White 2009

2009 was the year of the exchange student in our family. We began in fall 2008 when we welcomed César Brignon from Périgueux, France into our home (Aug-Nov) and saw Meghan (finally) away to Khabarovsk, Eastern Russia in mid-November for the rest of her school year. With César, we became acquainted with the joys of hosting, seeing our family and community through the eyes of a newcomer, taking the time to be tourists and doing things we wouldn’t otherwise get around to. With Meghan, we became acquainted with the excitement and anxiety of being the parents of an away student, worrying about her safety and happiness, anticipating every picture and tidbit of information that arrived by any means and feeling on edge when she lost her internet connection or phone for any period of time (not that we needed to talk to her daily, but it was nice to know that we could). : : 2009 Highlights : : Meghan had a very good experience in Russia as a Rotary International exchange student. She can now speak Russian fluently and we are cultivating our Russian friendships so that she will have an opportunity to keep up her language. Fortunately there are a number of Russian families in town. In Khabarovsk, she lived with two different host families, one young couple with a new baby and another older couple with an adult son—two very different experiences. She found the Russian people to be very warm, kind and hospitable and we never worried that she wasn’t well looked after. She made some good friends both with Russian students and with other Rotary exchange students on a special spring trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow. Meghan's Letters from Russia


Meghan will turn 18 in January, but won’t graduate this year. Her trip to Russia was an incomparable educational experience, but didn't get her any credits, so she's back in grade 11. She is beginning to look ahead so we started our university explorations with a tour of McGill during a recent visit to Montreal.


César's stay with us was the first half of a reciprocal exchange with Lauren through the Canadian Education Exchange Foundation (CEEF), an excellent non-profit exchange organization. In February, Lauren travelled to Périgueux for her half of the exchange. She spent an interesting and adventurous three months with the Brignon family, returning home in May. She visited Paris, skied in the Pyrenees, went to school in French, and made many new friends that she remains in touch with.


Lauren is now fourteen, in grade nine, and enjoying her first year of high school. After officially graduating from elementary school (grade 8) in the spring, she's fully morphed into our last teenager. Next year she is planning to apply for a Rotary International exchange for her grade 11 year.


Babi was next, joining our family from March break until early July. She spent the school year in Deep River as a Rotary student (on the same program as Meghan). Babi is from the big city of Sao Paulo, Brazil and by the time she moved in with our family (her third), was fully a fully adapted small-town Canadian girl, speaking English fluently and having survived--even loved--her first real winter. As a bonus, we saw a lot of Babi's close friend and fellow exchange student, Valeria, from El Salvador. We were sad to see them both go and hope they will be back to visit.


In August, Leslie took advantage of Meghan’s exchange by travelling to Russia to “pick her up”. Andrew had planned to go to, but we’ve been having a little trouble with our local reactor (NRU, isotope crisis, you may have heard of it). Andrew is involved with the safety and licensing end of the repairs and simply was not able to get away. Leslie went bravely off to Moscow by herself and was able to meet Meghan’s plane from Khabarovsk. Leslie & Meghan enjoyed eight days each in St. Petersburg and Moscow, before returning to Deep River just in time for the start of school.

: : Lots of photos from Russia : :

And now we have another Rotary student, Eveliina from Finland, although we need to pass her along to another family after Christmas. Another wonderful young person, easy-going and fun-loving, Eveliina has slipped right into our family with ease, giving us a total of three seventeen year-olds in grade eleven! Thanks to Eveliina, we have recently enjoyed visits to the Bonnechere Caves, Canada's Wonderland, the CN Tower and Montreal, not to mention quite a few shopping malls.


While David is not currently exchanging to anywhere he does enjoy sports, travel and adventure. He regularly goes out with the high school outdoor ed club (Trekkers) for camping, rock-climbing and canoeing and is looking forward to a full semester of outdoor adventure with the high school Tamarack program. After graduation next year, he is seriously looking at the Katimavik program for a post-high school/pre-university adventure. He’s currently employed at our local Tim Horton’s so think of him when you order your double double.


Biniyam is now 16, in grade 10 at Carlton High School in Prince Albert. He's beginning to look ahead to the future as well, considering joining the reserves in the spring and possibly looking toward a military career. He'll be in Deep River for Christmas along with Leslie's sister Andrea & brother-in-law Eric.


Life in Deep River is changing for us as Leslie’s brother Mike and his family (Lisa, Sean, Matt, Eva) are planning a grand and adventurous move to New Zealand in the spring. Why? Possibly because it is there! We will miss having them nearby, but will now have someone to visit in beautiful NZ (along with Brazil, France and Russia). Leslie’s Dad is still in Deep River along with his partner Beverley Chafe, continuing to do very well, gardening, travelling, enjoying music and theatre in both Deep River and Ottawa. Andrew, as previously mentioned, is pretty much completely wrapped up, along with significant portion of the local population, with AECL’s heroic efforts to get the National Research Universal (NRU) Reactor back on its feet as an important producer of medical isotopes and research tool. The hope is to have it back in operation by March. Fingers crossed. And Leslie continues with the Valley Artisans Co-op, serving as president this year as well as webmaster...and then occasionally trying to find some time to quilt. Since we are back up to a full house, after briefly being down to just one, she is kept pretty busy just keeping up with the kids, which is much like herding cats.