6/21/2018 0 Comments schools out!!After finishing my classes and exams and papers and presentation, I had a few weeks to travel to see more of South Africa and other countries in Southern Africa! I drove the Garden Route from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, saw Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia, went on a safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana, and hiked in the Drakensberg in South Africa and Lesotho. I feel so fortunate to have seen so much of Southern Africa in my 5 months here and am awed by the diversity of nature and culture. I don't want to leave in 3 days!
There are more pictures from my trip on the "Photos" pages for May & June.
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As we approach our final presentation on our community engaged learning on Friday, it is bittersweet. It is sad to leave our community sites for the final times, but it is also an amazing feeling to look back and see how much we were able to accomplish this semester! I have added a page to my blog for each of my community sites (linked below). I also wanted to provided a brief summary of the projects that were completed at other sites!
At the Erasmus Early Child Development Center (ECD), they organized a zoo trip for the Grade R (equivalent of kindergarten) students using money from our GiveCampus fundraising. At Sjambok Primary School, three of us met weekly with about fifteen girls to talk about menstruation. Thanks to donations outside of our GiveCampus fundraising they were able to leave the school with a supply of over 3000 pads to help female students who would normally skip school during their periods. At Funanani Primary School, they focused on helping the students with their reading skills and updating the school's library. They were also able to start a pen pal exchange between a grade 3 class and a third grade class in the United States. Thanks to the $6000 raised through our GiveCampus campaign, at an ECD in Pretoria West, they were able to arrange for flush toilets to be installed to replace the unsanitary drop toilets previously being used. In all of the locations, we were able to spend time interacting with the students even when they did not speak English which was always a refreshing break from the more frustrating parts of our projects. 5/21/2018 0 Comments Sesriem, NamibiaThis weekend I was able to make a quick trip to the sand dunes in Namibia. Needless to say, it was stunning!! The day before I arrived it rained for the first time in six years and I was able to capture a beautiful and unique photo (center). It was a 5.5 hour drive from the capital of Windhoek to Sesriem, over four hours of which were on gravel roads. We enjoyed the uniquely Namibian road signs and dots on the map that are really just gas stations and a bakery.
As the title explains, this week we traveled to the Limpopo province of South Africa where we were hosted by Professor Themeli's extended family as we learned about Venda culture. (For those who don't know, Professor Themeli is a Fordham professor from South Africa who helps to oversee the Ubuntu program.) His sister was even generous enough to lend us some traditional wraps to wear over our skirts for when we met the chief. The ceremony included music and dancing as well as what seems to be every South Africans favorite activity - making the Americans dance with them. It was incredible to drive five hours north of Pretoria and suddenly be surrounded by people wearing Fordham shirts and be treated with such hospitality. After this we were able to see more of the beauty of Limpopo. As we drove around the area, we began to see the truth in Limpopo being called "the bread basket of South Africa." Besides seeing lots of farms growing everything from bananas to tea, we saw banana and mango trees growing wild on the side of the road. Our final destination was the big baobab tree which we were able to climb. Here the landscaped changed from the lush surroundings of where we were staying to dry grass land but the colors were still beautiful.
Before coming to South Africa, I knew that South Africa had eleven official languages and could name three of them: English, Afrikaans, and Zulu (which I now know should actually be written isiZulu). A few months before my departure I tried to learn some Afrikaans but did not make it very far as I knew it would not be necessary for my studies or communicating.
After being in South Africa for three months, I have realized how distorted this view of the languages spoken in South Africa is. To begin with, I did not realize how few native English speakers there are, rather it has just been accepted as the best mode of universal communication especially for economic purposes. Additionally, I am disappointed that Afrikaans is the only language that I was compelled to try and learn before coming. From my observations, nearly everyone whose home language is Afrikaans has access to quality education which would enable them to learn English at a young age. In contrast, children with other home languages tend to live in poorer or rural communities where their early childhood education may not teach them how to speak English well until after age eight. I have learned this through my time at SAVF aftercare in Soshanguve where I am unable to converse with many of the younger students except with the limited phrases I know of Tswana (taught to us by our mentors after we arrived in South Africa) or their basic understanding of English. It would be hard to remedy this as I didn’t even know Setswana was a language until arriving in South Africa. This skewed perception of the diversity of languages in South Africa is also shown through literature. While there are many books available at all levels in English as well as many options in Afrikaans both as formal literary movements and as children's books, there are considerably fewer books published in the other official South African languages. This access to reading materials can result in more economic and educational inequality between groups in South Africa than there already exists. Once again this would be difficult to remedy as this lack of books in certain languages means that there is no constant demand ready for new books to be published, therefore discouraging publishers. The diversity of language in South Africa leads to many impossible questions. For example, how should the constitutional right to education in one's home language be enforced when schools and universities in eleven languages would be hard to implement. Overall, language can be seen as an important factor in the inequality in South African society. For reference this is the break down of South Africa's official languages by percent of population's home language : 1. isiZulu (23%) 2. isiXhosa (16%) 3. Afrikaans (13%) 4. English (10%) 5. Northern Sotho (9%) 6. Setswana (8%) 7. Sesotho (7%) 8. Tsonga (4%) 9. Swati (2%) 10. Venda (2%) 11. Ndebele (2%) **South African Sign Language is also treated like an official language with all official media including an interpreter 4/15/2018 0 Comments A 'historical' WeekendThis weekend we visited Constitution Hill in Johannesburg and the Apartheid Museum with Father Egan, the Jesuit who teaches our South African history course. Constitution Hill is home to three historical prisons dating back to the 19th century and used throughout apartheid and the current Constitutional Court of South Africa (placed there to symbolizing the reclaiming of history by the African people). Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, and thousands of others ranging from political prisoners to murders were imprisoned there. It was a reflective experience to walk in their footsteps and learn about the awful treatment they incurred (in Nelson Mandela's words, prisoners were treated like animals). It was an especially reflective experience as we happened to be visiting a jail cell where Winnie Mandela had been imprisoned on the day of her funeral, occurring only a short distance away. Since her death, there has been much debate about whether she should have a positive or negative legacy. We have seen incredible outpouring of admiration for her as the mother of the nation, especially from African women. While some, mostly the media, focus on her transgressions. In our own discussions, we have wondered how much of this negative focus is because of her gender. At the Apartheid Museum, we saw video footage of white men being forgiven for torturing and killing many people during apartheid yet Winnie Mandela cannot leave behind her missteps even while her body is being laid to rest. We have even learned of some controversial actions of Nelson Mandela but he is remembered simply as a hero. of A memorial for her at the Apartheid Museum put it well when saying that she is a good reminder that even our heroes are people who make mistakes.
