Teen from Yemen completes year at Mt. Blue High School

FARMINGTON – When Omar Abdullatif Mohammed Salem Alkazmi (5 of his 10 familial /tribal names), age 16, arrived in the Farmington area last September, little did this boy from Yemen know that, during his school year at Mt. Blue High School, he would run in track meets, carve faces on pumpkins, learn to kayak 5 miles down Minnehonk Lake, act as a Page for the Senate in the State House, and attend his first Prom. Especially he didn’t expect to be freezing though a long Maine winter!

Yemen, a small country in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia, Oman, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, has a hot climate year-round, features deserts as well as mountains, and is known for having the first “skyscrapers” in the world, made of mud. Its population is predominately Muslim & Arab. The Yemeni people identify with and pride themselves on the particular tribe from which their family originated.

Omar lives with his host parents Christine Merchant and Wayne Davis in Mount Vernon. Last summer Christine worked at the renowned Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine, an experience that she states changed her life. SoP brings youth & their adult escorts from countries with conflict to learn how to build peace with each other. Said Christine, “When I learned about the American Councils student exchange program and that they were looking for families to host teens from similar countries for a school year, I thought ‘Wow, like Seeds of Peace every day!!’, and we got Omar!”

Omar is a guest in our community through an organization called American Councils for Secondary Education, which administers a US State Dept.-funded exchange program whose aim is to build mutual cultural understanding and to create “public diplomacy” between the US and countries with whom we have struggled. This includes four sub-programs, the oldest being FLEX which brings over teens from former Soviet Union countries, and the newest being YES which invites students from predominately Muslim populations. YES (Youth Exchange & Study) was the brainchild of Senators Ted Kennedy and Richard Lugar after the events of 9/11.

In recent years our community has also experienced AC students from Afghanistan, Serbia, & Pakistan. Due to the ambassadorial outlook and the outgoing personalities of these carefully selected and vetted students, our community has become unusually aware of the cultures and values and belief systems of these otherwise mysterious and often misunderstood countries. This rather isolated part of Maine has been fortunate to have had the enriching opportunities that the four teens from Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe have afforded us and especially our high school population. Clearly the benefits travel both directions, as the visiting teens return home to their families, friends, and countries, full of accurate on-the-ground impressions of what the USA is really like.

The American Councils programs are represented in this area by Wilton residents David Olson and Paula Widmer, who act as Local Coordinators. Now is the time that they are seeking host families for the 2013-14 school year, in any of the nearby school districts. Any family configuration, including retirees, can provide a welcoming home to one or two students. It is also possible to host a student for a limited period in the fall until a more permanent host family can be found. Paula and David, as Coordinators, provide close, hands-on support and counsel throughout the hosting, to optimize a positive experience for all concerned.

This weekend Omar will march in cap and gown with his buddies and classmates. A confident, outgoing young man, Omar is suddenly feeling the squeeze of his imminent departure from this strange world called Maine with its countless trees, its winter cold, its non-urban quiet, its odd accent, and its easy friendliness. “It will be tough to leave Maine,” he laments, with what might be a tear in his eye. Many will miss him too; he has left his mark here.

David & Paula enthuse that their association with American Councils and these amazing and exotic young visitors has utterly changed their life, has made them years younger! They can be reached at 645-9707 with questions about, and interest in, hosting a student from far away.