Lauren finds this study abroad program is all about the people

One thing that has become really clear to me over the past couple weeks, is that this study abroad program is going to be all about the people. The scenery is beautiful, the food is fantastic, but it is the people that make Cape Town truly special.

               

Last weekend, Vernon invited us all over to his house for a brai (which is the South African word for a barbeque). Before we started eating all of the food (which, by the way, was delicious), we stood around the table and all held hands. Vernon told us that he now considered us all to be an integral part of his own family. That really struck me, because I realized how important community is to the people of Cape Town. Everywhere we go, people have been willing to help us out, ask us if we are enjoying Cape Town so far, and be genuinely friendly and caring.

               

Other study abroad programs are about visiting landmarks and enjoying the scenery, which is obviously really important and major part of our trip as well, but I am extremely grateful that we have been given the opportunity to experience a different side of Cape Town and really see the importance of community for ourselves. Last week, for instance, we went to Marita’s friend’s house, named Marianna, to listen to some local artists play music. It was part of a program called “Bringing Music/Arts/Culture to the Community". We all packed a picnic, sat on cushions in Marianna’s garage with a bunch of her friends and people from the community, and listened to really fun jazz. I mean, what other study abroad program gets to do that? What other program gives students the opportunity to meet such amazing people and truly experience a new way of life?

Lauren at the Bringing Music/Arts/Culture to the Community performance at Marianna's

Even at my internship, I am going to be working with and meeting lots of people. For one thing, the Treatment ActionCampaign office is located right in the heart of Khayelitsha, one of the largest townships, where about 800,000 people live. I am also really excited about working with Treatment Action Campaign because they are experts in community mobilization. Already, on my first day at my internship, I went to a community meeting about the lack of police response in Khayelitsha. TAC is one of the major organizations involved in the formation of this commission, and hundreds of people from the community came to listen to testimonies and become involved. I am so excited to meet more people, learn about community mobilization, and experience more of the beautiful Cape Town. 

Kiya wouldn't trade her experiences here for anything

These past two weeks have been amazing. I truly feel like I have been exposed to the culture here in South Africa. Who would of thought I would feel at home so soon. Other then the bug bites Cape Town is the place to be. I defiantly want to return to this beautiful piece of land. So far I have met a few people here in Cape Town and the people I have encountered have been very sweet and genuine.  The weather is great. I love the cool night air and the various mountains that are visible from almost any where in town. Orientation has finally ended and I mean that in a good way. We are finally diving into classes and our internship which is very exciting. Although I enjoyed every aspect of orientation, speaking with Lucy Campbell of Transcending History and Collin really hit home for me. These were the two individuals we got the pleasure to speak with while touring the Slave Lodge. I noticed similarities between the U.S`s history around segregation and South Africa`s recent end of Apartheid. I remember thinking about how the history here is so rich and prevalent where back home it appears to be over looked or non-existing. 

Visiting every internship site gave me great insight to my peers interest and passions in some cases. It also allowed me to understand what was going on in Cape Town and what were people doing to improve those issues.  They all were unique in their own way and were all focusing on creating a safe, healthy, and successful community. What I appreciated most was how positive everyone appeared to be. With all of the problems circulating because of the Apartheid, these individual were very positive that things were going to change for the better. 

Kiya & Melanie at performance of arts and culture at Marianna's home

Another part of the orientation that I found interesting is the art here in Cape Town. I especially thought the various jazz places we went to spoke to the diversity here. I enjoyed Marianna's the most because of how personable it was. The artists had history behind what they were doing and was able to express that through their instruments and spoken words. It was intriguing to witness the Diana Ferrus recite the poem that brought the remains of the woman who was sexually and mentally abused to be buried home in South Africa. This same women who was brought back to her home was the inspiration for the name of the center I am interning at. The Saartjie Baartman Centre is in memory of this woman. In all Cape Town is providing me with experiences I would not trade in for anything. Until next time.

Johnny's appreciating this opportunity

Johnny on the Rondebosch Commons
Table Mountain and Devil's Peak in the background.

After being here for about 3 weeks now, Cape Town is becoming the norm in my life. This is something that kind of scares me. I walk out of the house in the morning to be greeted by a majestic mountain, bathed by sunlight, where clouds sometimes strike the mountain side in a way that appears as a waterfall. Describing that scene makes me think of this place as one of the most beautiful places to live in the world. The people here are unparalleled in terms of friendliness, compassion, and an overall attitude towards life. These amazing qualities of life are also met by a constant struggle for some people that live here. These aspects of life are something that I have never seen or experienced before. The last thing that I want to happen is to become desensitized by both the beauty and struggle of this city. For now, I still wake up with a smile on my face ready to embrace the new day and I want to use every ability that I have been given to continue to appreciate this opportunity.

