The Hamilton Princess on Tuesday hosted the Hamilton Rotary Club in a lunch featuring one of the Bermuda Rotary exchange students.

Eighteen-year-old Christian Dunleavy went to Indonesia for 10 months last year, and returned "not the same person''.

The biggest change in his attitude was tolerance, which he stressed again and again. He said: "The most valuable lesson, was that people are different, neither good nor bad.'' Christian himself had to "battle'' the preconceived ideas about him. "The only thing they see is a white male foreigner, and they thought I was off the show `Dallas'! He said he was very proud of being Bermudian, but everyone kept trying to tell him he was American.

Christian said people he met knew of Bermuda shorts and the Bermuda Triangle and that was all.

The first school the Rotary Club tried to get him into refused to take him because they thought a Western male would have a bad effect on their girls.

"Preconceived ideas are all wrong,'' he said. "The only way to know the truth is to go there and meet the people.'' He said he had to reassess his values a great deal while he was there.

Especially hard-hitting was the everyday scene of men holding shovels jumping onto construction trucks from the side of the road in hopes of getting just one day's work.

"It wasn't a job for a year, or even for the summer,'' he said. "It was a job for a day. All they want is food in their mouths.'' Also a difficulty was being "surrounded by religion''. In Indonesia, you must have a religion, and you must be Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, or Buddhist, he explained.

Christian said he would never forget his experiences in Indonesia, which were an opportunity for personal growth. He thanked the Rotary Club for sponsoring his visit. "I'm more relaxed now,'' he said, and ready for any challenge.