Hello.  I am David Evans, Anna's current host father.  She has ordered me to be a guest blogger so I obey.

My wife Becky and I have had Anna in our home since the day after Christmas and she will stay until April 10, when she moves to her third family.  All three families live in the same neighborhood near her school and we are a close neighborhood.  We all know each other and we spend a lot of time with our neighbors.  We have lived in our house since 1985.  I think Anna enjoys the neighbors and neighborhood.

Cheyenne is on the "High Plains" of the West.  It naturally has no trees, just grassland.  It sits at 6200 feet elevation (2000 meters?) and is very windy all the time and cold in the winter.  Anna's time with us has been in the worst of our weather and she has had a couple of colds.  We wish we could have had her in better weather but she has been a soldier.  Besides, she has been able to ski a liitle bit.

Anna has made some very nice, fun friends  She likes our school which has a lot of activites.  She doesn't have a lot of time after school, soccer, and DECA ( a businees club), except for bed.  Her group of three won first place in the State in their DECA business category so are able to go to the National competition in May!  It will be in Louisville, Kentucky, which is about 1000 miles east. 

Official practice for soccer started today but she has been in a winter league the team competes in.  My observation is that she has very good skills and is very competitive, or tough for that matter.  She was told to practice with varsity today, which is about 15 girls out of 50. 

I'm sure her parents would like me to mention her academics.  That is the most amazing thing.  Even though she receives no credit for her studies,  A's are important to her and she has achieved all A's.  I know some Rotary Exchange students who really don't study much.  As I said, she is very competitve.

Becky and I have two children.  Willi is 29, married, and lives in Seattle.  She is an organic gardening writer and advocate.  You can read her blog on organic gardening at www.digginfood.com.  Our son Jordan is 20 and goes to the Universty of Wyoming 50 miles away.  Anna has spent time with both of them.  We took her to Seattle which she enjoyed.  Willi will meet the three of us in New York City at the end of the month.  Willi and Anna get along well and we are looking forward to the trip.  The three of us are going to Denver this weekend with neighbors to shop and see a professional Lacrosse game.  Lacrosse is an American game first played  by the Huron Indians 400 years ago.  It was a little rougher back then but is still a very fast rough game.  We hope she enjoys it.  

We have enjoyed Anna very much.  We just do what she says and everything goes well.  We are glad she will remain in the neighborhood because she is a sweetheart-  We plan on seeing her Dad and step mom when they venture to the Great American West in July.

I hope the first guest blog of my life is worthy.  Good-bye.