United World College Of South Africa

I finally arrived in Korea after what seemed to be the longest trip of my entire life. I was definitely overwhelmed by the bright lights and skyscrapers....everywhere....and I mean everywhere. The people seem to be really really nice even when they do stop in their tracks when I walk by since I am the only brown person in this entire city..I think! It's pretty funny. The teachers at my school are all super super nice and tonite we are all going karoake singing..I'm pumped for that. I have taught 3 classes so far and I've never had more fun. The kids are a handful but I think I have it all under control. Being "Teacher Janey" is a blast.

So yup, so far so good. I was really amazed at how easy it was for me to get into the country. I timed it and instead of being grilled by immigration (like in the states) it literally took me 12 seconds to get through here.

Hola a todos! Greetings from the other side of the world! I write to you in the midst of the Costa Rican rainy season. It rains almost every afternoon, but at the same time it is hot and humid. Being so far away from home has been an interesting experience. Suddenly, I am accountable for making all the decisions in my life. This UWC experience teaches you to be responsible; it helps you recognize how much your attitude determines what you become in life. Leaving my family and friends was not easy, but if the past two months have been anything to go by, it is all worth it! Such a lot has happened since I left; Mbeki has resigned, a breakaway faction of the ANC has formed, the rand has significantly weakened due to global economic pressures etc. I am very thankful that the Internet allows me to stay informed of the latest South African current affairs!

The campus is incredibly beautifully. It can be compared to living in tropical jungle- lush green vegetation all around and a diverse animal population inhabiting the trees and shrubs. The campus comprises of approx. 180 students, thus we are quite small compared to other UWCs. I live in Montezuma, everyone's favourite 'hang-out' spot. My roommate is from Finland. He is a wonderful guy, very kind and helpful. Initially, it was not easy living with so many people, as there is always noise etc, but I thoroughly enjoy it now. There are 8 residences in total, each named after a famous Costa Rican beach.

I arrived in San Jose 2 hours later than expected. At the airport, I discovered that my bags had been misplaced and were still in London! I proceeded through customs etc and found a crowd of UWC students, all dressed up, waiting to welcome me "home"! My luggage arrived 7 days later, all in tact (thankfully)! My subjects are English A1 HL, Spanish B HL, Economics HL, History SL, Math SL and Environmental Systems SL. Spanish is a constant challenge, as the course is designed for those who have had 2-5 years prior experience. Initially, I struggled, but through constant practice, my Spanish has improved tremendously. The teacher is amazing and all the Latin American students are extremely helpful.

I am still accustoming myself to the demands of the IB, but each class is so interesting and stimulating. For CAS, I have chosen MUN as a Creativity, Amnesty International as a Service and Latin Dances as an Action. There are various activities available, ranging from Juggling to working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The service component of a UWC curriculum is vital; as we learn to be responsible for ourselves, as well as for others. Instead of just giving some money to a charitable cause, you donate something even more valuable: your time and effort. Learning about how to help others has truly been a rewarding experience.

I look forward to the remaining 2 years at this College. It is evident that the College is still in its development phase and I feel very privileged to be part of the 3rd class that will graduate from UWCCR. The contribution I am able to the College's development will have a much greater impact than it would on an establish College, firmly set in its ways. To all those who have the chance to apply: DO IT!! If the UWC experience is what you want, if you are proud to be South African (this is essential!) and yearn to be in a stimulating environment where the possibilities are endless, apply!

Well wow what can i say, India is a wonderful place. It’s different to what I’m used to. The first thing that I noticed when I walked out the plane was how the rich and poorer people seem to live around each other. For instance, you will see the most beautiful hotel but next to it is a shack. I think India has many problems in terms of poverty and sanitation.

I'm really happy that MUWCI places emphasis on community interaction. This is a great way to see India for what it really is and a great way to improve Hindi skills. I’m really enjoying school I'm learning so much by being here. I wont lie school (on the academic side of things) is quiet demanding but I'm trying to get used to I.B standards.

