Back in high school, my whole class got into the International Youth Service pen friends program. It enables kids (10-20 years of age) all over the world to communicate through writing. Writing, as in, ink, paper, envelop, stationeries….

I went to the IYS site (It’s in Finland) and was really amazed that it’s still going, after 54 years. Even with the internet around. Their matching system is great, too. You’d put in “books” as your interest and for sure they will find you another kid who loves books.

With the advent of the email, It saddens me how younger generations have all but totally ignored this mode of making friends. I discovered that the fee was the same more than a decade ago, that’s 1 dollar per adress. If we apply as a group (10 students), we get 10 addresses from countries of our choice PLUS one extra. That’s a lot of savings, particularly for high school students. We were thrilled!

I recount some stories from my former all-girl high school, and the friends we met through IYS. See, when a letter arrives, all of us would gather and read each of our pen friends’ writings. Our breaks usually included running to the bookstore to grab some scented stationeries to send to our friends abroad.

1.One high school classmate discovered that the Filipino shortcut for “which” (w/c) was virtually non-existent in other cultures. Her pen friend kept asking what she means with the w/c that she always includes in her sentences.

2.Most of our pen friends from abroad and our classmates got their “eyeball” when the 1995 Papal visit came to Manila. My classmates (I was unable to attend) instructed their pen friends to go to the statue of the National Hero in Rizal Park through writing a month or so before the World Youth Day (no cellular phones were available to kids at that time), and they had a blast there, at the site of the statue itself. They got hushed several times by the guards surrounding Rizal’s statue, but they didn’t care.

3. One of my classmates was very lucky to get a Korean pen friend who speaks very good english. Much much better than all our other pen friends combined. The Korean kid was so sweet also, sending different artifacts to share his culture: bracelets, dolls and other Korean cultural mementos. One day my classmate came to school crying, saying that she will never write to that sweet Korean kid again. it turns out, she finally sent the guy a picture of herself (after months of not giving a picture) and the next mail she received from her pen friend was a big box full of candies and chocolates. After she didn’t reply to his gift box, the guy wrote another letter saying “my dear friend, I can see from your photo that you love to eat, that’s why I sent you all the good food I can find in Korea. So you can also sample my comfort food”. We all thought he was so thoughtful. The girl was touched and finally said thank you.

4. My own pen friends included Sommer from the USA, Dong Hoon Lee from Korea and Elizabeth Frunkrantz from Austria. I remember writing to liz and telling her that I’m under 5 feet tall, she replied really quick and told me that she never imagined a 16 year old girl to be so small. I remember reading between the lines and saying “she might be thinking I have a birth defect!”. LOL. She’s my age then and she told me she stands 5 feet and 8 inches. Lee (my Korean pen friend) told me in his last letter that he plans to climb the peak of the highest mountain in North Korea if ever the military restrictions let up and the North Korean Government lets South Korean tourists in their country. Sommer never wrote back after she mentioned that they might be moving to a new house.

I really miss them, my pen friends, and a part of my time on the internet is spent looking for them in Friendster and Myspace, with no luck. It’s much more personal to write on paper than to write using a keyboard. I am grateful that I had this experience when I was younger.

This is one of my most cherished childhood memories. It helped me learn about accepting other people from other races, and embracing their cultures. It made me aware of my limitations in the English language and encouraged me to learn new foreign languages.

*wipes a tear*

Afterthought: 20 questions to get to know someone? Particularly a penpal who will get all the time in the world to answer your questions via snail mail?

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