home the tournament sportsman
ship award for the third time in
four years. The officials and three
tournament directors decisions
are based on the crowds conduct
and participation as well as
players' and coach’s conduct.
Heppner man dies of self-
inflicted gunshot wound
Don Lott, 29. Heppner, died of
a self-inflicted gun shot wound at
his home around 4 p.m. on Fri
day. Feb. 19, according to Mor-
Photo by Wayne Hams
row County District Attorney
Earl R. Woods.
Woods said that the weapon in
volved was a .22 caliber rifle.
Heppner teams
head to district
The Heppner Fillies and
Mustang basketball teams are into
the district playoffs and will com
pete this Friday for a chance to
advance to the Regionals.
The boys will play Friday,
Feb. 26 against Umatilla at 7:30
p.m. The girls will play Weston-
McEwen at 1:30. If they win they
will play the winner of the even
ing game on Saturday, Feb. 27 at
1 p.m. If the boys win they will
play on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 3
p.m. These games will determine
the time they will play at
Regionals in LaGrande. Should
the boys lose they will have a se
cond chance and play at home on
Monday. All games will be held
at the convention center in
Pendleton.
The games will be broadcast
over KUMA 1290 a.m. radio.
When exchange student Fatma
Juma arrived in lone, she brought
with her a double dose of foreign
culture for the locals. She comes
from Germany but spends a por
tion of each year with family in
Kenya. “ I have two homes,”
remarked Fatma.
The majority of her year is
spent with her mother in Col
ogne, a city of about one million
people, but a 14 year old brother,
M ajid, and her fath er’s
family draws her to Kenya’s
capitol Nairobi, and a coastal ci
ty Mombasa, for at least a month
each year.
Fatma, 17, is a senior at lone
High School and is staying with
the Reverened Lea Mathieu of
lone’s United Church of Christ.
Since Lea is herself a recently
transported city girl, the match
has been good for the both of
them, says Lea. She noted that
they have helped each other deal
with the slower pace of small
town life. ‘‘We get along well,”
says Lea. ‘‘Because of our age,
we’re more like sisters.”
Back in Cologne, Fauna’s
mother is a college teacher,
teaching politics and economics.
Fauna’s father was a very promi
nent radio journalist in Germany
before he passed away three years
ago. Her father provided inspira
tion for Fatma, who also aspires
to be a journalist. ‘‘She told me
that she has known that since she
was five,” says Lea.
Fatma’s mother was very sup
portive of her exchange venture.
Although Fatma has traveled
quite extensively with her fami
ly, even visiting the East Coast
of the U.S., she hadn’t con
sidered an exchange program un
til she heard a classmate discuss
ing the idea. Mother and daughter
talked it over but immediately hit
a stumbling block. Both found the
other’s choice of preferred coun
try distasteful for one reason-the
accent. Since Fatma had studied
English as a second language
since the fifth grade, they both
took for granted that she would
visit an English speaking country.
♦But Fatma discovered that her
mother disliked the American ac
cent and wanted her to visit
Britain. Fatma must have been
more convincing in her argument
that she couldn’t take a year of
English accents because she ar
rived in lone on August 18 for a
10 month stay.
Fatma hadn’t really expected to
land in such a rural area. Last
March, she received a long let
ter from Lea, telling her she was
coming to Oregon. This letter ar
rived before any official notifica
tion from ASSE, the exchange
organization. This was good
news since she had seen Oregon
in nature movies and it looked
like a fine place to spend the bet
ter part of a year. Later in the let
ter, Lea gently broke the news
that lone was a town of 275 in
rural eastern Oregon, and quite
possibly might not be what she
was expecting. This development
prompted a call to mom at work
and some soul searching. Her
mother asked her if she was sure
this was something she wanted to
do. After weighing the pros and
cons, Fatma decided that a small
town might provide experiences
she would miss in a bigger city.
After the initial shock of her
new surroundings wore off, Fat
ma has come to enjoy the town
and her time in the United States.
At school, she played volleyball
and is looking forward to tennis
in the spring. She just became a
teacher’s assistant for Betty Riet-
mann’s first grade class, a task
that she finds truly enjoyable. She
has made some trips around the
area, and recently toured Califor
nia for a week with a group of
130 exchange students from
around the world. In Oregon, she
has traveled to the coast with her
biology class last fall and just
before Christmas, she traveled to
Portland to feed the homeless
with the lone Youth Group. Also,
qabk or
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D ¿ a stern Oregon
4000 1234 5676
Fatma Juma
Lea treated her to a trip to the
Shakespearean Festival in
Ashland in October.
