Highlights in South Africa

For me there wasn't the highlight, it started at the time we arrived, after a long flight. We were a little bit tired from the flight and then after nearly 24 hours we arrived at the camp and the first we saw were the South Africans singing our Campsong. After they had sung, they hugged us and helped us getting our suitcases upstairs. They all were so open hearted and they just started to talk and talk and talk. We, the German girls and boys were standing there, tired after an 16 hours flight and tried to understand everything. In the beginning it was very hard because we had to get used to the South African accent. So the first thing WE asked them was to talk a little bit slower. That was the start of a funny evening and also the two weeks, maybe the best of our life. The next two weeks we had a little bit of sightseeing and saw the penguins, the seaside, table mountain and Kirstenbosch, but also South African historical museums and places, too, for example District Six Museum and Robben Island. And we visited two plays. The first one was a Musical and it was fascinating as the player were all so unbelievable good. They had such a good stage presence. And their movements were full of energy. The second one was at a great theatre and the play was great, too. It was just a little room they had to play on, but they used it very well. All of that was a big highlight. That was all greatly organized by Mr and Mrs Markram. We cannot say thank you often enough. But that was all just on the relaxing days. The other days we played theater and learned new things from Mrs Markram but also from the whole group. We learned breathing in a new way and thinking about it and how to move our body. Maybe it sounds weird or crazy but it's not that easy to do things like this in the right way and especially I learned a lot from Mrs Markram and from Shane, he was our dancing teacher. Dancing was new for us, too. In Germany dancing isn't that important to play drama and be really good but in South Africa most good drama players are good at dancing, too. That was a great experience to learn from Mrs Markram who studied it at university. But for me the very very highlight was on the last Friday, two days before we flew home. It was after a beach day and our teachers were very angry because some of us had left the beach without asking the teachers. So Mrs Markram told the South African students, they had to leave the camp a few hours later. And that was the point we realized what had happened: we were able to feel the friendship we got and how much we going to miss each other, so we started crying and hugging and do all this saying goodbye things. And we wrote a few sentenses about each other, for each other and that was one of the best ideas in the camp. The thing I liked most in this situation was, you were able to feel all the love and friendship and all these positive feelings we had. So maybe that was the highlight. The whole two weeks were the best two weeks in life and after this time I can say it was life changing. We learned things none in Germany knows. The thing I took with me from South Africa is being friendly and open hearted. If you have the chance to meet South African people do it, it will change your life.

Written by Miriam Uhl