30 YEARS AGO…TODAY.
By
Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo
June
29th, 2017
I remember June 29th, 1987 as vivid as it was yesterday.
I was officially ending my AFS Exchange Student Program in USA. Here I was
hugging my wonderful host family ( the
Gebbia’s from Middletown , Maryland) and saying goodbye. I remember that I
was sad because I was leaving them, not knowing if I will see them again. I
threw myself on a windowed seat inside a greyhound bus in a parking lot in
Baltimore with 46 more exchange students like myself. I had mixed feelings
inside my heart: I was leaving my host
family’s house in the US to go back to my home in Honduras. Little I knew
what was about to begin that day.
From that Monday June 29th to the Wednesday July
8th, I experienced something simply incredible.
I became a part of the AFS BUS TRIP #58 ROSTER. Sometimes I think that AFS had
scientifically proven the Bus Trip Effect in an Exchange Student before going
back home (which I can personally attest
had in myself at least). A brief portrait of the situation at hand can be
described like this: 46 Foreign Exchange Students ( 17-19 years old boys and girls) from Asia, Europe, Latin America and Australia
were leaving the USA after their senior year in High School heading back to their home countries.
Teenagers that were on a special vacation tour on the road ( 1.5 weeks in a chartered bus) from Baltimore to New York City,
going through Pennsylvania and Connecticut in the East Coast of the United
States. No homeworks, no money worries nor chores to be done, no teachers and
no parents ( even though we had an outstanding adult chaperone). It seemed like a good summer vacation. But the BUS TRIP 58 ( THE
BEST EVER!!) was not good, it was GREAT. In little more than a week we became
so strongly bound to each other that it is almost unbelievable. We developed a
tremendous sense of fraternity, an empathetic feeling of wellbeing to the point
that the something happened that cannot be explain easily: We felt really sad
to say goodbye after the BUS TRIP!!!! How can you possibly develop a tremendous
friendship in only 2 weeks???
For me the answer to that question comes to two things:
Intensity
and authenticity. The friendship we developed in that BUS TRIPp has proven to be real for 30 years today. It
is alive and kicking. It is obvious that we are not the typical best friends that have been present at the wedding,
the birth of the kids or college graduations, but the time we spent
together was so intense, pure and simple that made an impact in all of us, like
being great buddies in another dimension in time and place. On the other hand
it comes the authenticity part: We had shared and we still do ( I believe) a deep sense of caring less
about what we are, we have, we achieved…and more about having real , real, real
FUN. Pure and simple fun. Sincere and genuine good time!!! I
think fun is the language of love in a real friendship. We didn’t have facebook, cellphones or emails to communicate
back then , but we were global dudes.
We started our own globalization in
1987!! We felt like we were roommates living
in different continents. We had a hell of a time in that BUS TRIP!!!! . My
whole experience as a Foreign Exchange Student was splendid, but the BUS TRIP
was the best way to ended, no doubt.
Happy 30th
Anniversary to : Keiko, Malin, Olivier,
Naoko, Lucio, Sybille, Karen, Juan Carlos, Ursi, Artur, Nadine, Filaretos,
Tessa, Xiaohong, Monica, Rachel, Carlo, Bianca, Anastacio, Kulya, Eduardo,
Sabrina, Monica, Astrid, Monica, Jackie, Kristina, Alvaro, Ulrike, Eriko,
Brigitte, Raman, Araceli, Sylvain, Ulrika, Enrico, Werner, Gabriela, Teresa,
Isoline, Tiia, Christine, Jorge, Lisa, Sara, Maurice.
The only sad line in this special celebration is
that our beloved Chaperone (an incredibly
cool guy named Maurice Feldman passed
away this year.). Even though there are some roster members with which I have lost contact since our last
goodbye in CWPost University, New York City in 1987…I can assure you…that the ones with whom I interact nowadays…are simply awesome!!! I love you guys!!! Let’s get ready to see
each other again!!! For a Special Edition of our BUS TRP..maybe??
JMZF