Culture Scope

From the editor:Unlike the snow that signals the arrival of the festive season in the northern hemisphere, here in the “Rainbow Nation” we have buckets of rainfall and consistent rays of sunlight. Our Christmas trees are different and our celebrations revolve around the braai, this is the atmosphere of the South Afri-can festive season.

This will be the last edition of the year and what a year it has been. We have seen high numbers of inbounds, great number of outbounds and we held our biggest AGM just last month! Our YFU family just keeps on growing. The students now look forward to a revised version of the popular Cape Tour and spending a hot summer New Year in South Africa with their host families, then the volunteers and our office staff will get some rest over the Christmas break.

Now let us dive into the news from across the country and keep you updated with the latest happenings. With that we wish you a happy festive season and a happy New Year.

Seasons regards,Your Newsletter Team

Table of Contents:“Blikskit!”-YFU PE Fundraiser 1My South African School 1AGM Article 2AGM 2012 – Cape Town 2Life in Germany 3YFU Mascot 3Wet Nose 4From the Desk of the Chair 6YFU Dates 7

“Blikskit!”-YFU PE Fundraiser

On the 19th of October, Myself and Nico Rheeder organised a sleepover which took place at his house. Most students attended this event organized by YFU PE. The Friday night we had a lekker time dancing, braaing and enjoying each other’s company. The following morning, the students created boards and decorated their foam cups then everybody had to get dressed into their “funky clothes”. It was pouring outside! But nothing would dampen our spirits.

We stood at the major intersections in PE with our boards and foam cups and within 2 minutes, we started getting money from the motorists who felt sorry for us standing in the rain. After 2 hours of “blikskitting”, we managed to raise an amount of R4600! Everybody had so much fun doing this fundraiser. The money we raised will go towards our Cape Tour which will take place towards the end of November.

I would just like to thank Nico for making his place available to us and for all the effort he put into this and most importantly ,to all my YFU PE Students who took part in this initiative, you guys are simply AWESOME! Keegan Goeda (YFU PE Volunteer)

My South African SchoolOur exchange school is such a big part of our life here. We spend most of our time there, have our friends, improve our language and learn about a completely new school system. I go to a special school. It’s Cape Recife High School in Port Elizabeth. Cape Recife is mainly for learners with physical disabilities and learning problems.

That’s why our classes are smaller (like the whole school) and we are in general closer to each other because we know nearly everyone. We might not have as much school spirit as other South African schools and some-times you get people who think there are just mad students on our school, but that isn’t true. No one there is mad or anything else. We have children in wheelchairs, pupil with ADD/ADHD or other concentration/learn-ing problems.

But where is the big difference? Cape Recife teaches you something different, something very important. I came there nearly three months ago, I didn’t know what to expect, I just tried to be open-minded. But first when I was there I understood what the school is really about: We are all equal! And now I can just say: I’d nev-er like to go to another school, because I’m proud of Cape Recife High school. I have a wonderful time there and I love it. Nadja Fraenkel(German Exchange student)

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AGM Article

At first I was very sceptical about the whole thing but once I got the I felt very at home. On arrival meeting everyone I was a bit overwhelmed but they made me feel right at home.

The sessions that ran where extremely lengthy and I think we had too little time to discuss it afterwards. It was certainly a great learning experience as the topics discussed really helped with our daily issues with the students.

I am grateful to the YFU family for giving me the opportunity to experience it and truly hope we grow from strength to strength.

Tina (PE Volunteer)

AGM 2012 – Cape Town

The beginning of October started with our 3rd Annual General Meeting alongside the operational meeting for staff and volunteers. The AGM saw the gathering of many of YFU South Africa’s volunteers in Cape Town from all over the country. We gladly welcomed our special guests Cornelius Görres and Kyle Boyd from YFU Germa-ny who offered an increased variety to our already diverse attendees.

The AGM took place over the weekend of the 5th October until the 6th, with the board meeting on the 7th October. We covered a wide range of topics including the reports from the chairman, the JVC and the National Director. We also had the unveiling of our new logo, which you will see across our various marketing material as we phase out the old logo. Along with the very informative and well-presented sessions from our German counterparts we concluded the formalities with regional updates and enjoyed the rest of the evening at our gala dinner. At the dinner the various regions were presented with various (partial) scholarships for outbound students in the coming programme periods.

The YFU board has also grown by a further two members and we welcome Mariana Esterhuyzen and Veronica Taschl on board. The YFU family is continuously growing and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.

We look forward to welcoming everyone again next year, where we will hopefully see more growth and a greater influence on the people within the communities around us.

