Esto es Africa!

 

Yebo! (“Hello” in Zulu)

I have safely arrived in Pietzmaritzburg South Africa at our African Enterprise Campus and it has been a whirlwind of a trip thus far. We left at 1:45am September 7^th and proceeded to go to LAX. From LAX we flew to Washington DC, DC to Dakar Senegal to fill up our tank, and Senegal to Johannesburg. By the time we arrived in Jburg I had no idea what day or time it was. I slept well on the airplane so the travel time was not as terrible as I thought it would be for a restless 20 year old.

Freedom Charter Memorial-10 Pillers 1955

Once we got to JBurg we were greeted by Quinton who would be our professor in Capetown but had met us in JBurg to begin our History and Culture Class. Quinton happens to have been one of my dear friends from Oregon Allie Low’s professor last fall when she was in Capetown and thus it felt SO nice to have someone who knew someone important to me while in my first few days in Africa. Our group loved Quinton and I can’t wait to see him again in Capetown. Quinton helped us get situated, got us on a bus to our hotel, got us dinner and to bed promptly. Our CLC’s (community life coordinator) Reagan and Janet also met us. Reagan and Janet live with us throughout the trip and are like our RD’s or someone that is always around for us to ask questions too and to help us organize things. Janet is 22 and Reagan is recently married.

The next day we headed to Apartheid Museum in JBurg. It was amazing! Allie had told me that it would be interesting, but I didn’t realize how good it would be. Sadly, Kathryn, Janelle and I somehow missed the MAIN exhibit and spent two hours in the side Mandela exhibit. However, I still learned a ton about him and I found it so interesting. I had always understood that Mandela was an incredible leader, I had not understood however, how incredibly educated he was.

Apartheid Museum-Johannesburg South Africa

From there, we took a tour of Soweto with our tour guides Cindy and Alaina who are from Soweto (black township). We learned SO much information about the area and we were able to see Mandela’s house that he stayed at before he was put into jail and for eleven days once he was out of jail. I was intrigued by how simple of a house he had in the middle of a street/township.

After our tour of Soweto we were able to run by the soccer stadium from the 2010 world cup. It was huge!

September 9^th was a travel day for us. We flew from Johannesburg to Durbin and then took a bus to Pietmaritzburg. Let me just say, I would be fine with never traveling that much again! I still feel a little confused on meals, what day it is, when to sleep but that may also be because they run us hard! Once at our campus in Pietmaritzburg, we were assigned to a chalet. The chalet has four rooms, two bedrooms, and a little sitting area. Once on campus we jumped into orientations and moving in. We jumped in so quickly that we have hardly had time for anything else.

Prayer Chapel on Campus

This morning we woke up and went straight to class to begin our history and culture lectures. The difference about our lectures here and normal lectures is that the history of South Africa is FASCINATING. South Africa truly has had so many changes even in the last 16 years and our professor Reg is so educated and has literally lived through the changes. Reg is a professor that is more like our Dad, and is called “Papa Reg”. He is so kind and makes learning not seem like a chore. Perhaps the best part though is that we learn about things and then go and see them. Today for example we learned about where Gandhi was first kicked off the train because he was Indian and riding in first class which sparked his want for equality in both India and South Africa. Something that would after his original dream would continue as a problem in SA for 100 years.

Current Struggles

-Tea time at 10 and 4 is fantastic, however Kat and I cannot resist the Chocolate muffins and cookies-they literally melt in your mouth (We plan to implement this back at APU, everyone needs a social break!)

-Opening our Chalet’s door-the key is impossible and we have to lock and un lock so that monkeys do not invade

-Remembering that I am in minority!

-Knowing that I am going to have schoolwork and homework

-Monkeys that surround you and make Kat and I scream as we are trying unlock our chalet door

-Not having showers that work in our chalet, they are fixing that!

Kathryn and I's Room

-Remembering that in fact WE have the funny accents and weird names

-Exhaustion and Altitude

This has been a fantastic experience so far and I am so thankful to be here although it was tough to leave APU. I feel thankful for all the encouraging notes friends gave me as I left and have sent me so far.