This post was written by Mohau Mofokeng, an AFS student from South Africa on exchange in China. Mohau is one of the young deserving students who received the 2017 Investing in Africa’s Future Leaders scholarship to participate in a year-long school exchange programme with AFS.

I will start by greeting my readers in Chinese “你好” as I am currently in China for my exchange year. My name is Mohau and I am 17 years old and I am an extrovert. I am a very enthusiastic person and I am most happy when I am around people and communicate with them. I would like to consider myself as someone who can relate to anyone with any culture and background, which allows me to make connections anywhere. I make friends easily.

I am also an extremely determined person. No matter what, l will push through limitations and adversity to try and get what I want and what is best for me and the people around me.

I like to find new crafts, events or activities and fun recipes and learning new languages. Currently I am learning Chinese and Spanish and it is HARD!!!! But I’m getting there.

I was motivated to choose AFS because it has been a trusted school exchange progamme for a long time and it also has the longest school-based exchange time. I would most certainly love to learn Chinese as a language and to learn the Chinese lifestyle and fit in well with it whilst also teaching them about the South African way of life.

I am certainly looking forward to the rest of the 9 months I have left in China. Thank you AFS for this wonderful opportunity!