814-Lanc«sttr Farming, Saturday, Fabmary 10, 1996
Siblings
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
BOSWELL (Somerset Co.)
Lowell Friedline and Lynette Ely
his younger sister by one and a
half years were the second and
third Somerset County 4-Hers to
participate in the International 4-H
Youth Exchange back in 1960 and
1961.
His experiences in Brazil and
hers, in Ecuador, have left lasting
impressions in their hearts that the
passage of time cannot remove.
Their lives were changed through
adapting into the environment of
another culture.
“It gives you self-confidence
and a people-picture you didn’t
have,” said Lowell.
“It made us more broadminded
about the whole world and less
afraid to travel.” added Lynette.
The sincere courtesy, generosi
ty, and hospitality that was show
ered on them still means: “We are
adoptive of them as our second
home. We have ‘family’ there,”
said Lynette.
Lowell, whom the Somerset
County Chamber of Commerce
last fall named Outstanding Per
son of the Year, and Lynette for
three decades have been leaders in
the Jenner Township 4-H Club.
He’s got 36 years, she has 33.
Richard Ely, Lynette’s husband,
with 31 years, runs a close third.
As youths, the brother and sister
were active 4-Hers, following in
the footsteps of their late dad,
Hubert Friedline, a charter mem
ber of Somerset County’s first 4-H
club the Jennas Pig Feeding
Club organized in 1921. The
two also square-danced at the state
Farm Show and worked on
committees.
A champion 4-H potato judge.
Lowell was eyeing Greece, in the
Mediterranean, when he applied
to participate in the cross-cultural
program.
He learned that South Ameri
ca’s only Portuguese-speaking
country was his destination.
Everywhere else on the continent,
Spanish was the primary language
die people used.
Listening at home to 78 rpm
records in Portuguese was sup
posed to help him leant some of it.
“Whether it helped depended on
the student,” he chuckled, doubt
fully. “Language was the toughest
pan. It was a problem the whole
way through.” When he arrived,
the street language he heard
wasn’t at all like that on the “prop
er” recordings. “It was like asking
Lynette and Richard Ely show a wood carving and wall hanging gift that aha
brought home from Ecuador. Lynette and her brother Lowell Frledllne have been Jen
ner Township 4-H leaders for. three and a half decades.
Changed
someone: ‘Do you speak English
... or American?’” he said, adding
that the barrier to communicating,
at the beginning, was almost like
being in solitary confinement.
Orientation had been held at the
National 4-H Center in Washing
ton D.C. where he also got wal
loped with a yellow fever inocula
tion, just when he’d finally recov
ered from shots his own doctor
had administered at home.
The broader program called
“People to People,” developed
under president Dwight D. Eisen
hower, to provide scores of oppor
tunities for citizens of the U.S. to
represent their country to people
in other lands, included the Inter
national 4-H Youth Exchange
program, Lowell said.
‘To leant another way of life by
living it,” interjected Lynette,
adding that a Nepali girl came to
them while her brother was gone,
and when John Fitzgerald Ken
nedy was also elected to the
presidency.
Exiled Germans who harvested
their own coffee plants and were
fortunate to own a truck and trac
tor, were the first of Lowell’s six
host families.
Rum and Coke were plentiful.
Pure water wasn’t Like every
body else, Lowell drank strong
coffee cafezinho that he
made more palatable by sweeten
ing with raw sugar.
Cafezinho was equivalent to the
demitasse here and to offer it to a
guest was considered a social
grace, he said.
An unusually large family of
Italian descent also welcomed
Lowell. His temporary member
ship brought to 24 the number of
children in the family. This cir
cumstance only served to heighten
the proud ego of the father of the
other 23.
And in deference to the male
guest from Pennsylvania. Lowell
was given a room alone in the
bulging home.
“At the time, it was hard to put
that in perspective,” Lowell says.
In general, conditions of pover
ty were found throughout the
country, yet the presence of com
pany was always celebrated.
"The people never had meat,
but because I was new, we had
meat Everytime I went to a new
home they had meat,” Lowell
said. Otherwise, the daily
alternated between rice and beans
or beans and rice, he said.
