After months of planning and fundraising, eight members of the Laconia Key Club boarded a yellow school bus, waved goodbye to their teary-eyed parents and set out for two weeks in South Africa.

Chaperoned by four adults, including high school teachers Seth and Ivy Leavitt-Carlson, who spent two years in the village of Ga-Mamabolo as U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, the students will be guests of the Carlson's former village and will spend two weeks sharing American culture and learning about South African culture.

"I am so excited," said Key Club President Erica Cross, who will begin nursing school at the University of New Hampshire in the fall. "I have always wanted to experience a different culture."

Each student will explore an aspect of South African culture and society and Cross said she will be visiting hospitals and clinics.

Ga-Mamabolo is about a three-hour bus ride from the capital, Johannesburg, and is in the northernmost South African Province of Limpopo. The students will fly first to Zurich, Switzerland and then direct to Johannesburg. It is early winter in South Africa and students were told to expect temperatures in the mid 60s during the day and in the 40s at night.

The eight students, Lyle Beetle, Erica Cross, Mackenzie Duquette, Vincent Denaris, Amanda Bridge, Jocelyn Morin and Ashley Witham, will be giving a presentation about their trip in August.

As the Carlsons gave final instructions about travel times, baggage checks and passports, parents paced nervously while their children prepared for what is, for most of them, their first trip abroad.

"I'm just so excited for her," said Amber Jordan, whose daughter Ashley Witham has visited relatives alone before but has never gone overseas.

"I'm a little nervous," said Brenna Cass's mother Colleen Cass. "But this trip has been well planned."

Colleen Cass said there is one laptop computer per two students and it is in the possession of their adult chaperone.

"There's no cell phones allowed either," she said.

Kim Denaris' son, Vincent, is the youngest on the trip and will be a junior at LHS next year.

"I grew up as an Army brat," said Denaris, who said as a child she lived in Japan, Germany and France. "i'm very excited for him to be seeing other cultures."

She said Vincent will be studying South African music and has brought an Aerosmith CD with him to exchange for one of Ga-Mamabolo music.

Kyle Beetle will be studying government and said he has arranged an interview with a South African official as well as village leaders. He said he'll be doing some interactive video and audio recordings while Jocelyn Morin will be interviewing people with HIV-AIDS and learning about their care.

Huot Technical Center Director Scott Davis is one of the chaperones and admitted to being just as excited as the students. With his books about South Africa under his arm, Davis said this would be his first trip there. He said they will be blogging from South Africa and people who want to follow their trip can go to www.laconiakeyclub.blogspot.com.

For the Carlsons, their return is like a trip home.

"We lived there for two years and it's been two years since we've been back," said Seth Leavitt-Carlson.

"We've been calling all of our friends," said Ivy Leavitt-Carlson.

"Our host mother will be 74 in August and we worried we wouldn't be able to see her again," said Seth Leavitt-Carlson, who stays in touch with her via cell telephone.

As they boarded the bus, Seth Leavitt-Carlson asked the parents if any of them would object to a phone call tomorrow at 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time — their scheduled arrival time in Johannesburg.

No one objected.