One of the purposes of youth exchange is to bond people around the world so that when you hear of a war or a disaster in a place, you immediately are concerned about ‘your family’ who lives abroad. Your foreign exchange student children may live far from you, but the heart strings stretch.
Our first exchange student daughter came to live with us when our kids were 6 and 4. Sayaka from Tokyo lived with us for a year. She wanted to be a chef and loved to bake. What a treat! She would create amazing towers of dishes which we still call “Sayaka Stacks” at our house. It doesn’t matter that it’s been almost 20 years. We’re still in touch with her and we were thrilled when she came to visit several years ago.
When the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor issues began in Japan this week, we immediately waited to hear from our daughter in Japan. Waited. Waited.
Today we heard. She and her new husband are fine, as is her family, but like many people crowding the airports, they want to evacuate. We would want to as well!
So it looks like we’ll have our daughter home with us for awhile. How great is that? Our world is wound round and around with the bonds of youth exchange.
Shawn L. Bird 
I’m glad she is safe.
So am I. She and her Brazilian husband lined up for 5 hours for an exit visa. They were interviewed briefly by a CNN reporter. They’re at 1:03.
http://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=cnn++Japan+australian&n=21&ei=utf-8&fr=yfp-t-715&fr2=tab-web&tnr=20&js=1