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BETSY KESTER HAS WELCOMED PROFESSIONALS FROM MANY COUNTRIES INTO HER HOME FOR NEARLY 30 YEARS through the Denver International Program. The citizen exchange program is a unique vehicle through which to foster friendships between adults from around the world.

The organization has been arranging world citizen exchange in Denver since 1979, and has brought hundreds of professional adults worldwide to the Mile High City for training and cultural exchange.

Kester has always had a passion for foreign locales, and – in an era when few young women ventured abroad on their own – enjoyed defying the odds. After earning a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Denver, she landed a Fulbright scholarship and spent a year in Norway before bicycling throughout Europe with a friend in 1955.

Back at DU to complete a master’s in social work, she then married and raised a family before returning to work full-time as director of Child Care Licensing for the State Department of Social Services. Kester and her late husband, a former business manager for the Iliff School of Theology, began taking in DIP-sponsored visitors each year for five-week stays almost from the organization’s inception.

“The first woman who stayed at our house was from Africa,” she says. “She had never traveled anywhere before and was obviously fascinated with everyone and everything here. I thought it was very interesting and unusual for a woman to leave her children for that long; I don’t know if I could have done it. When it was time for her to leave, she was already talking about another adventure somewhere. I wondered what her husband would have to say about that.”

Kester says she often thinks she learns more from visitors than they do from her. Case in point: A psychologist from India who had just returned from the Antarctic. “He got a grant to travel on this Indian ship that goes back and forth with supplies, to interview people stationed there about how they were coping with that kind of circumstance. It was so interesting to hear about his adventures. We still keep in touch by email.”

The brainchild of a German immigrant living in Cleveland, Ohio, following World War II, DIP began as a program to bridge international barriers. “He became aware that people in Germany didn’t understand or know much about the United States, and proposed the idea of people coming over for a short time and living with host families as a way to improve relationships. He was instrumental in launching the program in Ohio; affiliates in other states and communities were added later.”

But things have changed a great deal over the years. “People today travel much more than they did even in the early 1980s,” Kester says. “And originally, there was money from the Fulbright Foundation to subsidize guest travel, but now they have to foot their own bill.”

The new arrangement has changed both the demographics and itineraries of those who visit. “After DIP quit receiving funds from the Fulbright Foundation to help people get here, people couldn’t come at the same time. Used to be, they’d all go to Washington together and spend time in New York before visiting other communities around the country. We’d be responsible for finding housing for 10 or 12 people coming to Denver, and each person would have three consecutive host families. There were at least 30 families involved. We all got to know each other very well.”

But even though numbers have dwindled in recent years, camaraderie among host families prevails. “We still have what we call ‘firesides.’ People gather to eat and tell about their country’s customs and culture. We have two or three gatherings a summer.”

Travelers sometimes find it difficult to adjust to American cuisine (for lack of a better term). “Our foods are often very different from what people are accustomed to, and we don’t cook the same way.” The up-side for hosts? “Very often they’ll cook for us, and we’ll learn about ingredients and techniques.”

Things Americans take for granted sometimes unexpectedly inform and inspire guests. One young man became obsessed with watching children’s programs. “They helped him improve his English because the use of English was so simple and easy to follow. I thought that was a pretty good idea.”

One South African woman seemed absolutely startled when Kester pointed out where she’d traveled, from and to, on a globe. Another South African woman had never stayed in a white person’s home before. “It was during apartheid or just after,” Kester says. “I remember picking her up at the airport and she never expressed how frightened she was until much later, once she’d realized the families she was staying with were just as normal as everyone she knew at home. She and another of the South African women read a copy of the U.S. Constitution I had. I gave them a copy to take home because they said they were going to write up and propose a new constitution for their country. I thought it was so interesting that they felt so involved as citizens.”

Kester has a soft spot for the South African women to this day, and reconnected with them on a visit to Africa. “A lot of hosts visit the people they’ve hosted, all over the world, but I haven’t done that much. I did stay in Cape Town for 12 days, and these women were very good to me.”

Her extended family of other host families keeps expanding. “It’s been over a long period of time and some people have moved or died, so we’re always looking for new hosts. The main thing is, they have to have a private bedroom available and be willing to supply three meals a day. But the host family doesn’t have to eat every meal with them, of course – their own lives have to go on.”

Kester believes that despite a world in which travel has become increasingly common and global understanding has been bolstered by instant Internet communication, DIP still provides a significant and unique service.

“I was talking to a friend about this, and wondering if we had, perhaps, done this long enough. If maybe, times had changed so much it’s not necessary. She said she thought there were still very few opportunities in our world for adults from different countries to get to know each other as friends, to become close in a much more in-depth way than people do on short vacations. I still think it provides a vehicle for doing what we couldn’t do otherwise. I hope DIP will continue to offer these kinds of invaluable experiences.”

(Editor’s note: for information about the Denver International Program or to find out about hosting an international visitor, call 303-871-4487, or visit www.dipusa.com.)