Why be boring when you could be exploring,YFU South Africa

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Life in Germany

Coming to Germany was a piece of cake but living in Germany as a person from another culture, background, race and more especially country can be so challenging, but excepting the challenge can also be fun. I liter-ally learn something new every day and no I’m not talking about the culture or anything that has to do with Germany I’m talking about life. My whole view on life has changed ever since I came to Germany, yes I also did learn a lot about

Germany and all that but I think the whole point of this exchange year is about learning more about life and what it really is like out there, yes I do feel like giving up almost every day but the joy of being in Germany learning about their language, culture and most importantly global culture and life keeps me here, an ex-change year is the best type of education there is because you won’t learn the things you learnt during your exchange year anywhere else in life and yes it really really is fun especially for enthusiastic teens. GERMANY IS THA BOMB, Representing Mzansi!

Thabo Mahlase (Outbound in Germany 2012)

YFU Mascot

As YFU South Africa we are looking to make interaction between you, our adoring fans, and us a whole lot more fun and interactive. We have decided to have a YFU Mascot who will represent YFU on Facebook as an individual whom you could friend and in that way it would be easier for us to get up to date news from you and it will make our newsletter articles more diverse and we can see how everyday life of our host families, students and volunteers goes on.

What we would like from you is suggestions on what to name our new mascot, which will be a rhino cub, be-cause they are just so cute. You can send your suggestions to our Facebook page and we will pick the one that best fits our mascot and represents YFU SA best.

We would really appreciate your help. We hope to hear from you soon.

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YFU students, families & volunteers visit to Wet Nose

Wet Nose Animal Rescue Centre is a Right to Life Animal Shelter that rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes abused, abandoned and neglected animals. No animals are put down, but rather cared for and loved until a new home is found for them, no matter how long it takes.

On 3 November Wetnose had one of their quarterly food runs during which volunteers got the opportunity to make donations of food, toys, blankets and various things on their wish list but where they also got the opportunity to take these dogs for walks or to play with or pamper the cats in the cattery.

The YFU office in Gauteng, with the assistance of some of our volunteers, decided to give something back to those that cannot talk and that are looking to hu-mans for love and care. We invited our families and students to join us on 3 November at the Wetnose premises and were joined by Lena Schindler and Paula Popp from Germany with their families as well as Romy Stanossek from Switzerland and Gino Duri-gutti from Argentina.

Bags full of dog and cat food and treats were donat-ed by students and families and all had fun walking and grooming the dogs. It was very difficult saying goodbye to some of the animals that just wanted hugs and kisses and we promised them to visit again.

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From the Desk of the Chair

In a world where money is almost as important as air, we often forget there is another commodity as important as mon-ey, TIME. Being a part of a volunteer based non-profit organisation, you realise how much your time is valuable, not only to yourself but the next person as well. So in the same way a company or business man invests money in projects they want to see growth in, as volunteers we should see ourselves who do the same transaction except with time. We could call ourselves business individuals of time.

A typical case in point would be a host family within YFU, who apply to host a student for a year (or six months) and at the end of the exchange period they have to say goodbye to a son or daughter, I hope most families can agree with this ☺. Where you have everyday interaction with each other, get to know each other more and learn about your differences and similarities your time together creates an irreversible bond.

Every year I participate in several orientations with students that come to South Africa and those that leave South Africa for their exchange. Lots of hours are put into the preparation of these orientation camps, but when you go and realise how much your investing into these young adults lives you realise you are making a proper difference. The question everyone asks of course is, “What do you get from it?” I have tried on countless occasions to answer what I get from the whole experience and I have failed to seem convincing every time.

However, I realised that if I answer by saying what I give and its value I feel much more confident in trying to convince anyone. And yes, I get experience, I meet the most wonderful people, I get to travel and so on, but I would still do what I do if it was not for the above spin off benefits.

As our national director often says when she tells people that she works for a non-profit organisation, “YES, I am a part of the crazy people that work for no money!” With money not being an incentive you often tend to get the best out of the people you work with, because they want to and not because they have to. The saying “time is money” stands truer now than it has ever before.

I wish everyone a great festive season and see you all in the New Year!

From one businessmen of time to anotherNgoako MashitishoJVC Chair

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YFU Dates

Gauteng Region (Pretoria)

27 October – Regional Meeting17 November – Student/Family Get-Togther11 December – Fun Day (to be confirmed)

Gauteng Region (Middelburg/Lydenburg)

15 November – Student/Family Get-Together (Lydenburg)17 November – Student/Family Get-Together (Witbank, Middelburg, Belfast)

Gauteng Region (Nelspruit)16 November – Student/Family Get-Together

Our National Director (Nina Voges) and board member (Jaymion Hendricks) will be visiting the Gauteng region from the 14 November to the 18 November.

Bloemfontein

21 – 24 October – National Director school visits23 October - JVC meeting with ND

Port Elizabeth

28 October – Family day

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Well you have no reason to waste time. Please feel free to contact any one of our representatives in a

region near you.

Cape Town (Head Office):

Tel - 012 423 1677

Email - info@yfu.org.za

Pretoria (Rynette Scholtz):

Cell - 082 464 3957

Email - scholtz1@telkomsa.net

Port Elizabeth (Iris Goeda):

Cell - 082 464 3950

Email - iGoeda@aspenpharma.com