What's your purpose in SA?

16 July (Saturday)

Although the nights are a bit chilly it seems to warm up pretty early. The morning started off with breakfast, I had toast, scrambled eggs and tea (which we drink throughout the day). 

We started off with a quick overview and history of South Africa. The presentation was really good in my opinion. The man was very proud to be South Africa, African as a whole and a black man. When you look at him though most wouldn’t classify him as black since he is not of brown skin. He explained how his mothers side of the family was from the indigenous tribes and although he had some dutch in him, it was mixed together. He welcomed everyone home, stating that Africa is the the place where civilization started. I wish I had been taking notes when he was talking because I can’t remember all that he talked about. He talked about SA before the colonization by Europeans, Dutch and Christian missionaries, apartheid, etc. He spoke a lot about how African were subjugated by Euro/Dutch/Missionaries, how they split families, took away the language and many times the religion of the people, which made it easier to take over. He always referenced something in history in order to show how and why black/whites lived in SA today. He talked about how the affects of apartheid are very relevant today citing family and friends who committed suicide or are in mental institutions because of what they had gone through during those times. 

He talked about how the U.S. government supported the apartheid government event after the UN sent a letter asking for help to bring a stop to all the violence that was going on at the time. He mentioned that every country no matter what has been a part of subjugating humans and it’s not about who has the most fault but it is a part of understanding history. He explained that SAfricans don’t mind talking on the topics even though it is very sensitive. This made me think of how most American especially non-blacks seems to never want to talk about the past and what was done. That is a big difference. I hope I will get a chance to meet those who will sit down and tell their stories, although they are very heartbreaking to hear. 

One questions he asked that stood out to me was: What is your purpose in South Africa? He went on to ask if the reason was to speculate? judge? learn and not change?  experience, learn and think differently in order to act differently? (this isn’t verbatim but it capture the general gist). I think this was a very good question and I will work on answering it to embody what I want to get out of the experience, beyond an education. 

After that we heard a few more words from the coordinators and had lunch. Lunch included a lot of bread (all types) and some traditional SA dishes. I didn’t try too many new things because I didn’t want my stomach to go crazy or anything, everything in moderation. Next I did 2 things I never thought I would do...ever!

I went zip-lining! I was super nervous and almost chickened out. But I ended up loving it. It was so much fun and I wish I would have had time to go on it like 3 more times. I also went hiking. Now for most who know me, well me and the great outdoors don’t really mesh. But I ended up going on a 3 hour hike through the mountains. It was harder than I thought, I got messy, slipped in the river and got some scraps here and there but I made it. I was proud of myself. And although I liked it, I hope no one gets any ideas of going hiking with me in the future. It was a fun experience and I’ll leave it to the outdoor-lovers to keep on hiking. 

After dinner we had a war cry competition. We broke up into teams and each team had to come up with a war cry for the SA rugby team. And the team I was on won! We won food, like a goodie bag type thing with things I would get from Biscottis. Afterwards I learned to play Egyptian Rat Race (I think it was called) with some German and French students. It was fun. I liked listening to them speak English with their accents (because I love accents). The French students agreed that they would help me work on my French and I would help them with their English, so we shall see about that. It was an exciting day and sleep came easy. Seems like I’ve actually been getting more than 6 hours of sleep here which is good for a change :]