CRESWELL – Few people get the chance to visit another country and immerse themselves in another culture. Creswell High School students Elizabeth and Joseph C. Lewis got to do just that on a nearly three-week trip to Africa with their local Rotary Club.
“We were actually performing music at the time, with our family music group (Cascade Kids),” said 18-year-old senior Joseph C. “Then they had a presentation about this opportunity to go to Uganda for a friendship exchange. We thought that would be super cool.”
Rotary District 5110 partnered with Rotary District 9213 to host an international friendship exchange program. During February and May, Rotarian participants took turns hosting each other in their homes and clubs. The Lewis siblings, along with their dad and other members of District 5110, spent 24 hours traveling to Uganda, Africa. In exchange, Ugandan members of District 9213 visited Eugene and surrounding communities from May 5-10.
“Most of the time when we were staying places, we were hosted by Rotarians,” 16-year-old Elizabeth said. “It’s nice to be able to make connections that way and just get to know how rotary works across the world.”
Information from the district’s website says the friendship exchange program establishes a foundation for peace and service. The program helps broaden international understanding, build friendships, provide an opportunity to learn about an area’s culture and history, and explore professions in a different context.
“When we first heard about it, we thought it was gonna be like a fun vacation,” Joseph C. said. “But when we got there, we realized it was more humanitarian-based, and we saw a lot of need around us.”
The two Creswell siblings spent 16 days eating, sleeping, and living nearly 9,000 miles away from their home. During their stay, they ate traditional African foods like goat meat, mango, and matoke – a green banana dish.
“I made a friend over there who was just about my age, so we connected really well,” Elizabeth said. “We got to hang out a lot.” Elizabeth, her new friend Sheenah, and Joseph C. walked around before and after dinners while Sheenah showed them different sites and told them about her culture. “It was really fun,” Elizabeth said.
“I was able to talk to some kids my age. They did sports, went to school, and they weren’t too different from us,” Joseph C. said.
“Some of the most shocking or interesting things that I saw were how the people there, how the grandparents, had kind of been living in more tribal-like cultures,” Elizabeth said. “And then how far they had come in so little time and how much they were trying to progress.”
“One of the specific places that we visited was a hospital, like a medical clinic,” Joseph C. said. “It served a community of 70,000 people, and we were just heartbroken by the lack of medical supplies that they had for so many people. Coming out of that experience and going back home, me and Elizabeth realized we can do something about it.”
“How little they had, but how grateful they were for what they had, made me think – well, there has to be something we can do,” Elizabeth said. “Any little thing that we can provide is gonna make a huge impact for these people.”
Inspired by the determination of Ugandans living through poverty, Elizabeth and Joseph C. returned home and helped host a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the medical clinic they visited while on their journey.
The concert was last Thursday night at the Shedd Institute. The event held a dual purpose of raising funds for mothers and newborns at the Butoolo medical clinic in Uganda, and also as a farewell to the visiting Rotarians from Uganda. The benefit raised $4,000 in addition to $5,500 raised from donations.
As their first trip outside of the country, neither sibling wanted it to be their last. “Honestly, I liked staying there. I was kind of sad to leave,” Joseph C. said. “I did want to stay longer if I could.”
“I would definitely go back, and I would highly recommend it to anyone else who’s traveling,” Elizabeth said.
