August 2008
Update
Greetings,
What is absolutely great about our network of internationally minded San Diego people is that whenever we send out a “Help! We need HELP!” the angels always step forward.
We are currently in need of 10 home host angels to step forward at this time. The Russians are coming from St. Petersburg next month. Will you please say yes? Enrique would love to hear from you. Enrique@CDCSD.org
Sweet summer and we are humming along nicely here in the office. Going to the mailbox each day and seeing who has sent in their renewals. (If you did not receive one, not to worry. We send them out now in the month you joined…) Welcoming visitors from around the world. Spreading goodwill.
So lucky to be doing this work.

Cath DeStefano
Executive Director
Contents
1. Home Hosts Needed!
2. Save the Date: 9/11
3. Bad News/Good News
4. Rudest Visitor Ever Award
5. Emergency Room Conversations
6. Around the Office
1. Home Hosts Needed!
We currently need 10 home hosts for our next Community Connections delegation in September. The Russians are coming from St. Petersburg! Click here for more information.
2. Save the Date: 9/11
An Evening with…Afghanistan
Our very own Courtney Giordano, IVLP Program Manager, is traveling to Afghanistan to entertain our troops! When she arrives back, she will have first-hand-on-the-ground information! Courtney, along with two other experts on Afghanistan, will join us for our next ‘An Evening with….’ series. The flyer will be arriving soon by email.
3. Bad News/Good News
Ileana Ovalle is unable to be our Board President this year as planned. She received a promotion at Cox Communications and will be traveling quite a bit. Of course we are thrilled to congratulate Ileana on this success and are sorry we will miss her leadership.
However, we are very fortunate that long time member Rolf Haas has agreed to step in and be “Mr. President” for this fiscal year! We are very glad for this good news. Rolf will be leading the Board that works to move us to Liberty Station shortly after this fiscal year ends.
4. Rudest Visitor Ever Award issued (in thought only).
We would be lying if we gave you the impression that all is rosy in Diplomacy Land all the time. But one of our recent visitors really took the cake. Never have I heard tales like I heard about this man. Arrogant. Rude. Kept one volunteer driver waiting for over 30 minutes. Wanted another volunteer driver to rearrange her commitments to take him to the train for an unscheduled visit to LA. Imagine being the English Language Officer who had to be with this person for three weeks! He was like this all around the country, not just here. We wish him well, and hope he sees the interpersonal-relations light before he checks out.
5. UCSD Emergency Room Conversations with a Pregnant Visitor from Ecuador
by Courtney Giordano, IVLP Program Manager
No matter how much thought and preparation goes in to a program prior to our visitors arrival, there is always the chance for surprises once they arrive in our fair city.
Despite our best efforts to ensure a smooth program, we received a call that one of our visitors from Ecuador needed medical attention. Our poor visitor was ill and wanted to take extra precautions given the fact that she is an expecting mother! I had finished all my work for another delegation arriving later in the week, so I volunteered to take her to the emergency room. (Enrique and Cath put in enough ER time with Malahat to last a lifetime!).
The visitor, Maria, is a vivacious young mother and documentary film maker who had nothing but great things to say about our country, the program, and her colleagues she was traveling with. We had nearly four hours in the ER waiting room to become fast friends and during that time had wonderful conversations.
Maria told me her general impressions of our country, such as the inherent generosity of Americans, most notable in our system of tipping. She spoke of how both she and her fellow colleagues were surprised to see the difference between Americans and the “American administration.” We also discussed immigration and migration from an international perspective, with her commenting on the fact that nearly 20% of native Ecuadorians in 2000 have emigrated as a result of their administration. This caused me to pause and reflect that despite any sentiments one might have about our political system, the fact remains that as Americans our quality of life remains relatively intact through changing administrations.
She also spoke about our amazing freedom of speech, noting that while in Washington, DC the group witnessed cops preventing individuals from hassling protesters in front of the White House. They simply could not believe that the police would protect a protestor’s right to speak negatively about the government!
While Maria had a number of very positive impressions of the United States, she did mention one instance in Upstate New York that was less pleasant. Following a hospitality picnic that the group thoroughly enjoyed, they passed by a large wedding in a public place. The visitors were intrigued at the sight of such a large American wedding, and a few members of the delegation stopped to take pictures.
With his gregarious personality, one visitor who was taking pictures almost became part of the wedding party! However, when one of the guests at the wedding asked where he was from, and the visitor answered “Saudi Arabia”, the situation quickly changed and became tense when another bystander said, “Aren’t you the people who want to kill us?”
Unfortunately, this put an end to the type of organic, intercultural exchange that we so believe in. Despite this however, the visitor took it with a grain of salt and continued to enjoy his time here.
Luckily, at the end of the day, our pregnant Maria was healthy, merely dehydrated. And, the mother of two little girls found out that she will be welcoming a little boy to her family soon!
6. Around the Office
►Retirement Plans: Michele from Teague Insurance met with each of us individually this past week and set up a means to grow a retirement.
►Website Update: It is the nature of websites to need freshening up periodically. Ours is due. We are working with our amazing intern Lindsey Alarcon and webmaster Constance Wuest on this project. The goal is to:
▪ change the look ▪ make it easier for Mel to update ▪ make it easier to register and pay for events on line and ▪ set up a web store. Web stores are the latest in non-profits. It’s called social entrepreneurism. Setting up a web store will enable us to create another revenue stream.
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