When I first got to the college, I did not believe I was there… I made new friends in no time, the second years were very kind, and they introduced us to the place with welcoming hearts. In RCN we have five student houses named after the five Scandinavian countries: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Each house has forty students residing in it with five students in each room. I live in Iceland house, the biggest house on campus, with five other students from Peru, Croatia, Sweden and Denmark. During the first term, it was a little hard to adapt to college life and academics and it was hard to see whether one was going to be able to enjoy life there or just try to survive. The college program is very advanced and it requires a lot of determination from every student to make it work.

We learned Norwegian communication in the first term until December and we had a choice to either keep learning or do something else. Most students could not continue because of their other subjects but we all learned a lot from it. One of the best things about the college is the Extra Academic Curricular (EACs). We have more than forty EACs and I have joined four of them namely Youth Against Aids, Friday Ball Games, Peer Tutoring and Sern Bio. Every Friday we have what we call World Today were we have presentations on a certain issue about the world and thereafter we have some debates. After sometime we have Project Based Learning Weeks, where we spend the whole week doing a project of our choice in groups and learn from it. During our first year we had Model United Nations and First Aid. In February, we went up to the mountains of Western Norway to ski for the week. This was part of our Nordic studies and we had many more sessions of Nordic studies after that. Ski week was the best week of the year. Nordic studies are a set of sessions organized by the college to teach us about the Nordic region. We had these sessions every Wednesday and we learned a lot about Scandinavia and the Nordic region as a whole.

To be honest, I would not have thought that the college would be so beautiful and that the experience would be so life changing. I have learned a lot from the college community and about the life outside. The experience here is the best and the memories will definitely stay.

I just returned from a trip to Sikkim, the most amazing and stunning place that I've ever been to. It's a state in the west of India, close to the Chinese border, in the middle of the Himalayas. Definitely a place for reflection, surrounded by forested mountains, with rivers in the valley, and the piece of mind that comes with monasteries atop almost every hill. I was there for roughly a week, travelling with some close friends. We managed to go to a snow-covered lake, only 18km from the Chinese border, surrounded by mountains, also covered with snow, yaks left right and centre... It got me thinking about these two years, and just how I ended up here, in India, at a UWC.

These two years have been a time for immense growth, and a solidification as well as a consolidation of my ideals, and my hopes for the future. I have seen things that I hadn't even dreamed of seeing, from crocodiles in the south, to the desert sky in the north, to ancient forts in the middle of the Arabian Sea to the impact that one billion people can have on the environment, as well as how it can be protected, for example in Sikkim.

I feel that as the years have progressed, I have managed to find myself and have realised what I want to do afterwards, medicine. Still waiting for applications to UCT to open, but as soon as they do, I'm applying... On top of this, being immersed in the community here has been amazing, from the constant challenges of living with people from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of views on such contentious issues such as homosexuality and basic fundamental ways in which a country should operate to being able to work with the local villages, setting up libraries and water filtration systems. Whilst I haven't always been able to find the time to focus exclusively on academics, now that the time has come to buckle down I know what needs to be done, and for the first time I'm feeling confident about the IB finals, and about my potential to do well in them. I know that it'll require dedication and time, and I know that I have reached the stage and the place where I can give it my all and really achieve something to write home about (which is what I'm doing now!). Naturally, there have been hiccoughs, but these have been ironed out, and I'm looking forward to the bittersweet last stretch.

It's a rather strange concept, to go somewhere and spend two years of your life in such an intense environment, and then to suddenly be ripped away from it. I find solace in knowing that afterwards I'll have a network of friends around the world, and that this experience is one that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I was talking to my friend on the train from Kolkata to Pune (34 hours...) sitting on the steps, looking at the Indian countryside rushing by, and realised that even after I've left, these relationships continue, and I have learnt while being here that relationships can transcend any distance. It's nice to know that the world isn't as large as we've always been told it is.