The Apartheid Museum had a large connection of photos and videos that are not usually seen to give a full picture of life in South Africa during apartheid. There are even segregated entrances to the museum and a bullet-hole ridden police tank you can climb inside. We finished the weekend by visiting the Jesuit residence in Johannesburg and making pizzas for dinner. 4/9/2018 0 Comments Hello!Thank you so much for reading my blog! I have really enjoyed writing these posts and hope you have enjoyed reading them.
As you might have seen on Facebook, we have put together a GiveCampus campaign (like GoFundMe but we get 100% of donations) to help with some of the projects in our communities. One project that would benefit from this funding would be the garden I have been blogging about. Please consider donating or passing on the link! Even if you are unable to donate, you can follow the link to see information and pictures from other community sites where my friends are working that I have not included on my blog. Thank you for your support! Traveling from Pretoria/Swaziland to Cape Town really showed me the stark contrast between Cape Town and the rest of South Africa. Not only does the environment look different (white sand beaches and rocky mountains) but the atmosphere of the city feels very similar to a city you would find in the US. Before I went to Cape Town, someone told me that it is often compared to San Francisco and I was able to see the surprising similarities between the two cities. We stayed at a vineyard in Stellenbosch for the week which was a relaxing place to return to every night and, lucky for us, was on its own water supply so we were not subject to the rationing implemented in Cape Town. On our first day we took a tour of the Cape of Good Hope starting at Signal Hill with a view of the city and ending at the most south-western point of Africa (not the most southern point which is actually a few hours away from Cape Town). If you can't tell I was very happy to be back near the ocean and less happy about feeding an ostrich. We also toured the town of Franschhoek, visited the beach in Somerset West, climbed Table Mountain, and explored the Waterfront area of Cape Town. Due to rough water our ferry to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned) was cancelled and there was no available tickets for us to go another time. After recently reading Mandela's autobiography, I was disappointed that I would not be able to see the setting of an important part of his life. To round out our week in Cape Town, we had a community engaged learning component with the organization Catholic Welfare and Development. We learned about the wide variety of programs they offer many of which involve sharing art and culture with communities that would otherwise not have access to them but are able to benefit greatly from their healing capabilities.
On Friday, we met with a group of students from Marquette University in Wisconsin who are part of a similar program as us but based in Cape Town. It was fun to talk to them about their experiences and compare the pros and cons of our programs. Many of them have faced similar issues as us in finding their purpose and place in their community work. We left feeling a little jealous of the house they lived in and location in Cape Town but glad that we don't have water rations in Pretoria, have breakfast and dinner cooked for us, and that Fordham plans most of our traveling for us. Ahead of our weekend in Swaziland we had no idea what to expect. Our consolation prize was that at the very least we would get a new stamp in our passport. Fortunately, Swaziland was amazing and our consolation prize was more like an added bonus.
We stayed in a log cabin on Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary where we often crossed paths with springboks and zebras on our walk to the bathroom. Our activities included a dance show at a Swazi cultural village, a 5 hour hike to the top of Execution Rock, visits to craft markets including a glass blowing factory and a candle making studio, and a full day of white water rafting. My book of choice for the weekend was "The Book of Joy" written by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It seemed fitting to learn about how joy comes out of community and compassion for others even in the face of adversity. Having this in the back of my mind all weekend made the trip that much more meaningful. We arrived back in Pretoria on Easter Sunday with an hour to pack before heading to the airport for our flight to Cape Town! Since the last time I wrote an update on our community work, we have been able to make meaningful progress at Soshanguve South Secondary School! We have had the opportunity to talk to grade 11 and grade 12 students about applying to universities and colleges. In order to do this, we had to research the South African application process as it is very different from the one we are used to in the United States. Luckily, Junior Tukkies, University of Pretoria's outreach program, was helpful in giving us background on the process as well as providing some resources for us to handout to the students. We also shared how to apply for financial aid and scholarships as many of the students told us that financial problems would be their biggest challenge to apply to and attend university.
Although we had originally hoped to talk to small groups, we were glad that it ended up with us presenting to full classrooms. After listening to all of the students questions and interest, we realized it would have been a mistake to single out just students that teachers though were interested to hear the information. At the aftercare we made progress on the garden by transferring the beet plants from the cups into the actual garden. We also harnessed the kids energy and love of dancing by bringing our loudest speaker and choreographing a short dance for them. At both sites, the kids have been full of energy as the vacation approaches and we can't blame them as we are all very excited for our trips to Swaziland and Cape Town!! |
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