Katrina on the lessons of the living history of South Africa

Katrina

Living in Cape Town for almost three weeks now, the history is not something you can’t ignore. It bears it ugly face in the infrastructure of the city, dividing the black and coloured townships. It is felt in the eerie emptiness left behind in District 6, where a community once so rich in culture and liveliness was forcibly removed and declared a “White Only Area.”  It is felt in the poverty and lack of resources of the almost all black schools in the townships, in the identity crises felt by the Khoi (indigenous) peoples, and in the underfunded organizations trying to provide healthcare, childcare, outreach for an unreachable amount of people in need. But what has captured me most about this place is that I, even as an American, get the chance to not only witness, but be a part of the history to be made in South Africa. Because while you can’t ignore the history of oppression and bondage, nor would you want to, it is beginning to be overpowered by a new face; hope. Hope for a better South Africa that respects and loves all people, hope for this new “born-free” generation to reach places never dreamed of by their parents, and hope for improvements on the conditions in the townships. And I get to be in the midst of this crucial moment in 2014, an election year, of a nation standing 20 years after the end of Apartheid, and recently reminded by Nelson Mandela’s death. 

While I’ve loved being a tourist and seeing all the beauty and fun of Cape Town, I never expected to feel such a connection to the history. We got the chance to visit the District 6 Museum, the Slave Lodge, and Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years as well as hear many personal accounts from many others. These places were so different to me because it felt so uncomfortably real. It wasn’t coming from old history books, it was being told to me by people who actually LIVED it. People who felt the pain, experienced the heartbreak, and were now eager to share it with me. There was no sugar coating it. But even though each of these places represented a dark piece of history, it wasn’t darkness that they conveyed, but hope. Strangely, this was almost a hard pill to swallow for me. After hearing the painful accounts of our guide at the Distric 6 Museum, I was filled with anger and sadness for these people. Similar feelings arose when we toured Robben Island and learned of the horrific conditions and treatment of political prisoners including Nelson Mandela. But instead of dwelling on the oppression, the District 6 Museum was a celebration of what this vibrant community once was. And Robben Island focused more on the education and social activism movements within the prisons, such as the “Each one teach one” mentality than the suffering that had taken place there. Towards the end of our stay on Robben Island, we got to see Mandela’s small cell and hear more about his life. While I’d read and learned about Mandela many times, hearing his actions and words repeated in this spot 30 years later hit me harder than I ever could’ve imagined. After basically spending his entire life unjustly imprisoned and seeing every one of his friends, family and loved ones suffer in unimaginable ways, when he was finally set free, he did not choose to hate. He did not choose resentment. He did not seek retribution. Instead he chose forgiveness.  He told the nation that the only way to move on to create a free South Africa was to not follow in their oppressor’s footsteps or else the cycle of inequality and destruction would only continue.  It is so hard for me to comprehend extending this forgiveness to the same men who made your entire existence a living hell, and I feel at a loss of words for how much pride and respect I have for him. He knew that there was a whole greater freedom in forgiveness, and it truly does give me hope that even a little bit of light, from even one person, is strong enough to beat out the dark.

 “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others” – Nelson Mandela.

Katrina's ready to embrace all Cape Town has to offer

Sarah's realizing Cape Town has a lot more to teach us than we have to offer it

Being in Cape Town has been a remarkable whirlwind. 

Sarah

I think if I could only choose a few adjectives to describe this city, stunning would be one of them. The eclectic mix of landscape makes the city magical. Look left to see fog rolling down Table Mountain, right to see skyscrapers rising from the ocean, up to see rows of brightly colored houses, and over to see palms trees and pines dotting the horizon-it’s still surreal.  And the people of Cape Town I’ve met are so alive–so vibrant and hospitable. Tour guides have shared their personal views so candidly, strangers have welcomed us–calling us their own children immediately–and others have spent the time and energy to shake the hands of 26 college students individually.  If that isn’t welcoming, I don’t know what is. When experimenting with the Jammie shuttle system at the University of Cape Town, one graduate student missed multiple of her buses, simply to stay and talk with a few of us. When she finally hopped up to grab her shuttle, she missed it again because she was too busy hugging all five of us first.

Yet perhaps more startling than the vibrancy of people and place here in Cape Town are the lucid, unglamorous facts of inequality. Remnants of South Africa’s past are actually quite present. History feels much closer here. Perhaps this is because it is, in a sense, with this being the 20^th anniversary of democracy. I’m still trying to comprehend the poverty of those living within the informal settlements, of makeshift shacks and tents, of quarters often too tight to sleep a family of four. It is here that people’s lives appear so far removed from the beauty of this city and yet so intertwined . . . for I’ve seen people come together for Sunday morning church, or for afternoon community jazz. In each instance, the energy, the radiance, and the joy were more tangible than the humidity drenching the heat.

Ubuntu is my new favorite word without question. I was warned it would be evident here but I never imagined just how visible. The term translates into the likes of “community” in the fullest sense, into phrases like “I am a person and you are a person because we are.” I will never say I haven’t experienced community back at home, because growing up in a tiny shoreline town I have again and again. But I’ve also experienced a broader culture very much shaped by rugged individualism. The sense of community here glows because it seems to exist without qualifier or caveat. I notice it even as a foreigner . . . community appears as a way of thinking, of acting, of being.

As my housemates and I continue to adjust to Cape Town and our internships, I only look forward to getting to know everyone better. I want to make more memories, enjoy more laughs, and explore the city. As importantly, I want to learn. I’ve been kindly reminded that we aren’t here to save the world–Cape Town has a lot more to teach us than we have to offer it. And still, I’m not sure exactly what to expect over the next three months. I just hope to give my time, patience, and energy during our stay and leave a little wiser.