Cultural Exchange: Host, Participants Enjoy CWY experience
Connor MacEachern connormac@thecasket.ca

Justin (My Brother), Ken Kingston (My Host Father) and I

Hendriyadi Maulana almost missed the opportunity to come to Canada on a Canada World Youth exchange program.
Maulana, 20, was in fifth place after surviving a series of cuts during his provincial competition in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“It’s a high competition,” he said. “The participants are delegates from each province.”
The four finalists who ranked higher than Maulana were too old for the competition, so he was chosen to represent Jakarta.
“When my university asked me which [country] I wanted to try, I said I’ll take Canada,” the economics student said.
“Canada has one of the most developed economies.”
Maulana and his Canadian counterpart, Justin Byatt, from Fort Simpson, NWT, have been living with Ken Kingston and Maria VanVonderen since arriving in Antigonish with 16 other delegates in September.
Byatt said his experience at Mount Allison, where he received a degree in psychology, prepared him for life on the East Coast.
“The climate isn’t much different, the people aren’t all that different.”
Maulana has gone through a bit more adjusting since leaving Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital with more than nine million people.
“The population here is small,” he said. “And there is no public transportation.”
Maulana and Byatt have been working on an organic farm in Bayfield. “Other people have more business-like placements like the Red Cross or L’Arche,” Byatt said.
Maulana said he’ll try to apply what he learns about organic farming in Canada to farms in Indonesia.
“I’m not sure if they apply organic farming techniques.”
The Canada World Youth group also volunteers at events such as the Antigonish International Film Festival.
Kingston said he and VanVonderen decided to become a host family in order to learn more about Indonesia as well as other parts of Canada.
“And to get a glimpse of what life is like for these young people,” he said.
VanVonderen had hosted participants in 2002, but this was the first time Ken has been a “host father.”
“It’s been a wonderful experience for both of us,” he said.
The couple took Maulana to his first football and hockey games at St. F.X., Kingston said.
Maulana has also taken it upon himself to learn French while in Canada. A flipchart in the his host family’s living room is full of French terms.
“We’ve … introduced them to a lot of different things, and they in turn introduced us to a lot of things,” Kingston said
Most of the Indonesian participants are Muslim, and arrived in Antigonish during Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daylight hours.
“I get up at four o’clock in the morning, so Hendri and I would have breakfast together,” Kingston, the XFM news director, said.
Kingston, VanVonderen, Maulana and Byatt attended a service at a mosque in Truro to mark the end of Ramadan.
“I was quite surprised that there were more similarities than differences [between Christianity and Islam,” Kingston said.
Kingston said hosting a Canada World Youth pair was “the right decision.”
“If Canada World Youth comes back, we will definitely be there.”
The Canada World Youth contingency is hosting a dinner and cultural show at St. James United Church Nov. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m. Attendees will taste traditional Indonesian food and enjoy a cultural show put on by the participants. All money raised will benefit victims of an Indonesian earthquake late last month.

Source: http://thecasket.ca/stories.asp?id=940