Exchange students go to Yonezawa, Japan

MOSES LAKE — The exchange of words began again.

The Moses Lake-Yonezawa Sister City student exchange, which has been on hold since 2020, will resume this month when three Moses Lake students visit Yonezawa, Japan. Ambassadors Keziah Roman Panlaqui, Emmanuel Zepeda Lopez, and Ethan Ramsey will leave on July 25, accompanied by their mentor Amador Castro, to spend 10 days in the Moses Lake sister city. While in Japan, they will stay with three Yonezawa students and their families, and on August 7, the Japanese students will return from their visit and spend 10 days in Moses Lake.

Moses Lake and Yonezawa have been twin cities since 1981, according to the program’s website, and the student exchange was organized shortly thereafter. The program was initially suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Terry Moore, treasurer of the Moses Lake-Yonezawa Exchange Program, but the publisher of the Yonezawa Shimbun newspaper, which handled the exchange from the Japanese side, died shortly afterward, and the exchange was put on hold indefinitely. That was until April, when a group called the Yonezawa International Relations Association reached out through a translator who had helped the newspaper in the past.

“They reached out to us and said, ‘Yeah, we want to take it over. We want to keep it alive,'” Moore said. “And we thought we’d work out all the details for next year. And they said, ‘Yeah, we’re planning on replacing it this summer.'”

Exchange program officials immediately began looking for ambassadors to send and selected three in May, along with Jessica Sheer, an alternate. Once in Yonezawa, they will stay with a host family and visit the city hall, the local fire department and other points of interest, as well as immerse themselves in local culture by doing things like making noodles. They may even visit the Tengendai Resort and a nearby hot spring, Moore said.

Students in Yonezawa attend school year-round, Moore said, so the Moses Lake visitors will be able to join them not only in classes but also in clubs and other activities.

Then in August, students whose families hosted Moses Lake students will return for a 10-day visit to Moses Lake. In the past, they have visited the Grand Coulee Dam and some of the manufacturing plants that power Moses Lake, as well as attractions such as the Cowboy Breakfast and the Grant County Fair.

“We try to schedule time so they can go to fairs, car shows, rodeos, because they don’t usually get to see those things,” Moore said.

But that’s not all. The idea is for students to see how ordinary people in America live, so organizers make sure to provide plenty of time for family.

“We encourage (families) to invite grandma and grandpa over for a barbecue,” Moore said. “They love to go boating, pontooning, things like that. That’s always a hit with the kids. They basically get to do little things that are everyday occurrences for us or things we see every day.”

The exchange program is hosting a benefit dinner and auction July 10 to raise money to continue the program. Dinner will be provided by Tacos El Rey, and there will be live and silent auctions. Doors will open at 5:30 a.m. at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, 900 E. Yonezawa Blvd. (Moore said there is also a Moses Lake Boulevard in Yonezawa.)

The relationships that form through exchange can last a lifetime, Moore said. Her daughter was an ambassador in 2002, and Moore still keeps in touch with a Japanese student who lived with them that summer.

“We had…over 200 students who went to Japan,” she said. “A lot of families were touched. It was a life-changing experience.”

Joel Martin can be reached at [email protected].

Twin City Fundraising Dinner and Auction in Yonezawa

5:30 p.m. July 10 at CBTECH, 900 E. Yonezawa Blvd.

$35 for single tickets or $250 for a table of eight

To purchase tickets or make a donation, contact Terry Moore at 509-989-2287 or [email protected]