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October 6-14, 2007
Mayor Chris Beutler officially welcomed the delegation to the City of Lincoln and presented each with an Honorary Lincoln Citizen’s Certificate. State Senator Amanda McGill from Nebraska’s 26th District inspired the delegation with her story about running for office and her interest in social issues. The Russians were honored when the senator presented each delegate with an Honorary Nebraska Citizen’s award and then joined them for lunch in the courtyard under her office window. Senator McGill & Irina Pantyukhina
Lunch in the courtyard at
the Nebraska State Capitol
Meeting with Mr. Barstow’s 9th grade Civics Class at Zoo School showed a small community of mature high school students participating in both traditional and non-traditional learning styles, and taking an active role in defining their learning environment and education.
Our Thank You Tree At the Juvenile Detention Center, the Russians and 14 youth on the Staff Secure Unit had many questions and answers for each other (Photos of the youth were not allowed for privacy reasons).
At the Child Advocacy Center, Mija Fejzic, a Bosnian immigrant described the Advocacy Center’s approach to the problem of child abuse, primarily sexual abuse.
Volunteering to serve the noon meal at Matt Talbot Kitchen was listed as an A1 experience. After the guests were served, we also had Matt Talbot’s good lunch, and learned about their education, outreach and advocacy services. SummaryOne highlight of this exchange was a two-day trip into Nebraska’s heartland on our Magic Friendship Bus. While we studied youth issues in the rural area, the Russians also had the opportunity to see the great Sandhills of Nebraska and meet “real” cowboys! Dinner at Bibs and Boots in Bartlett was a novelty—‘Bibs’ standing for bib overhauls, and ‘Boots’ for cowboy boots. On Friday evening, the Russians met at local night clubs for an evening on-the-town. They enjoyed several hours of socializing and dancing with young American hosts. Our Russian guests shopped and explored the malls with many local retail stores. They also participated in other activities or events suggested by their host families. Greenblat & Seay performed for our final Russian-American Friendship Celebration. The husband and wife folk musicians adapted their performance to illustrate a number of musical instruments unique to the American culture. Overall, the Open World program was a great Cross-Cultural opportunity for all of us! To view all the photos from the exchange, click here. |
©2008 Friendship Force of Lincoln. All Rights Reserved. |
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ddressing youth issues in our democratic form of government, and illustrating ways volunteerism supports and enhances youth programs was an exciting and fun hosting experience for FFL. At the end of the week, our Russian delegates said we were so friendly and we shared so much about our country with them. They liked seeing how government, not-for-profit, and private agencies interact to develop economical youth programs to create a healthy environment in which youth mature and enter the workforce. They especially liked seeing rural areas and “real” American life. The personal experiences, including the meetings with all the people from government leaders to the shop owners, will be very useful for them. We learned from the Russians that they lack the type of governmental support we have for addressing youth issues—many issues they want to deal with relate to social concerns which they are trying to address by using volunteers. 
