Emily and Amy Lien, center, students at Mercy High School in Omaha, show children where the United States is on a map during their month-long stay in Argentina as part of the Mercy Exchange Program. While there they ministered to the poor.
Mercy students share charism with foreign peers Trip to Argentina is life-altering experience for Omaha teens By LISA MAXSON Catholic Voice
Emily and Amy Lien from Omaha's Mercy High School are seeing life a bit differently after having spent four weeks in Argentina representing their school as ambassadors.
In June, the Lien sisters, along with students Michaela Burns, Elizabeth Kinzer, Paulina Vazquez and Shelley Wagoner, spent May 29-June 30 living with students who go to St. Ethnea High School, a school also founded by the Sisters of Mercy. They also volunteered in the barrios, a poor area near Buenos Aires.
"It was fun to bond with people who are from another country. I never would have had the opportunity to meet someone like that," 16-year-old Amy said. "And after being in the barrios, I feel like I'm a new person because I know how easy I have it compared to other people."
Mercy and St. Ethnea teamed up to offer students a multicultural experience through the Mercy Exchange Program. Professor Silvia Giacone de Bas, coordinator of St. Ethnea's International Relations Program, visited Omaha in August 2006 to explore the idea of a Mercy Ambassador Student Exchange.
Earlier this spring, five students from St. Ethnea High School near Buenos Aires came to Omaha and spent time with students at Mercy. They attended English, Spanish and theology classes at Mercy, as well as courses of interest to them. They tried on prom dresses at the mall, attended sweet 16 birthday slumber parties and a Creighton Prep dance, cheered at district basketball competitions and even attended the Broadway production of Disney's Lion King at the Orpheum Theatre.
"We did this exchange program to expand our students' Mercy experience and help them better understand the global outreach of Mercy by visiting a Mercy sister school," said Carolyn Jaworski, principal. "Since this is open to Spanish students, a second benefit is that they get to increase their Spanish fluency."
The Liens stayed with the family of Maria Bargo, an 18-year-old student with whom they had been corresponding through e-mail. Maria stayed at the Lien home during her visit to Omaha.
Maria spoke English and the Omaha girls spoke some Spanish, but sometimes they encountered language barriers.
"If we didn't understand something - because our Spanish wasn't very good - we'd play charades to figure out what we were saying to each other," Emily, 18, said. "It was really fun. I liked comparing the different cultures. We found out that a lot of stuff was pretty much the same or that there were just tiny differences."
For three days the Omaha girls volunteered some of their time in the barrios. They played with children, helped them with homework and taught them songs in English.
But despite the children's smiles and laughs, the poverty was undeniable.
"I had never seen that level of poverty before in the United States. It was just so dirty," Emily said. "The streets were made of dirt and the little kids were running around in bare feet and they were really dirty. Some of them didn't even go to school."
Amy said the experience made her appreciate the blessings in her life.
"I didn't realize how much I took it for granted what I have until I saw the poverty level there," she said.
The Omaha students celebrated Flag Day at a nursing home with students from schools founded by the Sisters of Mercy in Arkansas and Kentucky. Together they sang the United States' National Anthem.
Meeting girls from other Mercy schools was exciting the Liens said because an instant bond formed.
The girls compared Mercy logos and shared their school songs with each other, noticing the similarities and respecting the differences.
"It was really fun comparing cultures," Emily said. "We found out that a lot of the stuff is pretty much the same."
