DAYTONA BEACH -- Virtually anywhere is a long way from Pucallpa, a Peruvian city in the Amazon jungle where even Lima, the capital, is a 12-hour drive through the Andes Mountains.
But now that Gary Vela is a student at Daytona Beach Community College, he will be part of an exhibition this week that's designed to show just how far he and other international students have come.
The free International Photography Expo 2006 is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday in Building 110, Room 102 of DBCC's Daytona Beach campus, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd. The exhibit is part of International Education Week.
The community college population includes 95 students from 43 countries. That diversity will be on display, as students will be available to show photos of their homelands and the stories behind them.
Vela, who has not been home for four years, plans to show photos featuring his grandmother in her kitchen and his arthritis-stricken aunt lying in bed reading her Bible.
"She is one of my inspirations to keep me going when I feel I cannot do it anymore with all of the stress of school," Vela said. "It gets hard being away from my relatives sometimes, but I try to look at it in a positive way."
The 24-year-old earned a two-year computer programming degree from DBCC and is now pursuing a bachelor's degree in business management. He plans to take that expertise back to Peru, where the llama is commonly seen in the Peru mountains.
In Southeast Asia, another beast of burden is inexorably linked with the landscape.
"The water buffalo in the Philippines is sacred," said Michele Anayas, a 34-year-old cardiopulmonary technician who plans to show a photo of a buffalo.
She came to DBCC from Panay Island, one of 7,000 islands that comprise the Philippines. While Manila, the capital, is an international business center, many of the other regions remain agricultural, she said.
Anayas, who earned a degree in respiratory care in May, has as an alumna maintained her connection to the Office of International Student Advising. That's where she met Darleen Smith, 26.
Smith is in her first semester at DBCC and having difficulty getting used to -- imagine this -- how cold it is in Florida. She is from Castries, St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, a land where the parrot and Diamond Waterfall are celebrated.
She grew up in a town situated between two capped volcanoes, a colorful scene she intends to put on display. Where St. Lucia rises high above the sea, about 70 percent of the Netherlands is below sea level.
Kim Van Bree, a native of Voorburg, arrived from Holland with her boyfriend about a year ago. The interior design student aims to show the symbols of her country, tulips, windmills and wooden shoes, which have their genesis rooted in the low-lying, swampy ground where Hollanders used their resources for survival.
"We had good wood," Van Bree said, noting that today 3 million wooden shoes are made each year -- virtually all for tourism.
No comments:
Post a Comment