AUBURN — Before next month’s inauguration as Auburn mayor, Jonathan LaBonte is learning a bit of Arabic.

The 31-year-old Auburn native is joining a delegation of young leaders for a U.S. State Department-sponsored trip to Egypt and Jordan. 

On Dec. 2, LaBonte will fly to Washington, D.C., for a few days of briefings and visits to the Egyptian and Jordanian embassies. Then, he’ll head to Egypt and then to Jordan.

He is scheduled to return Dec. 18, three days before he takes office as mayor.

“To me, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said LaBonte, who was nominated for the trip by leaders of the National Association of Counties. Though he doesn’t yet know the exact details of the trip, he expects to meet local education, government and business leaders in both countries. He may also see a pyramid or two.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Middle East,” he said Monday. “People have asked me, ‘If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?’ Usually Iraq has topped that list. It’s really the birthplace of civilization.”

It’s a particularly interesting time to visit, since the springtime overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he said. LaBonte hopes to get a firsthand peek at democracy taking hold, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood.

“If you’re going to be a democratic society, it’s not just at the national level,” he said. “To me, that will be a fascinating part to trying to relate to what I see on the ground in this country.

“All government’s local,” he said. “How will that play out in a country like Egypt?”

The trip will be LaBonte’s first outside of North America.

LaBonte didn’t even have a passport until the county association nominated him. The Androscoggin County commissioner and the executive director of the Androscoggin Land Trust joined the national group’s board of directors a couple of years ago after attending the weeklong County Leadership Institute in New York City.

His nomination went to the American Council of Young Political Leaders, a 44-year-old program that operates leadership exchanges between the United States and a variety of foreign countries.

How might the trip change him before he is sworn in as Auburn’s mayor?  LaBonte is unsure.

In part, it’s just broadening his experience.

“Hopefully I will learn some things or have some context that will change how I operate,” he said. “The furthest I’ve been internationally is Montreal.”

But he also hopes to share a little bit of Lewiston-Auburn with the people he meets. On his travels, he is expected to take gifts with him for the people he meets.

He hasn’t chosen anything, yet.

“I want to see what others have brought in the past so I don’t go overboard,” he said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com