‘Sister City’ exchange impacts generations in the Valley, Japan

PALMER — It’s not a stretch to say participating in the 33-year-old Palmer-Saroma Sister City has been life-changing for some Valley folks.

Carla Swick was a junior at Palmer High School in 1987 the morning she heard an announcement that set her on a new path to international travel.

“It really opened up the world for me,” she said. “Before that, Palmer was the center of my universe. Now I’ve traveled to more than 30 countries because of the experience Sister City gave me when I was 17 years old.”

Swick is part of the Palmer-Saroma Kai group that welcomed a delegation including six Saroma High School students to the Valley Sept. 10 to Sept. 18.

They spent part of the day Sept. 17 with Sherrod Elementary students eating, playing, learning and teaching them a bit about the Japanese culture.

During the fifth-grade assembly at Sherrod, Yuko Hirouchi played a 13-string instrument called a koto for students. The six students from Saroma High School and their schoolmate Chihiro Hatayama, who is participating in a yearlong exchange at Palmer High, sang a traditional song, gave presentations about themselves in English, performed a traditional dance and each student made a presentation about something from their own life — favorite music, foods, sports teams and even a presentation about types of vending machines in Japan.

Beyond the way the exchange opened up the world for her, Swick said there are lots of other benefits to the program, such as learning about other cultures or learning about your own culture by hosting an international guest.

“The real beauty is the friendships that are created one person at a time,” she said.

It’s the same for retired Mat-Su Borough School District Administrator Lebron McPhail, who spent 17 days in Saroma during an exchange in 2005. He was at Sherrod Elementary Sept. 17 to see old friends like Hirouchi and hear news about his host family and other friends in Japan. His friend said it’s her eighth visit to Alaska.

“It’s a true cultural exchange,” McPhail said.

Participating as an adult was similar to what students shared with Sherrod students that Tuesday, he said. People who participate are expected to share what they’ve learned, he said, describing how he learned enough Japanese to introduce himself and tell his hosts a few basic things about himself.

“I enjoyed myself there,” he said. “They really put out the welcome wagon. They did a great job.”

Since Swick was hired as the first assistant English teacher to teach in Saroma, several other local folks also have taught there — including Shawn Williams and George Carte. It was during her years teaching English in Japan that she really learned the language, Swick said.

Now she teaches English and Japanese at Wasilla High School.

Swick said for Saroma students, the exchange is transformative, too.

Take Hatayama, for example. She participated in a two-week Sister City exchange as a middle school student, which inspired her to spend a full year as an exchange student at Palmer High.

“We don’t know what we love until we are exposed to it,” Swick said.

Standing at the back of the Sherrod gym on Tuesday was a slice of Sister City history in the form of Tanya Lang, who also teaches at Sherrod.

It was her grandfather, HAM radio operator Ed Holmes, whose contact with the English teacher in Saroma more than 30 years ago sparked this international bond.

The two men went to the mayors in their cities and pitched the idea of a more formal relationship based on the many similarities the two men identified between the two regions.

“Japan becomes on a person’s radar when they know someone in that country,” Swick said.

Since Ed Holmes and Mutsuhiro Ishiguro became friends over the airwaves, hundreds of people have participated in exchanges with Saroma, she said.

Holmes died in 1987, but Ishiguro is still a friend of Lang’s. Times have changed and these days when they talk it’s by Skype or on Facebook. She sent him a message last week to say another delegation was in Palmer.

“He told me my grandfather would be so happy to see the relationship continue,” Lang said.

For more information on the Palmer-Saroma Kai, contact 775-0807.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.

An exhibit called “Gift of Friendship” is on display at the Palmer Museum and Visitors Center. On display are gifts given to Palmer as part of its Sister City relationship with Saroma, Japan.