CHS exchange student comes from Kazakhstan

From a town of 300,000 in Central Asia to Colfax was quite a contrast for exchange student Anel Satayeva.

Anel, 17, is from Kazakhstan which is near Russia and China. She arrived at the end of August to live with her host family, Chris and Brandi Davis of Colfax.

“We thought it would be fun for the experience and learning another culture,” Brandi Davis said. “And we have the room,” she added with a laugh.

The Davis family hosted a number of Japanese students for overnight stays in the past, but this is the first long-term student exchange for them. Anel will leave at the end of May.

After trying three times to qualify for the exchange program to the U.S., Anel said she finally passed the qualifications.

Even though the trip meant leaving her family, including her twin sister, Anel said she was excited to come to the U.S.

“I thought about being in America more than leaving my home and parents,” she said.

Anel said she has never been away from her family for a long period of time.

With the help of Skype, a video conferencing tool used over the internet, Anel talks to her mother almost every evening. Even so, she still misses her parents and her friends.

Anel’s twin sister is three minutes older than Anel and they are very close.

“We spend a lot of time together,” Anel said. “I miss her the most.”

The terrain surrounding the town where she lives is mostly flat, Anel said, so the hills of the Palouse took some getting used to.

One of the first things the Davis family did with Anel was take her to McDonald’s where she feasted on a Big Mac.

Anel is a senior at Colfax High School, and among her classes, she is taking an online business class that she said was the most difficult for her.

She said the hardest thing was getting used to the language here.

“But now it’s much better,” she said. “Everyone is good at repeating.”

She also said compared to her school, CHS is easy.

“We can discuss topics in class with teachers and other students,” she said. “The teachers are nice.”

She goes to school six days a week in her country. She will take tests at the end of the school year and then apply for college. She hopes to major in some type of management.

Anel also said she likes football because they don’t have football in her country.

“We call it soccer,” she said.

She said she would like to show her parents, who tend to be very strict, that she can be responsible.

“I notice that students in America are more independent,” she said.

Living with the Davis family has been educational for everyone. For example, Davis said that as she’s cooking, Anel may say the name of the dish in Russian or explain how her own mother might cook.

Religious differences also made the family learn about different cultures.

“Anel is Muslin and we are Mormon,” Davis said. “She can’t eat pork and we can. She drinks coffee and we don’t.”

Anel said her family doesn’t wear the traditional Muslim clothing and covering over women’s faces.

“We don’t feel like we’re part of the small group who are violent,” she said. “We are separate from them.”

Although they noticed differences, they also noticed how the two families are the same.

“Our families are similar in some ways too,” she said.

Anel’s father and Chris Davis both work away from home and both mothers stay at home. Anel also said when Davis talks, sometimes it’s like hearing her own father.

The Davis family had fun showing Anel how Halloween is celebrated here and also did traditional Christmas activities like baking cookies and decorating a tree.

“It was special for us because we could make it a big deal for Anel,” Brandi Davis said.

In April, Anel, along with a group of other exchange students, will travel to Washington, D.C., and New York City. Anel said she wants to see the Capitol building and other monuments and then she wants to “just have fun in New York. I want to shop and have my picture taken by the Statue of Liberty and in Times Square.”

Anel said she wants to keep in touch with the Davis family.

“I’m starting to miss my family and school already,” she said. “It’s just four more months.”