Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9509010046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As her friends were cruising the shopping malls this summer, Kristin Cawley was driving a tractor on a 5,000-acre ranch in Australia.
At another ranch, she watched a tame kangaroo help round up horses at feeding time.
It was an adventurous trip for the 14-year-old, a rising freshman at William Byrd High School. She had never been outside the United States - and never been away from home for more than a week.
It was a journey that she financed in part with odd jobs: mowing grass, cleaning houses, baby-sitting, selling snow cones at the Vinton Dogwood Festival and picking up aluminum cans.
She also held a bowl-a-thon to help raise money for the trip, which cost nearly $5,000.
Cawley traveled to Australia and New Zealand as part of the People to People program, which sends American youngsters to foreign countries during the summer. The youths have to pay their own expenses.
Cawley, who wants to be a prosecutor when she grows up, was determined to earn most of the money. She didn't quite make it: She earned nearly $3,500.
But she received a little more than $1,000 in donations from businesses and a Christmas gift of money from her parents to cover the rest of the cost.
She hopes to travel to another country next summer and believes she can earn all of the money this time. She's old enough now to get a work permit.
Cawley said she had never done anything adventurous before the People to People program contacted her to see if she would be interested in traveling to Australia and New Zealand.
"I had never thought about doing something like this until they sent me a form inviting me to go," she said.
"I just decided that I would like to do it and I could raise the money," she said. "I thought it would be fun and educational at the same time."
She was invited to take the trip because she is a good student who makes A's and B's.
Cawley traveled with several students from Western Virginia and a group from Wisconsin.
The students traveled to the major cities in Australia and New Zealand, but Cawley said the most interesting parts of the trip were the ranches and countryside.
Most of the ranches had sheep, and some also had cattle and horses. The ranchers also grew grain and cotton.
"They showed us what life was like in the country. You are so isolated, because you have no neighbors."
The roads in the country are not paved. The grass and trees are brown because Australia is in a five-year drought.
And, she said, "You had to travel in four-wheel-drive vehicles at night because there were so many kangaroos."
Among her most memorable experiences: helping to round up kangaroos in the wild.
One rancher has offered to let Cawley come back next summer and work if she wishes.
The American students visited Australian schools and found them to be similar to their own - except that Australian children go to school year-round.
Cawley kept a journal and compiled a photo album, for which she will get school credit.
She found both Australia and New Zealand to be Americanized, with McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants.
"You didn't notice much difference than being in an American city. They look pretty much the same," she said. "Sydney was really nice."
But the driving was different. Vehicles travel on the left side of the road and it took a while for her to get used to that.
Cawley said the trip has whetted her appetite to travel and see other parts of the world.
But if she doesn't travel to another country with the People to People program next year, she said, she might accept that rancher's job offer.
by CNB