When eight Hong Kong students joined 30 other students from Asia and South Africa on a five-day Cathay Pacific International Wilderness Experience Programme in Africa last month, it wasn't all about the environment - they learned about each other and about some entirely new cultures.
From July 23 to 27, along with students from South Korea, Taiwan, the mainland, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam, the Hong Kong youngsters stayed in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, where they had the opportunity to meet people from the South African Tsonga and Zulu tribes.
'We visited one of the Zulu families' home,' said Hong Kong delegate Priscilla Ma Ka-wai, 18. 'We learned about their daily life, their work and how they get married.'
The students discovered that if a Zulu man wants to get married he has to give his bride's father lobola, which is a form of payment. Most often the payment is in the form of cattle - 10 for a commoner and 15 for someone from a royal family.
'Zulu customs are really strange,' said the 18-year-old Hongkonger, adding that the students had also learned how to prepare Zulu food. 'It's yummy,' she said.
Besides trying traditional Zulu cuisine, delegates also had to prepare dishes from their own cuisines for the rest of the group.