Young Fourways Rotarians learn from a visit to France
Two local Fourways Main Reef Rotary Club youth members were able to visit France and learn about a different culture as part of the club’s youth exchange programme.
Two of the Fourways Main Reef Rotary Club’s youth group members recently returned from their exchange trip to France.
Three members who took part in the youth exchange programme returned to the country and hosted a presentation event about their time in the various countries they visited with other members of the Rotary club.
Claire Green (17) and Rebecca Arthur (17) were both sent to France to different foster families for a number of weeks where they got to sightsee, attend school and attend Rotary events.
Both have spoken of their time in the country as an amazing experience, and were grateful for the opportunity, with one change experienced in how their schooling system worked.
“It was very different to what I know. The school days are incredibly long, we ended at about 18:00 every day. But the school itself is very impressive with two campuses, a canteen and is just very beautiful,” said Claire who got the opportunity to travel overseas for the second time. This was her first time travelling outside the country alone.
“It was probably one of the best experiences of my life. I got to spend Christmas there, and just being in such a lively city, learning about another country, a different culture and beginning to understand another language was so rewarding.”
Lexi Katsivalis heads the youth exchange programme for Fourways Main Reef Rotary Club and was once part of the programme when she was in school and wanted to give back to the cause she was involved in. In 2014, she was a part of the youth exchange programme when she got to visit Germany for a year, and she describes it as an amazing experience.
“It’s an international network of good faith where we send someone overseas, and welcome a learner to our shores,” she said talking about the exchange programme.
Rebecca was in Lille and echoed Claire’s words about being able to learn about another country first-hand.
“I absolutely loved the experience. Just to learn about another culture and how other countries view your country, and the questions they had where we were able to teach them was so fun for me,” she said.
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