Rotary Exchange Student returns home
Members of the local Springs Park Rotary Club were recently entertained to a presentation by Selcourt resident, Tina Rodrigues (17) on her recent trip to Brazil.
As part of Rotary Youth Exchange, Tina spent six weeks in Brazil in a town called Belo Horizonte – a town with a very similar history to Springs.
Gold was discovered in both the towns which led to the towns’ establishment.
Belo Horizonte is now a thriving metropolis with over 3 000 000 inhabitants.
Tina found Brazil to be a country of extremes.
“There is extreme poverty and extreme wealth – very similar to South Africa,” she said.
A highlight of her travels in Brazil was spending a couple of nights in Rio de Janeiro – in a luxury hotel right on Copacabana Beach.
Tina, who is a Grade 12 pupil at Springs Girls’ High, said the schooling there is very different to South Africa.
“The pass mark in matric is 60%,” she said, “and the students have 12 subjects!
“In order to secure a place at a good university, you need to get 90% or more in all your subjects” she added.
Her host family struggled to communicate in English and Tina was not able to speak their language which is Portuguese.
After six weeks in Brazil, Tina came home with enough language skills to understand and speak some Portuguese.
Although she missed her family and friends, Tina said that she would like to thank her parents for giving her such a wonderful opportunity.
She also thanked Rotary for organising this trip.
“The travel bug has now bitten me,” Tina said, “and I hope to travel more in the future.”
Lulu Moutafis from Springs Park Rotary Club suggests that any prospective students (15 to 18 years of age) contact the Secretary of Springs Park Rotary Club on 082 961 1200 or go on to the Rotary website www.youthexchange.co.za for more details.
Lulu mentioned that the Youth Exchange Programme is Rotary’s way of getting young adults exposed to and educated in the cultures and ways of life of different communities all over the world.
This programme is a family to family exchange where the outgoing student visits a family in another country and then hosts the incoming student in their own home.
