By David Fleet
Editor
Goodrich —Rahmatulloh Toirov recently checked off a rather chilly bucket-list item with a dip in the Atlantic Ocean. With temperatures hovering around 50 degrees, Toirov a native and resident of the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, took the plunge off the coast of South Carolina.
“I’ve never seen the ocean before,” said Toirov, 17, or Rahma to friends and family. “It was amazing, it was beautiful. We are a landlocked country there’s no ocean nearby.”
Rahma has been in the United States since last August through the Future Leaders Exchange program, a competitive, merit-based scholarship program funded by the U.S. Department of State. He is currently a senior at Goodrich High School and is hosted by the Schall family.
“I’ll graduate from both high schools this spring,” he said.
Rahma lives in the City of Shirin with his parents, sister Sharofat, 15 and a new baby brother Muhammadrizo born last November.
“I have not met my brother yet since I was here in the United States,” he said. “I call home each week, so I’m not too homesick.”
“I came here to share my culture with Americans,” he said. “There are many huge buildings here, there are so many lakes in Michigan and every state is so different. It’s very green here. It’s very different from my home.”
Rahma learned English, Russian and German, in addition to speaking his native language of Uzbek. He is also Muslim and experienced Christmas for the first time.
“This is my first experience riding a school bus too,” he said. “I like it.”
He has played on the GHS Varsity soccer team and is now on the varsity bowling team.
Rahma plans to return to the United States for college and to study computer programming after high school. So far he’s been accepted to a few schools along with at least one scholarship.
“I love American fast food,” he said. “Especially burgers, I also tried Taco Bell for the first time.”
Rahma said it’s been difficult to adjust to the U.S. systems of measurements compared to the metric.
“I have to use Google to convert from the metric system,” he said.
Terri Schall and husband has hosted 13 students since 2010 and has served as an Area Coordinator in Michigan for ASSE and recently World Heritage International Student Exchange program.
“The last 13 years I have learned so much about the world on how big it is but also can be quite small,” said Schall. “Being around these foreign exchange students has been extremely rewarding.”
Contact Schall terri@world-heritage.org for information on hosting Rahma for a second semester or becoming a host family.