German au pair Annalena is spending her year in Debra Mendelson’s Pennsylvania cluster. Annalena had the opportunity to visit a Daisy Girl Scout troop and talk about Germany.
The girls learned some Germany songs, they read a book and had some Germany food. At the end the Daisy’s all received a “I love Germany” patch for their vest.
Pia tells about her experience: “It was a great step out of my comfort zone, doing something I’m not doing every day, sharing my culture and my knowledge about Germany with these kids and helping them to see beyond their own nose, giving them an impression that the world is huge, but we are all still kind of the same. It was great to show the kids that there are other countries, like Germany, with other languages, other cultures and another way of life. The kids were very impressed by even small differences like the fact that we don’t have spelling words in school, our school day in first grade is usually only four or five hours long and girl’s and boy’s scouts are not very popular in Germany.”
She continues: “Global Awareness is a great opportunity for Au pairs to grow out of their comfort zones and help kids to learn more about the world they are living in. First I was not sure if I wanted to go in a school to tell kids about Germany, I was not courageous enough, but now I’m glad and very proud. Proud I did it.”