Melanie's recap of her time in Cape Town

Despite at first thinking this may be impossible, my time in Cape Town has become increasingly exciting and meaningful. I have been fully enjoying my internship, classes, activism project, and some fun activities!

First of all, Manuela and I have begun spending our Mondays at the Kliptonfein Primary School in the run-down community of Netgear (translating to Just Right) with a community worker. First of all, I felt incredibly welcomed by all the staff. On our first day we were thrown right into it, Deon put us at his desk and told us any person who walked into his office was now our responsibility. 



It was not easy because we were not yet familiar with the resources available in the area but Deon helped us get familiar with how he goes about helping clients. The first woman was new to Deon’s office and was having a housing problem because she was no longer getting along with her husbands family whom she stayed with. Her husband also was about to lose his job and her cancer had just come back. With the help of Deon the women was given information about getting onto a housing project waitlist but it did not look promising. Instead, Deon resorted to giving advice about ways to handle conflicts with the family and to encourage her husband to be supportive in her time of sickness and need. After more people came in and out throughout the morning I began to notice something about the way Deon valued each of his clients. No matter what problems they came in with, he advocated for them and exhausted all of his resources to help solve their problems. Often one client would sit there as he made dozens of phone calls, dialing away and patiently explaining the dire need for whoever was on the other end to help. As someone who wants to enter the social services field, this is a value I will want to hold onto deeply. Even if Deon is not able to help his client, they leave with the validation of knowing someone tried everything they could, they feel respected and heard.

Aside from spending mornings in Deon’s office, we’ve found ourselves useful in all other areas of the school. We help in the crèche, in the after-care tutoring program for underachieving kids, playing at recess, and our personal favorite was reading to a grade 4 class and doing a mini-English lesson (being as it’s a primarily Afrikaans speaking school). Visiting the classroom was really fun and it allowed us to also form relationships with the teachers. We were graciously invited to dinner Friday night with two of the teachers and then ended up playing mini-golf at Sea Point. Overall, this experience has helped me realize I really enjoy the school environment and should look into school social work for the future.

The classes we’ve been taking here have also been really insightful. We are exploring the history and politics of South Africa, the basics of the organization of our internships, and in Marita’s class we explore and discuss issues relating to race, class, gender, and privileges as a whole. I’ve learned to look at issues in a whole new, non-defensive way and connect them to not only what goes on here in South Africa but also how my own life has been impacted by them. So far it’s brought a lot of awareness to me and I look forward to continue reflecting on it.

Another new, exciting aspect of this program for me is my new activism project. Despite getting off the a rocky start, myself and Emily, Savannah, and Lauren have decided to volunteer, do crafts, and read with the children at Maitland Cottage Home, a residential hospital for physically disable children (where Savannah also interns). The need for this as brought to our attention as Savannah pointed out that the children there do not get many visitors and don’t have enough toys to play with. After Lauren and I first visited on Thursday, we are even more excited to get this project going and develop relationships with the kids.

Lastly, I’ve found my time in Cape Town to be quite the mixture of touristy activities and cultural activities. For example, surfing, skydiving, and horseback riding on the beach was great but I’ve also found an interest in the local plays and musicals. I first attended Blood Brothers, then A Human Being Died that Night, and then Missing. Each play uniquely represented many of the issues South Africa faced and continues to face in a powerfully moving way. Blood Brothers was about two twins who were secretly separated at birth, one with his birth mother and one with a wealthy woman desperate to have a child. It explores class issues as the brothers lives intensely interconnect. A Human Being Died that Night was about a psychologist interviewing a man who had committed many malicious crimes during apartheid and her struggling to see his humanity, questioning values of morality and evil. Lastly, Missing was a deeply saddening story about a member of the ANC who went into exile in Sweden, started a family with a white woman, and started a new life only to be turned upside down after their first visit back to South Africa post-apartheid brings up unfinished business, a longing to remain in his home country which he desperately missed, and a need to feel that his work in the struggle had been appreciated. Overall, I’ve grown an appreciation for the way the arts can help people understand and connect with stories and histories.

              

With just a month left, we are all planning to fit as much as we can in. But for now, we are looking forward to our weeklong excursion to Johannesburg and Kruger National Park!