Meet Sipho

Hello and Howzit!

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I am Sipho, and I am so happy to meet you! I am afraid this will be a rather one sided conversation, but I look forward to one day meeting you, then you can tell me all about yourself!

I wont start at the very beginning, but perhaps the beginning of my time here in the United States. I moved to Central Florida from The Valley of 1000 Hills in Kwazulu Natal. It is a truly beautiful place and you must visit one day! My father is a missionary turned pastor from the United States and met my mother on a mission trip in Entabeni in Kwazulu Natal. It took a while for us to move to the United States, but here we are!

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I really enjoy my life here in America. Of course I miss my family and friends, but I am comforted by the fact that I am learning a lot here that I will take back to my country.  I am quite interested and learning as much as I can about engineering, particularly solar panels, that could help my home town.  I am very surprised that there are not solar panels on every roof in Florida, after all it is the sunshine state! I also find it odd that there is so much traffic and buses, no one walks! I miss being able to run home from school to have a scrumptious supper of Phutoo pap and vorse with koolaid. The food here good, but there is a shocking shortage of marmite or fish paste sandwiches.  Also, everyone is so informally dressed, including the teachers.  It was an adjustment to move away from my school uniform, although I sometimes wear my school tie for fun, you know just to dress it up!

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As for school itself, I love maths and science (which are, after all, the building blocks of engineering). I also enjoy reading and history, although I must admit I enjoy reading British or South African texts more, as the American written language has interesting spelling deviations. My linguistic background does not hinder my academic achievement, I am doing really well in all of my classes. I have even taken on leadership roles on the school news, in younger grade mentoring, and I am a scholar safety patrol!

My life isn’t all school though. After school is the time where all of my talents really shine! I am captain of my soccer team, we practice twice a week and then have games on Saturday. It reminds of playing soccer at home in the veld grasslands. I also am a green belt in Karate, which I love! I am part of a local sculpting and mixed media art group to advance my physical engineering skills, and I of course sing in the church choir and have Sunday school lessons.

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My parents and teachers are very proud of my work and my efforts, and I must say, I enjoy having a lot of variety in my week! All the activities also mean that when I am older I will have several experiences to draw from when it is time for me to choose my future profession.