Congolese students visit Antwerp: long live fries and be… (Antwerp)
The ten students of the Université Catholique de Bukavu and their two supervisors were received during their reception in Antwerp host families. So nice Felista Biluge Kashasha (24), a medical student, in Deurne with Sanne Coremans (31), Pieter Pauwels (34) and their son Leon (1.5 years). The family is not ready for its test piece, a student from Congo recently came to visit. Sanne: “Six years ago I went on an exchange to Kinshasa with USOS for a month, meaning I was staying with a host family. That was a great experience and so I learned to accommodate students here as well.”
Annette Nmora Muhanzi (25), who has just graduated in social sciences in Bukavu, is staying and rehabilitating with Petra Meier, dean of social sciences at UAntwerp.
Got lost
Felista and Annette arrived in Antwerp early last month with their fellow students. After the mandatory ten days of quarantine, they went to explore the city and the rest of Belgium. Felista: “I had a hard time guiding in the beginning, but it wasn’t always, even easy, because I’m not how things work here and the language was sometimes.” Also ending matches. “Even with Google Maps, I was constantly lost. One day I went by train to Ghent, but I missed my stop. That is why I unexpectedly visited Bruges. Also a beautiful city,” she laughs.
Annette: “Here in Belgium, however, public transport is perfectly organised, very different from Congo. A trip to a city that is fifty kilometers away often costs you a day of travel.”
chicory
“Antwerp is a fascinating city with a very rich history,” says Felista. “We visited the harbour, the beautiful cathedral and the De Koninck City Brewery, which I think is wonderful. You can’t come to Belgium without tasting it. In Brussels I discovered French fries again.” Although not all local specialties are devoted to her: “I don’t like chicory.”
During their visit to Antwerp, the Congolese students were also treated to Flemish food, made by students from UAntwerp. “The vol-au-vent wasn’t that great. The texture was strange and other than mushrooms, why were there no vegetables in it? I also found it bizarre that the meat and sauce were not ‘fresh’. In Congo we slaughter a chicken and eat it immediately afterwards. Everything is made the day itself and that taste.”
Car and elephant
Another minus is the Belgian climate. Felista and Annette are unanimous: “In Bukavu we find 20 degrees already quite cold. When I got here, I didn’t know what hit me. Oh la la… That was a catastrophe, we were really not dressed for it.”
What Annette also notices is how distant the people in Belgium are. “In Bukavu (a city with 250,000 inhabitants, ed.) everyone knows. People chat in the street, you are invited for a visit,… I have not seen that in Antwerp.”
In the meantime Felista has already learned a few words of Dutch. Besides ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘please’ and of course also unexpected things. “Leon is constantly learning new words and now those are ‘car’ and ‘elephant’, which he says all day long. What he learns, I also learn.”
Patriarchal Society
Students from UAntwerp are planning a visit to Bukavu themselves. Their trip was planned for 2019, but corona spanner in the works. But in August 2022 it will be realized.
One of the participants is Dorien Vandenbruaene (25) from Borgerhout. She was not yet a student at the time, but has since obtained her diploma in social work and works at Recht-Op, a non-profit organization where the poor have a say. “Poverty is a concept. In Bukavu they see it completely differently. There it is about having no roof over your head, no running water and electricity and hardly any food. That is absolute poverty.”
“I’m glad I got this chance to go on an immersion trip to another world. It will be an enriching experience and I will be researching the role of women in the family. In what is still a patriarchal society, they often cannot fulfill their dreams.”
Annette agrees: “If you are not married here as a woman, then that is so. In Congo it is a social problem and you are often viewed skewed.” What also strikes her is how few children a Belgian family has. “We often have ten children living under one roof. Every newborn is seen as a blessing, as a new member of the team, men in Belgium are rather reserved in that area.”
Felista concludes: “Next year our family will be one of the host families for the Antwerp students. We will receive them with love.” Hopefully fries will also be served.