Our latest Youth Exchange Student, Monami Sasaki from Japan, arrived in Canberra today and was welcomed by a small contingent at Canberra Airport.
Monami was greeted by Yvonne, the club’s Youth Exchange Counsellor as well as Club President and District 9710 Youth Exchange committee member, Janine (who will be Monami’s second host mum). John Britton from the district Youth Exchange Committee was also there to make sure all went well upon her arrival.
Her first host mother, Anna and new host sister Meika (pictured above) were there to take Monami to her new home for the next three months. Also, there to welcome her were Monami’s fourth host parents with their daughter, Caitlin, who Monami had met in Japan when Caitlin was on Exchange in Nagoya in 2017.
Monami will be hosted by the Rotary Club of Hall for 12 months and attend year 12 at Ginninderra College. She will have four host families while she is here. Each host family will provide Monami with a different experience of family life in Australia.
Club members look forward to spending time with Monami once she has settled in. She is the fifth student to be hosted by the club in recent years. We had Jessica from Brazil in 2012/13, followed by Martina from Switzerland in 2014/15, Gerardas from Norway in 2015/16, and Martta from Finland in 2016/17.
