While most teenage girls are enjoying the summer and gearing up for their return to school in September, 15-year-old Acacia Slingerland is preparing to embark on the trip of a lifetime.
The Chatelech Secon-dary School student will be spending a year in Brazil on a cultural exchange, staying with a host family in a Mairipora, a municipality with approximately 80,000 people, 24 km north of Sao Paulo.
Acacia said she is excited to stay with her host family, who she has already become well acquainted with even though there is a language barrier.
"We've talked a couple times on Skype, but my Portuguese is well, let's say it's getting there," she said. "Our conversations are mostly us waving and using hand gestures. But in my Skype window, I have Google translate, so I just copy and paste what she's saying."
She is participating in the Rotary Youth Exchange that sees more than 80 countries and 8,000 students participate in the program, administered at the regional level by Rotary districts and at the local level by Rotary clubs.
Acacia, who already had an interest in travelling, attended a meeting the Rotary Club of the Sunshine Coast was having at her school to promote the exchange. Three other students from British Columbia are also heading to Brazil. Although they will be staying in different parts of the country, Acacia said they will eventually meet up and participate in Rotary activities.
As for the trip, Acacia said she is looking forward to representing Canada, and also the Sunshine Coast.
"It's a family community here. I'm trying to figure out how to represent that really well, and definitely to represent Canada. I'm taking things that are very Canadian. It's hard to condense it, especially when I only see what's on the West Coast, but I'm working on it," she said.
Acacia is taking courses while in Brazil; however, she will have to wait to see if her credits are transferable upon her return - a chance she is willing to take to participate in the exchange.
Acacia said she is looking forward to seeing the sights, including the Amazon, and experiencing everything Brazil has to offer.
"My biggest goal is to immerse myself in the culture, see as much of Brazil as I can and see the country to the fullest. I want to make it so that some kid going into Grade 10 here in a couple years from now can look at it and think, wow, I want to do that, too," she said.
She will be returning to the Coast next summer. Visit her blog to follow her on her Brazilian adventures: http://acaciasadventures.blogspot.com/.
