Photo and Article By Elaine Dickerson, Wallowa County Chieftain

A 17-year-old foreign exchange student from Sierra Leone talked to a room full of Wallowa County Soroptimists about his African homeland last week at their monthly meeting, using a PowerPoint presentation complete with maps, graphs and photographs.

Allieu, who hopes to become a doctor and a human rights advocate, was one of eight students selected from among 1,000 scholarship applicants in his country. He was chosen to spend one academic year in the United States with the AFS exchange program on a “YES” (Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study) scholarship through the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational Affairs.

“I like it very much. I like the mountains, and the people are very nice,” Allieu said of Wallowa County. Coming from a community with no electricity and attending an all-boys’ government school, he said he is enjoying school in the United States. Born as a refugee during a long civil war in his home country, Sierra Leone is now at peace, he said.

Allieu is among a record crop of foreign exchange students in Wallowa County this year, nine through the AFS program and one through Wallowa County Rotary.

Allieu – like his fellow exchange students in the county – is preparing to take part in the annual International Culture Night dinner hosted by AFS and Rotary later this month. The international dinner is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, at the Enterprise School multipurpose room. In addition to dishes from around the world prepared by Rotary and AFS members and host families, highlights will include fairy tale skits starring the exchange students and an auction of services by the students, with such offerings as Spanish lessons, a music concert and a Thai dinner. The suggested donation to attend the dinner is $5.

There are now two Wallowa County students studying abroad as a participants of similar exchange programs.

This article originally appeared in the Wallowa County Chieftain