When I told people that I was going to South Africa for three weeks, I received the same reaction: one of general excitement, but always with a word of caution. “Have fun, but be safe” was a commonly heard phrase in the days before my departure. I left for South Africa forewarned, excited, and ready for anything.
Our group met up with the lively Professor Lamb-Faffelberger in JFK airport on New Year’s Eve. After a seemingly never-ending flight, we stepped out to a beautiful, warm South African evening. Our first night was spent recovering from jet-lag in a hotel in Johannesburg. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant, where we sampled the local flavors of Springbok and Ostrich (both of which tasted like beef to me).
The next day, we embarked on a six-hour drive to Kruger National Park, where we spent the next two days on safari. The journey itself was an adventure; the air-conditioning on the bus was broken and the windows don’t open on a “luxury coach.” I never thought that I would joyfully step outside in the middle of a South African summer day to cool off. But, I must say, the sauna bus was worth the trip.
Our safari left the next morning between 3:45 and 5:15 a.m. to maximize our chances of seeing animals. Over the course of the day we saw elephants, lions, giraffes, kudu, water buffalo, wildebeest, rhinos, hippos, and more. By the end of the safari, impalas, elephants, and giraffes were so common to us that we didn’t even stop the truck.
With another early morning came more excitement. It rained throughout the night and my group was signed up for a morning bushwalk. The ground was damp and our trail was inhibited by a rain-induced stream, but a little stream couldn’t stop us. Before we knew it, all of us were barefoot with our pants rolled to our knees, wading through the water. The largest animal we saw was a crab, but the thrill of our bare feet in scenery that resembled the Lion King far surpassed any disappointment.
With our cameras full of beautiful scenery and exotic animals, we left Kruger and flew to Cape Town. Our next two and a half weeks were spent at the University of Stellenbosch, about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town. We began the second portion of our trip with a tour of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, and everything in between. I found Stellenbosch similar to home: suburban with decent-sized houses and a cute downtown area. However, the houses and campus buildings were all protected by gates and walls topped with barbed-wire. We weren’t in Kansas anymore.
As our tour continued, we first visited Khayelitsha and handed out bread, candy, and soda to shoeless children that enthusiastically sang the South African national anthem three times for us at the top of their lungs. Nicknamed “the land of milk and honey,” Khayelitsha is a black township that houses 1.5 million people in a 47 square-kilometer space. Government aid takes the form of a few cinder-block houses and small clusters of toilets throughout the settlement, but the most common homes were corrugated-iron shacks.
Our next stop was the District Six Museum in Cape Town. As we walked in, the floor was covered by a large map with names signed along the streets. The founder of the museum informed us that he himself once lived in District Six, an area in which people of all races, religions, and backgrounds lived harmoniously. He told us that in the 1960s, the apartheid government evicted residents of District Six and demolished the buildings, declaring it a “whites only area.” The names, we learned, were those of evictees, who are invited to sign at their former homes.
The tour finished at the V&A Waterfront: a touristy mall filled with stores such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Tag Heuser, and more. In the course of a few hours, we witnessed extreme poverty in a black township, forced removal from the well-integrated District Six, and extravagant luxury at the waterfront. It was quite an overwhelming day.
Over the next two weeks, we fell into a routine at the university and our classes helped us to understand what we had seen on the tour. Each week day, we had lectures from professors at the University of Stellenbosch. We learned about South African history and politics, beginning with colonialism in the 1600s and ending with contemporary South African society. We learned of the struggle during apartheid and those that fought for democracy. We heard from artists and writers that use their work to grapple with their experiences during years of apartheid and with life post-apartheid. With the little Xhosa (pronounced ko-sa) we learned, we sang along to Tshotsholoza (pronounced cho-cho-lo-sa), a song about migrant labor in the mines.
On weekends and afternoons, we ventured outside of Stellenbosch for a range of touristy and educational outings. At the top of Table Mountain, we saw breath-taking views of Cape Town from above. We distributed crayons, markers, coloring books, pencils, and games to elementary schools in townships. We toured Robben Island, walking through the cells of former prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. Along Silverman Hike, we could look to our left and see the Indian Ocean and then look to our right and see the Atlantic. We survived 70 mph winds on a mountainous hike to the Cape of Good Hope, and at J.L. Zwane Community Center, we heard from the talented musical group “Siyaya” which promotes knowledge and awareness about HIV/AIDS.
Our classroom lectures provided background information and knowledge while our outings were first-hand experiences of South African culture. However, the stark inequality that we witnessed on our first tour was prominent both in and outside the classroom. Professors lectured on apartheid’s migrant labor system, forced removals, and prohibition of interracial relationships. At restaurants, our servers were usually colored (a South African term used to define an interracial person) or black and the schools we visited thanked us, as they had no crayons prior to our visit. Yet, on the waterfront we saw beautiful, grandiose homes (gated, of course). For most of our touristy outings, the cost was at least R100 (about 14 USD, but about two months’ pay for many families).
Despite warnings and precautions, we were greeted warmly by rich and poor alike. We found South Africans to be extremely friendly and eager to have us participate in their culture. Thanks to their welcoming graces, we engulfed ourselves in the history and culture of South Africa in three short weeks.
On our last night, we had a farewell braai (Afrikaans for barbecue) to celebrate our trip. It was the perfect opportunity to enjoy our last bit of South African culture, thank Professor Lamb-Faffelberger and the faculty of Stellenbosch University, and reminisce about our amazing and enlightening experience abroad. |
