April 15, 2017 at 3:51 a.m.
Two more at the table
Foreign exchange student is back visiting host parents
Two more at the table
There will be two extra places at the dinner table Sunday at the Bowen farm.
Hiroshi Oguro has returned to his Jay County home.
An American Field Service exchange student at Jay County High School in the 1978-79 school year, Hiroshi and his wife, Gladys, have made the trip from Paraguay to the United States to renew their connection to the Roger and Luetta Bowen family.
“I have 32 to feed on Sunday,” Luetta said Friday.
When Hiroshi arrived back in the summer of 1978, he was struggling to get his grip on the English language. Luetta, a first grade teacher at General Shanks Elementary School at the time, tutored him every evening.
It made a world of difference.
“It was challenging,” said Hiroshi. “Everything. Language, food, relationships. Everything was challenging, but the most challenging thing was the language.”
In the end, however, mastering the language paid big dividends.
“With my English background, I found a good job,” Hiroshi said.
He’s worked in banking most of his adult life.
One of the challenges Hiroshi faced back in ’78 was explaining the Japanese-Paraguayan connection.
“They would look at me and they were wondering,” he recalled.
A wave of emigration from Japan to Paraguay in the 1950s and 1960s included Hiroshi’s parents. Today, he said, there are about 5,000 ethnically Japanese families in Paraguay.
“But I am a Paraguayan citizen,” he added.
Hiroshi has kept in touch with the Bowens over the years, first via the postal service, then via email and now through WhatsApp on cell phones.
“Now it’s all electronic,” said Luetta.
Hiroshi and Todd Bowen, who was his A.F.S. brother that school year 39 years ago, are in regular contact. Todd is the foreign language coordinator for the Skokie, Illinois, school system. He and all but one of his siblings will be on hand for Easter dinner.
This visit isn’t actually Hiroshi’s first return to the Bowens’ farm in Greene Township. He was on hand — 17 years ago — for the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration.
Gladys and Hiroshi have two daughters, Maria and Lucia, and a son, Koichi. The couple resides in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.
Hiroshi Oguro has returned to his Jay County home.
An American Field Service exchange student at Jay County High School in the 1978-79 school year, Hiroshi and his wife, Gladys, have made the trip from Paraguay to the United States to renew their connection to the Roger and Luetta Bowen family.
“I have 32 to feed on Sunday,” Luetta said Friday.
When Hiroshi arrived back in the summer of 1978, he was struggling to get his grip on the English language. Luetta, a first grade teacher at General Shanks Elementary School at the time, tutored him every evening.
It made a world of difference.
“It was challenging,” said Hiroshi. “Everything. Language, food, relationships. Everything was challenging, but the most challenging thing was the language.”
In the end, however, mastering the language paid big dividends.
“With my English background, I found a good job,” Hiroshi said.
He’s worked in banking most of his adult life.
One of the challenges Hiroshi faced back in ’78 was explaining the Japanese-Paraguayan connection.
“They would look at me and they were wondering,” he recalled.
A wave of emigration from Japan to Paraguay in the 1950s and 1960s included Hiroshi’s parents. Today, he said, there are about 5,000 ethnically Japanese families in Paraguay.
“But I am a Paraguayan citizen,” he added.
Hiroshi has kept in touch with the Bowens over the years, first via the postal service, then via email and now through WhatsApp on cell phones.
“Now it’s all electronic,” said Luetta.
Hiroshi and Todd Bowen, who was his A.F.S. brother that school year 39 years ago, are in regular contact. Todd is the foreign language coordinator for the Skokie, Illinois, school system. He and all but one of his siblings will be on hand for Easter dinner.
This visit isn’t actually Hiroshi’s first return to the Bowens’ farm in Greene Township. He was on hand — 17 years ago — for the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration.
Gladys and Hiroshi have two daughters, Maria and Lucia, and a son, Koichi. The couple resides in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.
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