Send your teen to Turkey? You bet (Column)

For the past eight years, Terry Mohr of Milwaukie has shepherded exchange students to and from Turkey for Rotary International District 5100.

Turkey is the only majority-Muslim country in the exchange pool for the District, which represents the service club in parts of Oregon and Washington.

It's an important exchange, Terry said, because of "the incredible misconceptions we have about the average Muslim."

But increasingly, it's a potentially dangerous one, too.

Last month, Islamic State terrorists killed more than 40 people at Istanbul's airport. And just last week, at least 270 people were killed when a faction of the military attempted a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

For the first time under Terry's watch, a student selected for a Turkish exchange this year won't be going because her parents objected.

"They couldn't get past it," Terry said. "They were very concerned about the stereotype."

The district's lone student headed to Turkey this fall will be 17-year-old Amy Renzema. She's being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Forest Grove, of which I am a member.

As Amy's destination country was announced at a recent club awards dinner, an audible gasp echoed across the banquet hall.

Club members were concerned.

"When I say I'm going to Turkey, people think I'm going to be living on the Syrian border in a mud hut and I'm going to wear the long black robes and a hijab on my head," Amy said. "And that's totally not it. They don't even really have mud huts on the Syrian border."

Amy will live with a rotation of families in Izmir, one of the most liberal Turkish cities on the western Mediterranean coast. In the city of about 3 million residents, you're more like to see women sunbathing in bikinis than walking in burqas. Many residents are Muslim in the same sense as Christians who go to church once a year on Christmas.

It's about as far as you can get from the Syrian border, but there are still concerns.

Turkey faces threats from two different militant groups: Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State. In the past year, there have been at least 14 major terrorist attacks in the country.

Added to the mix, the military coup arose from concerns that the current president is a threat to free speech and secularism. The Turkish military has staged four successful coups since 1960, each time in the name of protecting democracy and limiting Islamic influence on government.

The average American – and Amy's mom Kristin put herself in this camp until recently – knows little about Turkey's democratic history. Talking with Terry and Amy has put many of her fears at ease. She's still worried, as any parent of an exchange student would be, but she's at peace.

"We could 'what if' ourselves right out the program, and instead of living with fear we'd live with regret, which I think is far worse," Kristin said.

It's a volatile time for all of Europe. Brussels and Paris have been struck by deadly terrorist attacks. Most recently, a man killed 80 people in Nice, France after ramming a box truck through crowds gathered for a fireworks display.

Exchange students are still headed to these countries.

The funny thing is, Terry says parents who send children to the United States are often the most fearful.

During a Rotary event earlier this year, Amy met an exchange student from Slovakia. The girl wasn't worried about living in the United States, "but her parents were absolutely terrified because they thought she would be shot in school," Amy said.

Amy wonders what perceptions her Turkish schoolmates will have of her. Will they expect her to be dumb? To be overweight?

Amy Renzema, 17, and her mother Kristin Renzema, are preparing for Amy's upcoming student exchange year in Izmir, Turkey. (Samantha Swindler/Staff) Samantha Swindler | The Oregonian/OregonLive

"I'm interested in going over there during our election process and seeing how they think of me," Amy said. "It's fairly close to home for them, Donald Trump and the whole Muslim thing... The way media is in Turkey, maybe they think all Americans are Donald Trump supporters."

As I've watched our own political theater play out this week, I too have wondered what the Turkish exchange parents think of us.

Are they worried about sending their Muslim child to America this fall? Do they fear their child will encounter an aggressive American police officer?

Are they researching beyond the headlines?

Terry has spent years reassuring nervous parents, and he takes a pragmatic approach to his work. He's overseen American students in the Philippines and Thailand as those countries faced military coups (one successful, one not). Each time the students were fine.

He's also placed students in India and Taiwan. He says he's drawn to working with the "tough" countries where the cultural differences are great.

"It opens their eyes," Terry said. "Most of (the students) come back and all they want to do is travel. It opens their eyes to the world."

If there ever were a time for exchange students it's now, in the face of growing xenophobia and isolationism. It's time to leave our comfort zones and question our assumptions about other cultures.

That's exactly why Amy doesn't want an "easy" country. She wants to be challenged.

And if Turkey does become unstable, to the point where the Rotarians in Izmir have concerns, Amy has a backup country.

Russia.

--- Samantha Swindler

@editorswindler / 503-294-4031

sswindler@oregonian.com

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