Fatma hasn’t noticed great dif
ferences between life in the U.S.
and in Germany. They have four
seasons like we do, although the
winters are milder.
She says they have many of the
American-based fast food outlets
like McDonalds, Burger King
and Pizza Hut but they don’t eat
as much fast food as Americans
do. A new culinary treat for her
was Mexican food.
The school system is different
in Germany, with students enter
ing ‘‘grammar” school in the
fifth grade. Grammar school is
similar to our high school except
that it lasts nine years. Students
speak and study German, of
course, but starting in the fifth
grade they choose between
English and Latin as their second
language. Fatma, who is quite
fluent in English, also speaks ‘‘a
little” French and Swahili for her
trips to Kenya. Fatma has two
years left to complete in grammar
school, since she will end up
repeating this year upon her
return. She then plans to pursue
university studies in journalism,
a course of study that will take
another two to four years. She at
tends a medium-sized public
school with about 800 students.
Fatma has about a year to go
before she hits the legal age to
drive in Germany 18, and she is
getting slightly anxious to learn.
In Germany, it costs about $1000
to take driving classes and get a
license but Fatma doesn’t plan to
let that stop her. She didn’t ap
pear to be too crazy to access the
autobahn, a freeway that links
major cities where drivers don’t
flinch at driving over 150 mph.
‘‘People are crazy on the
autobahn,” she said. The most
common brands of cars on the
roads are BMW, Volkswagen,
Mercedes, Volvo and Opal. She
says that Ford is the most com
mon American car in Germany
but, unlike here, pickups are
never seen.
Fatma says that life hasn’t
changed much for her since the
wall came down between East
and West Germany. She has
noticed more people seeking
asylum and an increase in the
number of Neo-Nazis. Because of
her dark skin, Fatma has felt their
effects personally. She was chas
ed off the underground (like a
subway) by a group but manag
ed to escape by hiding in a near
by restaurant until her mother
could pick her up She was par
ticularly distressed to read recent
ly reports of Neo-Nazis attack
ing Turkish women and people in
wheelchairs in Cologne.
For the rest of her year in lone,
Fatma looks forward to the senior
class trip, to a yet undisclosed
location, and to her mother’s visit
in April. While her mother is
here, they will travel to New
York together for some sight
seeing. When she returns to Col-
gone, she looks forward to see
ing her friends, and sleeping in
her own bed. at least for two
weeks before she leaves for
Kenya.
Fatma says she has enjoyed
lone. ‘‘I’ve made lots of friends.
All the people are very nice,” she
says. Fauna’s jrip was arranged
through ASSE, American
Swedish Scandanavian Exchange.
Kathy Halvorsen is the area
representative.
Find The Hidden Shamrock
Win Silver Medallions
This week a new St. Patrick’s Day activity begins. Each week
until March 10 a clue for the St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt will
be printed in the Gazette-Times. If followed these clues will guide
treasure hunters to a green plastic shamrock, hidden somewhere
in the city limits of Heppner.
The first person to find the hidden shamrock will win a set of
pure silver Oregon Trail commemorative medallions, worth near
ly $90. The coins are donated by the Bank of Eastern Oregon and
are on display at the bank.
Find this
Shamrock...
and win
These Silver Coins
RULES:
1. A new set of clues to guide you to the hidden shamrock will ap
pear in each edition of the Heppner Gazette-times.
2. A total of five clues will be given up to March 10.
3. The hidden shamrock is not on private property, and no digging
or moving of objects, dirt or other material is necessary to find the
shamrock.
4. The first person to find the shamrock should bring it to the Hepp
ner Gazette-Times office to claim the commemorative silver
medallions.
Clue Number Three
Past an alley take a turn
Left or right you’ll have to learn
Disregarding two’s admonition
Governs your trip to destination
You’ll be right if you turn and say
A legal path will guide my way
Follow the clues and may the luck of the Irish be with you.
This contest is sponsored by the Bank of Eastern Oregon and
the Heppner Gazette-Times.
The Bank of Eastern Oregon
VISA CARD
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