4-H gives Rachel Drake experience of a lifetime

WORLAND – Rachel Drake was able to have the experience of a lifetime going to Finland for two weeks in July, thanks to the University of Wyoming 4-H exchange program, an exchange program that a lot of people don’t know about but has been offered for many years.

“I would recommend other people to do the exchange program. It was incredible, we got so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences, that some people just dream of doing,” Drake said.

Drake learned in March that she was selected to participate in the program after filling out an application and having a face-to-face interview during which she was asked questions about culture shock and how she would respond to questions about our country’s politics and culture.

Traveling to Finland was an experience for Drake as she had only ridden on a plane once when she was really young. “Being on a plane for that long, it was like a nine-hour plane ride from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, it was really uncomfortable but on the flight back I was more comfortable with it because I knew what it was going to be like,” Drake said.

After landing in Amsterdam, Drake and 14 other 4-H members from Wyoming and three from Utah, ranging in ages from 15 – 18, traveled to Helsinki. “We went to Helsinki first and we stayed in a hostel there by the harbor and by the market there for four days. We just explored; we went to different museums, we to an island called Suomenlinna and we went to one of the zoos there and there was a big market there that was really interesting to go to. We mostly just walked around, walked around downtown and kind of explored basically,” Drake said.

After Helsinki the group traveled to Varma where Drake and the other 4-H members met their host families and had a lot of fun touring different places and playing games with the locals. “Then we got on the train to Varma, which is a really small town, it’s about the size of Worland about 4,000 – 5,000 people and we stayed in a camp, which I don’t know how to say that name, and we stayed there for a really long time. It was kind of a museum, kind of tourist attraction camp. We stayed there with our host families, the 4-Hers from the host families, just to get to know them. The first couple of days were just to get to know each other and then we went and toured Ponsse, which is a lumber machinery place. They build machinery to help with forestry. We learned about them and what they do for the community. Then we went to a horse and carriage race, which was really cool,” Drake said. “We played games like bubble football where you get into that big bubble and play football. We got to play with the community there. We did a lot,” she added.

The younger 4-H members went to host families in pairs while the older members went individually and lived as Finlanders do. As a way to thank her host family, Drake and the other girl with her made pancakes one morning for the family. “We made our host family pancakes because they had never really had American food before. Their food is pretty different, it has some similarities but it’s pretty different. So we made them pancakes and got to see what they thought about it. They thought they were really sweet because they don’t use a lot of sugar in their food,” Drake said.

Drake commented on the differences between 4-H in Wyoming and 4-H in Finland. She explained that in Finland, the 4-H members don’t work with livestock or have any projects. “We learned about their 4-H program. Their 4-H program is pretty different from ours. They don’t have a county fair or projects. They don’t do like woodworking or stuff like that. It’s just a program, almost like an afterschool club, especially for the younger kids. For the older ones it’s like a junior leader program. They don’t work with livestock, they don’t have any projects like that whatsoever,” Drake said. “We went to different events like the horse race, they always have a 4-H tent there, and you see 4-H around the communities at different events, which I think is cool. They are just a place for kids to go and have a building experience. It’s kind of like the same morals as our 4-H, it’s supposed to be up-building and a youth development program,” She added.

The difference in language was not a big problem for Drake and the other 4-H members. “Like in my host family, the parents really didn’t speak much English but the younger kids do because they learn it in school. So usually, if you go to a store, especially in touristy areas, people can speak enough English to get by, to communicate with you. But there are some places where they don’t know any English. It was nice for us because our host sisters, they would help translate if we needed it,” Drake said.

As a 4-H member, Drake competed this week at the Washakie County Fair.