Iqaluit (Feb 14/05) - Six students from Nunavut got more than they expected from their assignment overseas with the Nunavut Youth Abroad Program (NYAP).

They spent months preparing for their six-week stay in Botswana, a country that borders South Africa.

What they didn't expect was that their whole experience would be filmed for television, and that in addition to learning about another culture, they would learn to use video cameras and give media interviews.

On returning to Baker Lake, 22-year-old Charlene Mannik gave a presentation on her experiences in Africa in front of 250 people. "I can do presentations now," she said. "I can talk to people no matter what colour, nation or tradition they are and I make friends easily."

The series Road Scholars usually auditions its own student hosts and sends them on eye-opening travels. Producer Jane Hawtin heard about the NYAP program and thought it would fit into the series. The result was an hour-long documentary called Inuit Adventure Africa.

Hawtin said the teens who appear on the series are usually gung-ho to talk in front of the camera, but the Inuit students were "a bit quieter." For Hawtin, one of the most rewarding aspects of the project was watching the students gain the self-confidence to express themselves and teach others about their culture.

"It was fabulous to watch their confidence grow," she said. "NYAP knows it makes a huge difference for kids to travel, to have their senses broadened, their confidence built and more importantly develop a sense of pride in their own roots."

Before they left for Africa, the students learned to use video cameras. For their first three weeks in Botswana, they shot their own footage and kept video diaries for the documentary.

"We filmed things we were doing, the places we were ... and some silly stuff," said Vicki Gibbons, 18, of Coral Harbour.

One of the highlights of the trip for Gibbons was getting to meet the president of Botswana. Their destination was Otse, a small town in the African country with one of the highest rates of HIV infection.

The students lived and worked at a care centre for orphans, where some of their chores included cleaning classrooms, planting trees, cutting grass and gathering wood for burials.

The six also gave presentations to students about Nunavut and some basic aspects of Arctic life were hard to explain. "They didn't know what snow was," said Simon Hiqiniq, 18, of Gjoa Haven. "They had never seen it before." Fortunately, the students were armed with photographs and maps.

For their part, the Inuit students got up close and personal with a cheetah and a python at a nature preserve, and Mannik said she also saw giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs and elephants.

She was disappointed she didn't see any lions, rhinos or hippopotamuses, though.

For the Inuit teens, the heat during the day in August in Africa was unbelievable, but the lows didn't seem that low to residents of Baker Lake, Gjoa Haven, Kugaaruk, Arviat and Coral Harbour.

"One of the facilitators in Ottawa told us we'd better pack a sweater before we go to Africa because during the night it gets really cold," said Mannik. "That didn't happen to us."

APTN was so pleased with the resulting documentary that the network has asked Hawtin's company to create eight more shows of aboriginal students from Canada travelling to destinations such as Peru, Wyoming and Australia.

Amberlight Productions is accepting applications from aboriginal high school students who would like to participate. Details are available on the Road Scholars Web site. Road Scholars: Inuit Adventure Africa airs Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. EST.