When we stepped out of the airport and I was hit with
a gust of wind and the realization that this is my home for the next 3 and a
half months. Our first week here has been amazing, filled with visiting the
outrageously gorgeous coast of South Africa and learning about the country’s
history, in particular the apartheid government and seeing the scars those laws
left on this beautiful city.
Before I get carried away with my experiences this
first week allow me to introduce myself! I am sophomore and aspiring Secondary
(6th-12th grades) Earth Science teacher, I applied to the
Neag School of Education this past fall semester and I will learn about my
acceptance in March while on this trip! I also have a passion for music so I
decided to take up a music minor just for fun. Because of my love for teaching
and kids I wanted to work in a school while here and I was placed in Christel
House. This school is K-12 and strives to break the cycle of poverty by giving
kids an education and also helping their family. I am extremely excited to
start interning there and see how they accomplish this goal and start helping
make it happen.
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| Lindsay on the coast to Cape Point |
This first week has been breathtaking for numerous
reasons, our drive up the coast to Cape Point showed us the natural beauty of
the area and I fulfilled the role of a tourist quite well, taking numerous
pictures and just gawking at what was in front of me. I have yet to get used to
looking up behind my house and seeing Table Mountain just casually placed as
the backdrop. The next kind of breathtaking was just from learning the history
and connecting it to the present. Going to the historical District 6 museum
where we learned more in depth about the destruction of culturally rich
communities such as District 6 during the relocations under apartheid laws.
Today all that is left is barren land, meant to remind people about the
horrible things that certain communities went through because the government
believed one race to supreme over others. In the same week we also got to see
penguins! I have been all over the place emotionally; excited to be here, sad
to not be at home, in awe of the natural beauty this place has to offer,
dumbfounded by the amount of poverty, crushed by hearing peoples stories of
being pulled from their homes, and eager to start working at helping this still
suffering community heal from the social injustice that has occurred and its
ongoing consequences.
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