Well, I wish all my co-years the best of luck as we all prepare for our mock exams. Voorspoed met alles, and may everything turn out better than expected. Thanks... Your fellow South African UWCer in India
Jake

Gareth Smit - UWC USA
garethsmit@netactive.co.za
06-02-2008

Wow what an awesome first three weeks of my second semester it has been. My time home, although brief, over Christmas break was awesome. I spent lots of collective and individual time with my family, and seeing friends again was really special. It’s weird how with some of my friends it was as though no time was lost, and we just picked up from where we left off. I really am very grateful that I had the privilege of returning home for Christmas. I think overall, it set me and my family at ease that the decision that I made to go to the UWC-USA was by far the right one for me.

Getting back into the swing of things after a long 44 hour sleepless trip here was tuff, but thanks to the madness that is UWC life, it happened within a couple of days. When your friends become your family here because you are together 24/7, you kind of start to miss them over the three weeks that you are home. It was really great to see them all again. Already in this new semester I have become a lot closer to various people, and I really value the friendships that I have here. What has especially hit home to me is how quickly the time flies here. Some of my closest friends are 2^nd years, and to think that I only have about 3 and a half months left with them scares me.

Thus far the semester has been filled with really exciting opportunities, and experiences. I did a wilderness expedition with one of my close 2^nd year friends, Basiel from Belgium as my group leader. We hiked up to an altitude of about 1200 ft, and did awesome stuff like cross-country skiing, snow shoeing and just intense bonding with a group of people that I wasn’t that close to before this experience. The following Sunday I had a really wonderful experience. I performed a composition of mine entitled “The Mimes of Snow” for piano and violin and I premiered it at the Castle Concert in front of about 300 people. I can honestly say that it was the pinnacle of my musical adventure thus far. The audience went crazy (mostly due to the hysteric shouting from my over-supportive friends!) and I got the only standing ovation of the night. I see this as a start to an exciting future in this musical adventure.

This past week was filled with 3-4hours of rehearsals everyday for AND—African national day. AND is basically a week long focus/celebration of one of the five regions (North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, Caribbean and Latin America, and Africa ) and starts off with a week of events surrounding various topics about Africa. E.g. Trivia games, movies and coffee table discussions. The week ends off on the Saturday with a formal dinner where we all cook and prepare regional foods, before the show. The show is basically two acts with a common theme and various skits, songs, and dances from all over Africa. What I really enjoyed about our show, was that it was so layered—we had dances, songs, funny skits, but also serious skits that addressed the not so beautiful side of Africa.

I was in four skits: The Legalisation of Gay Marriage, concerning the fact that South Africa is still the only country in Africa with legalised civil unions. To present the idea that there are still numerous social stigmas concerning sexual orientation within our continent. I was also in a Gumboot dance, I wrote a Afrikaans song for guitar and performed it with my friend, Matt playing the djembe drum with me. I was also in a skit entitled “The Quest for freedom”, where about five of us recited a “freedom speech” from a prominent political figure from each of our respective countries. It was an awesome show, and it went really well! But exhaustion kicked in on Sunday and I slept most of the day!

Well I must be off to a music lesson!

Can’t wait to hear all your news from back home!

My Italian experience has been more than I can describe in words thus far, but I will try. I had many reservations about coming here. I was leaving behind the comfort of home, my family, my friends and I was faced with the dread of having to complete school later than all my classmates. All those fears and reservations were squandered within a week of arriving in Duino. The college, the community and the surroundings immediately cast their spells on me. I fell in love. I have had more adventures in the past few months than I have in the 16 years I have lived. Meeting fantastic people from all over the world and forming strong relaionships with them, the exposure to a totally different culture and lifestyles, the unforgettable trips I have taken (to the Dolomites, Rome, Milan, Venice, Slovenia and Austria), the food, the wine (just kidding) and all that which the UWC is about. I have developed so much understanding and appreciation for the world.

