WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Students from India Watch from Afar
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Middlebury, Vermont - December 1, 2008
"I was just watching the news for two days," Rohan Kamalia said.
The Middlebury College senior had to watch from thousands of miles away-- what was happening less than 10 minutes from his house.
"Watching from here was a little hard. I would have liked to be there," he said.
The economics student is from Mumbai -- the city strangled by fear last week as rampaging terrorists killed more than 170 people at several sites in the city. One of the spots-- a popular café-- was Kamalia's favorite hangout.
"The restaurants people were killed in, every time I'm home I'd visit these places a couple of times. That makes it all the more scary because they're places I could have been at," he said.
He checked in frequently with his parents and younger sister back home. They're all fine. More than 10 percent of Middlebury's nearly 2,400 students are from foreign countries. So if crisis breaks out at home, staff encourages students to talk about their fears or concerns with peers, residence advisors, deans, or trained counselors.
"In many cases, these students aren't able to go home during breaks, so the connections they make with people from the U.S., we have a host family program for example, these are connections they make with people from the community who they can learn from and in some cases, the families can learn from them," said Kathy Foley-Giorgio, director of International Student Services.
As for Rohan Kamalia, he says his friends-- both international and American students-- have been helpful sources of support.
"What happened at home is very sad, but it's happening all over the world," Kamalia said.
The siege on his hometown was an education for this student into the complicated world of terrorism his generation has to confront.
Jack Thurston - WCAX News
