In Rome you do as the Romans do
Joshua found his Lydenburg foster parents by chance. He was supposed to live with a family in Centurion, but when that didn't materialise, Hilda Ferreira and Darren Thomas immediately took Joshua in with their own three children
LYDENBURG – Andere Länder, andere Sitten (When in Rome, do as the Romans do). This is exactly what Joshua Haas (16), an exchange student from Germany has been doing do since he ended up in this small town.
Joshua is part of the Youth for Understanding programme (YFU). It advances intercultural understanding, mutual respect, and social responsibility through educational exchanges for youth, families and communities.
“I am from Freiburg in Germany. It is near France and Switzerland. I am doing my exchange year to gain more experience. It is not a prerequisite in my school, but I decided to do it through YFU.”
Joshua found his Lydenburg foster parents by chance. He was supposed to live with a family in Centurion, but when that didn’t materialise, Hilda Ferreira and Darren Thomas immediately took Joshua in with their own three children, Darren Jr (four months), Hailey (18 months) and Miry (7).
“He is going back next year July, but I think I’m going to keep him,” Hilda told the newspaper. Joshua said his first impression of Lydenburg was that it was really small.
“I am not used to small towns. Freiburg has a large population of about 250 000 people. This is also my first time living on a farm. It is nice, it is totally different.”
He said South Africans go to bed really early at night. “Everybody goes to sleep at like 21:00. In Germany we stay up a lot longer. I usually go to bed at 23:00 and some of my friends even later, watching movies and soap operas.”
Joshua will attend school at Hoërskool Lydenburg for the next 10 months. He has a translation application on his cellphone which helps him with the Afrikaans and English lingo. “I can, however, pick up some of the Afrikaans words.” He said the streets in town were not that good. “You get bumped (by the potholes) while driving. It is funny.”
Joshua has also experienced load-shedding for the first time in his life. He said he was also intrigued by the fences and high walls. “We have open yards in Germany. I can walk over to my neighbour’s house any time.”
He said high school in Germany differed from South Africa in the sense that learners were urged to solve problems on their own. “Here it is just copy, copy, copy. We also don’t wear any uniforms to school.”
Joshua said he had never seen such acute poverty in his life before. “Of course we have homeless people in Germany, but not as many as here. There are a lot of poor people here.”
One thing that is definitely on his to-do list is to visit the Kruger National Park in his remaining 10 months, but for now, he is happy just to experience a new culture and way of living.
