Video
GEORGE NEWS & VIDEO - The two-week visit by Belgium exchange students, hosted by Outeniqua High School, is over and the group departed back to Belgium on Saturday 17 February, but the highlight tours and sight-seeing have made saying goodbye more endurable.
The annual exchange programme between Outeniqua High School and Onze Liewe Vrouw Hemelvaartinstituut in Belgium is now in its seventh year and is becoming a celebrated tradition.
Brit Vanmechelen, an exchange student hosted by the Albertus family in Groeneweide Park, spoke with great enthusiasm about the fun adventures they enjoyed in Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn and George.
"I was awed by all the activities." Brit says the waves at Diaz Beach were enormous compared to the waves in Belgium, and was shocked when she heard about the sharks that circle Seal Island in the bay within sight of the beach.
"I experienced a different feeling of the sea. Where we are, there are hardly any waves and definitely no sharks."
Brit was most impressed with the nature surroundings.
"When I look through the window here I see mountains, stars and birds. Our surroundings consist of houses and ploughed fields."
Brit brags with her host mother, Bernice Albertus's delicious cooking.
"I enjoyed the cottage pie; fries, which we spiced with braai spice; and sweet potato that was different from the texture I eat at my house."
Bernice described her host daughter as a carefree spirit and said the Albertus home will miss Brit after she's gone.
The tour included educational and cultural experiences and outreaches to NGOs.
Watch a video below:
Commenting on a tour through Thembalethu, Brit said the difference between rich and poor in South Africa is frightening.
"Rich people love complaining despite the abundance they have, while poor people seem to be satisfied with the minimum."
Bernice Albertus (middle) with her host daughter, Brit Vanmechelen and her son Kerwin.
Kerwin Albertus is her host brother who stayed with her family in Waregem when he visited Belgium in 2017.
Kerwin, a keen saxophone player says, "For me it was great being in Belgium, the home of the saxophone. Antoine-Joseph 'Adolphe' Sax was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s.
"He played the flute and clarinet and also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba.
"Going to the museums in places like Ypres was an experience, as seeing the illustrations face-to-face has ten times more impact than just reading the content in history books."
Ypres is a town in the Belgian province of West Flanders. It's surrounded by the Ypres Salient battlefields, where many cemeteries, memorials and war museums honour the battles that unfolded in this area during World War I.
Kerwin Albertus impressed Brit Vanmechelen with his saxaphone symphonies.
After being destroyed in the war, many important buildings were carefully reconstructed, including the Gothic-style Sint-Maartenskathedraal (St Martin's Cathedral) and its soaring spire.
ARTICLE & VIDEO: MYRON RABINOWITZ & BRÜMILDA SWARTBOOI, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALISTS
PHOTOS: MYRON RABINOWITZ, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'
