Youth for Understanding South Africa International Youth Exchange
Lieselotte (Germany) did a thorough research on her two schools – her permanent exchange year school in Gauteng and her culture exchange project school in (find the text bellow), where she found that people from both schools
Lieselotte, Anais, Emma and Fenja in the traditional clothes at Khumbula High School
– educators and learners have misconceptions about each other and there is space for more knowledge and understanding.
IMPRESSIONS: Annemarie (Germany) shared her lively impressions from the arrival moment to the daily experience with children of the neighbourhood. Prepare yourselves for some bubbling emotions! ☺ “When I came out of the bus, sweating in the heat, standing there pretty lost, not knowing what to do or where to go I wasn't really sure if I should be happy or scared. Not knowing what to expect I was quite nervous if I may be honest.. But when my two host sisters as well as my host mum showed up, every single thought of this time not being good just disappeared. With a warm smile and a big hug they introduced themselves as Mpendu, Lesedi and 'Mum". With the neighbours “bakkie” (Afrikaans for pick-up truck) we went home and the whole family was so happy and excited to see me. From that moment on I knew this is going to be good! My two other host sisters Christina and Lebogang were busy cooking food (chicken feet aren't even as bad as I thought they would be - still not my favourite food though!;)) and everyone was sitting together - asking one question after the other. Christina just moved to South Africa, from Mozambique. She's actually my Host dad's sister, therefore my host aunt. Communication was a bit
difficult because her English was not that good and I did not understand a word of Siswati, obviously. This fact made us laugh a lot of times though. My Host dad is a priest and my host mum a secretary at the school my host sisters and I were attending. In school I met another host sister, which is living on her own already. She's busy doing her matric (final high school year in South Africa). At home I just loved being around everyone, going to the little shop with thousands of neighbours, buying sweets and playing on the street. As a white person, you attract quite a lot of attention in a black township. Little children trying to hold your hand desperately to feel if my skin
feels different to theirs. People grabbing my hair - being so weird, so straight and soft. But I guess that's just how it is and you can't do anything about it anyways. School was so much fun! As one of the four white people in
6 Youth For Understanding South Africa Newsletter Cultural Exchange