Falcon House
Newsletter No 54, 2007
Term Three: August
Farewell from Ben Lam

‘Black! White! Black! White! Hilton! College! ...’ The warcry of the very school I have been spending my past six weeks echoed in my ears. I didn’t seem to remember what happened to Michaelhouse’s – Maybe the Hilton one was really just too loud, too cool or too good for them. It was a numinous feeling.

To be very honest, I have never been to a school rugby match where thousands and thousands of boys, their friends, parents and old boys gathered around the pitch, all of them with great anticipation in their faces. It was the first time I witnessed what interschool rugby should really be. Through out the 1st team’s game, there was a sense of rivalry, not hatred but rather sportsman rivalry, between not only the players but the boys. I feared a fight would break out between Michaelhouse boys and Hilton boys but evidence has proven that Hilton boys were very sensible. Although our first team lost, it was a game well played. I am not a great expert on rugby, so I couldn’t really think of much to say on how the game was conducted.

However you don’t have to be an expert to know what a ‘jol’ is like. Apparently, it is a custom for people to have parties on the Hilton-Michaelhouse weekend. I was taken by Steve to a house party. It was similar to what English people would probably refer as ‘pool side party’. A nice garden, few piles of burning wood, few snacks, a basic music system, ladies and gentlemen and of course plenty of drinks to fill us up. It was all very friendly and informal. It was a very unique experience, slightly different to the UK ‘raving’ style. Actually I was told afterwards that I had been rather ‘t-h-rashed’ in the party. Having recovered from the night at Gareth’s house, I was soon back to school from leave.

I’ve noticed that several of the South African vocabularies have sneakily slipped into my own dictionary. ‘Kiff’, ‘siff’, ‘do you dig it?’, ‘this is hectic’, ‘eesh’, ‘yoh’, referring all girls as ‘chicks’,‘dolls’, referring some people as ‘clowns’, ‘jocks’, ‘ghayers’ (I don’t know how to spell it). I can now tell if someone’s a real South African boy by these very few words – only they can put them into a sentence flawlessly.
Another sport that I am rather passionate about is swimming. Unfortunately, this is not the swimming season, so I didn’t get to see the full Hilton swimming team. However, as I have been training at Penguins for the past month, I got a few chances to meet some of the swimming elites – it turns out that half of the Hilton swim team members belong to some national team…

When I was talking about my exchange programme with my English tutor sometime ago, he referred South Africa as the Great Outdoors. I only came to realise how accurate those words were when I found out the level of involvement of sports in this school. However, it had never come across my mind that there is also a musical side in such a sporty school.

I was very lucky to be able to join the Dlala Kanye music ensemble – a chamber group consisting of four violinists, a bassoonist and pianist. I got a chance to perform a piece at Wykeham Collegiate and accompanied the choir in a local chapel service. Although there aren’t as many musicians here than at Harrow, Hilton musicians are truly passionate about what they are doing.

If this is summary of what I’ve done at Hilton, then I must mention outward bound, a confidence building activity, controversial amongst students. It seemed to me that some boys hated it down to their guts. Well, there have been times during the outward bound when I seriously wished I am at home on my sofa watching TV (those cold shower, torturous projects still give me the freezing chill down my back whenever I think of them). But, when you look back, and realised what you have achieved, you cannot help but to congratulate yourself. I felt good after it, partly because the torture has ended; partly because I have achieved so much.

Straight after outward bound was half-term. It has been a bit of a nightmare getting my half-term organised. After a few brief phone calls, I got my flight tickets to Johannesburg booked. I stayed at Neute’s house. I must say, I was pretty impressed by the golf estate they live in, with club house nearby and every daily necessity around, it felt like a self sustainable little village. It showed a very effective example of good city planning. As both of his parents are doctors and it is currently a peak season in their clinic, they were working nearly twenty four seven. Luckily, their driver was available and I was able to go out and explore the city. Two places left me most memories. 1. The Cradle of Man Kind Museum – the place where they discovered the earliest form of human in the world. This place has undoubtedly proven that mankind originated from Africa. Just a very weird thought: so technically, I am an African… 2. The Lion Park – this is more of a tourist place, but after all I am a tourist. I have never seen that many lions before; there were like dozens of them lying around crawling around our car as we drove into the lion camps – I tried to keep my window closed at all times.

I have now come to the end of my exchange programme and recently, many people have asked me, including the headmaster, ‘How did you find Hilton?’ In my opinion, this is a trick question. If I say this place is better than Harrow, I will have betrayed my very own school; if I say this place is average… which is not at all the case, I will be lying.
Anyway, my impression of Hilton has not changed at all since the moment I came here, I knew this is a top school and it really is. Some of the Hilton boys told me that Hilton is one of the very best schools in the world; I have no doubt about it. This place creates a sort of environment where all boys are well-mannered, disciplined, organised and physically strong and healthy. There is no-one whom I’ve spoken to that dislike the school – though some boys expressed that they are ‘over’ school and want holidays, but that’s a different matter.

Yesterday night, I attended an extra History lesson in Mr Garcia’s classroom for those who would like to learn more and catch up before the test today. This illustrated the enthusiasm of teaching and learning at Hilton and is really worth crediting.

I have really enjoyed every single moment in South Africa, not to mention the majority was spent at Hilton. Actually, I was lying, I have never been an early bird and the idea of waking up at 6:30am everyday has been quite extreme for me.

There are many teachers and staff that I have to thank before I leave Hilton and continue my education back at Harrow. Thank you Mr Nicholson for such an opportunity; it has now been 12 years since the first Harrow-Hilton exchange first started. Thank you Mr Brown for making the outward bound happen. Thank you Mr and Mrs Veenstra for lending me a pillow and sleeping bag, without them I couldn’t possibly imagine what outward bound would be like. Thank you Mr Maritz, Mr Dodd, Mr Mncwaba, Mr McMichael, Mr Garcia, Ms Almond, for being my teachers in various subjects. Thank you Mr Udal for organising the music ensemble. Thank you Mr Shuttleworth, for the swimming trainings I’ve been attending. Thank you Mr and Mrs Thomson for being such an exceptional housemaster and house manager, I never knew staff members can be such good friends with boys. Mr Guthrie (MIC) and Mr Higgins at Harrow, without your permissions, I would not have to chance to come to Hilton at all. And also many other teachers who made Hilton the greatest school in South Africa.
This exchange has been a very valuable and enjoyable; I shall never forget such a unique experience. And to all Hilton boys: Good luck in future and enjoy Hilton as much as you possibly can.

PS: Mr Thomson, my apologies for being so disorganised. I remembered that you have asked me for this essay nearly 3 weeks now but I have not been doing what I should have. Also, I’ve realised there are too many things that I wanted to say, so this essay is just some of the things that came immediately into my mind.

Cheers South Africa ! Cheers Hilton !