Jun 25, 2013 4 min read

A couple of columns ago, I wrote about the pending visit to this area by five young Brazilian professionals, one of whom my wife and I would host.

Our guest for that week in May was Cristiane Lebelem, a 34-year-old broadcast journalist from Curitiba, a city nearing 2 million people located south of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Cristiane, Ricardo, Vanessa, Leonardo and Andre came to the United States as participants in the Group Study Exchange program of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.

Of all the elements detailed in the explanation of the program, such as developing professional and leadership skills, providing opportunities to observe vocations as practiced in another country and so forth, one objective rings especially true: Foster lasting friendships and international understanding.

That’s right, friendships. It’s quite amazing what connections can be made in just one week, considering that almost every minute for these foreign visitors is planned out before they even arrive.

Our week flew by, and in that first column I was bemoaning the possibility of having to spend hours going shopping, but in the end, my retail commitment amounted to about three hours. And frankly, I enjoyed every minute.

This group of five had a daunting schedule, not only during the week spent in Washington, but the following weeks in Johnstown, Murrysville and Ligioner, all courtesy of Rotary District 7330, which has 42 clubs in Southwestern Pennsylvania. And in each location, the Brazilians had to adjust to a new host family.

This is not the first group of GSE team members to come to this area. Personally, my wife and I have hosted GSE participants from Slovakia, Germany and France. There have been visitors from Italy, Norway and Lithuania, as well.

I remember a conversation many years ago in which I was asked, “You aren’t going to let a foreigner stay in your house, are you? They will steal from you, and they are dirty.”

Well, to that person today I would say, “You haven’t seen Cristiane, Anke or Marie Luce, and you never met Leo and Andre, two extremely polite and personable young men.”

While there was a lot of laughter, some political discussions, comparing the reasonable prices of Washington’s outlet store to the high-priced commodities of Brazil and sharing brief moments with the other host families, one event in particular stands out, an event that I think clearly defines why people agree to become host families.

On the day the GSE team went to Pittsburgh, where they toured Carnegie Mellon University, visited the International Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning and ate dinner on Mount Washington, we were all to meet that evening at the Pioneer Grille in the George Washington Hotel.

Sitting at a table listening to live music, my wife said to me, “Look, isn’t that Alain?”

“Who?” I responded.

“Alain, who was part of the French group,” she said.

Well, it turned out to be Alain Chretien, who was, in fact, a member of the GSE team that was here in 2009. He was visiting the family that hosted him back then, Tripp and Suzanne Kline.

The Brazilians were flabbergasted. They had a hundred questions for him. “You mean you come back to visit?” one asked. Alain has been back to visit on several occasions, and the Klines have been to France to visit Alain.

I wouldn’t be surprised someday to see or hear that Cristiane, Ricardo, Vanessa, Leo or Andre have come back to this area to revisit what I hope were good times for them. So, if anyone has doubts about whether the GSE program fosters lasting relationships, just ask Tripp or Alain.

And in a year or two, if my phone rings and the person on the other end asks if we would like to host a Rotary GSE team member, guess the answer.

Jon Stevens is Greene County bureau chief for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at jstevens@observer-reporter.com.