If there is anything that has notably changed about me, it is the amount that I speak (the UWC forces you to open up). Now there is no shutting me up - I do make sense when I am speaking though. As much as I hate admiting it, I was in a bit of a cacoon and a bit nerdy and closed before coming here, but now I have fully 'blossomed' and realised that there is more to life than books. I never thought that I would learn life lessons here, or learn to interact better with people, but it's exactly what has happened (and will continue to happen I'm sure). I also have shed some of the pre-made ideas I had about the world and different kinds of people.

You hit the nail on the head when you decided to send me to the UWCAD. I am so happy here and singing more that ever before. I am taking rock-climbing, skiing, drama and I am busy on three projects. The first is a documentary about immigration in Italy and I, together with a few other students, am working with a few immigrants from Africa and other parts of the world. The second is a project called SOSudan in which we are aiming at alerting people about the situation in Sudan and trying to put together some means of aid. The third is the compilation of a 'cultures book' for some elementary and primary schools in Uganda. I have also started going to salsa lessons and it is going very well.

As you can see I am still in love with the experience. I haven't missed home as much as I thought I would (perhaps because I haven't had the time to think a lot about home), although I'm not saying there weren't times I had to hold back the tears or think of even swimming down the Adriatic all the way home. I stayed with a host family here in Trieste over the winter break and they are amazing people. I felt like part of the family after the second week of my stay with them and they were extremely generous. Of course my Italian was a big beneficiary.

I wish I could recount all my experiences for you. I am magnificent and I hope all of you there are. Vi ringrazio per tutto. Buon anno e tanti auguri a voi. May God bless you all.

Ayesha Krige - Mahindra College, India
ayesharocksthepartay@hotmail.com
24-10-2007
Sorry this has taken me so long, but I now finally have a spare moment to sit down and tell you all about how I’ve been getting on in India. A lot has been happening. School is really amazing, its so wonderful to be in such an interesting and diverse environment.

I share a room with 3 other girls - from Israel, Switzerland and quite a feisty and opinionated American - all of whom I’ve made really good friends with. Living in a room with three other people has been a bit of a challenge, but we all get on fairly well, and luckily for me, they’re easy to get along with.

The campus itself is unbelievably beautiful, set atop a hill, overlooking the most breathtaking valley. The villages down below are all pretty underdeveloped, and that’s where we do most of our community interaction work. My Community interaction projects involve teaching English to 10 year old Marathi speakers (which is quite nice as its a bit similar to the Vulindlela project I was involved in back home) and spending time at the nearby orphanage playing with the children.

The coursework has been quite demanding. I have finalised my subjects now, they are as follows: Higher level -Theatre, Economics and English and Standard Level Environmental Systems (the cop out science subject) Maths and Introductory Spanish. Its also compulsory for everyone to take beginners Hindi, which has been quite useful. I'm now able to bargain quite well, and bought myself a sari on the weekend to hang on one of the walls in my room. I have also learnt a little about how to write some of the script, I’m quite impressed with my skills, though my writing still looks like that of a five year olds!

The classes otherwise have been really interesting. Its a wonderful feeling being taught by people who are incredibly passionate about what they’re doing. Everything of a standard much higher than anything I’d done in South Africa, but I find myself enjoying the challenge, even if it does take some time to get used to. What has been quite a nice surprise, is that my theatre teacher is in love with Athol Fugard, and talks about him and his work constantly. So, its no surprise then, that one of the projects he's keen on getting us started on is staging "Sizwe Bansi is Dead".

I've taken up a few more sports, you'll be pleased to know. I do swimming training (the pool here is beautiful, it overlooks the valley, and if you go in the evening you can watch the sunset from the water), and have joined the hockey team, do yoga and play football sometimes.

I've also made a lot of good friends. My roommates are all really nice, though its hard being around so many people who aren’t very proficient in English, my new role has become the resident thesaurus, which has actually helped my English quite a bit. But what’s also nice is that there are 3 of us who speak Afrikaans on campus (me, my second year Jacob, and a Namibian first year called Sam). Its made hanging out with the Dutch people quite a lot of fun. My Dutch is getting better, its just a bit tough to get my head around the weird-sounding accent.