German industrialists a cou
ple with two sons had manage-
Forever From 4-H Exchange
Lowell and Cama Friedllne, backdropped by numerous plants In the house of his
sister, talk about the exchange that changed his life.
ment skills that impressed Lowell
as he observed them being prac
ticed in their sugar cane growing
business. “The Germans are
super-organized,” he commented.
“About the only contribution I
made to agriculture when I was
there (Brazil) was to suggest the
automatic fountains idea, bor
rowed from the United States,”
said the diverse director of numer
ous ag organizations. His respon
sibilities included working with
Brazilian counterparts to the
cooperative extension staff people
in the U.S.
Later, a son from one host fami
ly, while touring U.S. farms, flew
here to visit He was the best man
in Lowell and wife Gama's wed
ding (after Lynette started the ball
rolling by introducing her brother
and her college friend from the
Indiana University of
Pennsylvania).
Lynette had hoped to go to
Kenya. She went instead to primi
tive Ecuadorial conditions in the
Andes Mountains. “I was on the
equator ... freezing,” she recalls,
vividly.
Communicating in Spanish was
a struggle and reason to keep her
dictionary nearby. Using the cor
rect tense was the worst part She
understood what was happening,
but never knew if it was happeing
yesterday, today, or tomorrow,
she said.
Then, too, her Latin hosts were
eager for the young American
woman to teach their kids English,
as opposed to her desire to gain a
greater fluency in using Spanish.
Eventually, however, everybody
learned something.
The region's indigenous
Indians were a common sight. “I
sledom saw anything but black
Indians in bright colon. Indians
were (treated as) draft animals,”
she said.
Church, however, was a place
of respect and equality.
‘The church (Catholic) was one
place where everybody was
treated equally. The church was a
promoter of 4-H and the priest was
very influential. TI e people did
what he said,” rqxxted Lynette.
Lowell added that 4-H demon
strated parliamentary procedure,
which was new to the people, but
illustrated how democracy works.
So the church’s support of 4-H
was beneficial.
Her hosts, like Lowell’s, treated
Lynette graciously and didn’t
want her to do menial tasks. “They
treated me too well,” she said.
"We fought to do the ironing.
“I ate stuff there I wouldn’t eat
here, like a Junebug,” she said,
“andl was honored to get the pig’s
ear.” The oinker’s skin was also
eaten, she said.
One family locked its refrigera
tor and washed dishes in cold
water.
Lynette also has a godchild
“Maria Lynette” whom she has
never met The infant was bom a
few years following her sojourn
with the baby’s parents.
Each year Lynette sent along a
gift subscription to the “National
Geographic.” With its internation
al flavor, she hoped her Latino
namesake would enjoy the glossy
magazine.
The Friedline kids, who had no
siblings but each other, pulled any
number of pranks in their salad
days, but Lowell recalls, “We
were co-conspirators always,
rather than enemies.”
“There was a switch," Lynette ‘
said, “but I don’t remember!
spankings.” She shared some fun- <
ny escapades. j
“We cannot fail to give credit to |
our (late) mother (Evelyn) for our j
moral training,” she stated, plac-1
ing assorted refreshments on the |
coffee table in the unique house |
she and Richard designed. I
“Mother was a Sunday School |
teacher who traditionally readf
from Luke on Christmas Eve.j
Mother said you never say ‘No’ ins
the church,” said Lynette, who<
claims that, to this day, neither she|
nor Lowell have gotten the hang!
of how to say “No.” I
Being taller than Lowell (he's'
dubbed the “Dick Clark of 4-H,”
in Somerset County) proved*
advantageous for Lynette. a teach-1
er of high school art in the North :
Star School District. “Morally, I]
looked up to him,” she quipped,
impishly, “but physically... I beat;
the slop out of him because I was
bigger than he was.”
The letters Lowell sent home
from Brazil were edited by his sis
ter, and unknown to him, pub-*
lished regularly in the local news-'
paper. It was so well appreciated;
by others that she continued the
practice when succeeding 4-Hetsi
went abroad. As a result, some
nice international souvenirs came
her way. Now each cherished
memento has a special place in her <
home. (
(Torn to Pm* B 15)