Travelling a little around India has been spectacular. I went away with friends a few weekends ago, to this beautiful hill station, called Matheran. Cars and bicycles and plastic bags are banned there so its very natural, and horses are the only modes of transport. It was great, I got to ride horses again, I rode on one which was named Alien (odd name I know, I think it might have been some weird Indian-English translation).

The city has been lovely, and every time I leave campus I get this wonderful rush of emotions, and a surge of happiness at having this great opportunity and to be in such an amazing and vibrant country. Its been great navigating the cities on the crazy rickshaws and dealing with the cheeky shop owners who try to overcharge you for fruit. The most useful Hindi phrase I've learnt so far is "Kam Karo" which directly means "less price".

The most exciting part is that in two weeks time, I'll be going on a project week (a week of holiday the school gives us to travel the country) In this case I'll be going on a Community Interaction Project week, which means the school has set a group of us up to go and work with an NGO centered around development in some villages on the foothills of the Himalayas. I'm realy excited for that and can't wait to experience a bit more of India.

Nevertheless, I do get homesick sometimes, but being surrounded and involved in such a close-knit, caring community has made adjusting to this new life very easy!

Anyway, I have an economics test to study for, but I would love to hear more about news in Cape Town and the rest of South Africa (although the Mail and Guardian Online has been quite good at that), and to know how you all are getting on, so write me lots of emails telling me everything.

Naude du Plessis - Li Po Chun College, Hong Kong
14-04-2008naudedup@gmail.com
As promised I would like to write to you about how these two years at a UWC have really changed my life. The things I have learnt, the things I have experienced, the things I have seen and places I have been and of course the amazing people I have met has changed the way I perceive and approach life completely.

We recently had a "uniform day" and in the first year this was a fun and exciting day with a lot of interesting outfits and stories about "back home" going around campus. But the second year this was different, after two years at a UWC everything is different. As I stood in front of the mirror putting on my Grey College blazer, a blazer which you have carried for 5 years with pride and joy and which brings back amazing memories of good old times, I felt different. Because the person in that uniform in the mirror was not the person who was in that uniform two years ago. I had changed so much in these two years that I did not recognize myself in the mirror. It felt as if I really was, a stranger in my own skin.

The thing is, the UWC changes you. You read up on the values and the ideals before applying and it impresses and inspires you. And once you get onto the campus you see that there are a lot of activities and discussions that lead you into adapting these ideas. And there is a lot of discussion on all the campuses on whether all the students actually strive towards these ideals fully as they are supposed to. But in actual fact these values effect you and change you whether you try to adopt them or not. The system has an unconscious effect on you. Those unnoticeable changes in your perception and thinking when you have discussions with other students at 2 in the morning on the effectiveness of democracy or the arguments over lunch on the importance of international intervention or the emotional frustration when a friends family member is killed in a suicide bomb attack that you read about on CNN. This is when the cultural understanding comes in, when the international awareness and appreciation develops, when the world is no longer a place far away on the news but right here in front of you in your hands and in the people moving around you. This is when you realize what the UWC truly is, when you look in that mirror at a familiar sight, and you see a stranger.

These two years have made me realize that this is our world, we are all in it together and we all strive for the same things. We are the future and the best way to predict it is to create it. If we do not strive to resolve and solve the conflicts troubles in and between our countries then who will? The chair of the UWC recently said that "The UWC creates a moral debt in you" and I can agree with him that this is true in every aspect of it. After you live with people from so many different cultures and countries you start realizing how important and how special your own country and its cultures are. You see the mistakes and you see the opportunities and you feel the ambition and passion to change all that for the better, to go back and make the change, to be the difference.

And so I want to say that I would probably never be able to show to you and all others that support the UWCSA how grateful I am for the changes you make in our lives, and I can speak on behalf of all those who have come before me. Because "Wise are those who believe in the amazing power of education", and thus I just want say to you and all the people who invest the time and money into our scholarships, Thank You.