Submitted by Jennie Lowe on the 2016 winter session program in South Africa sponsored by the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management…
We went on a Pretoria area bus tour, which was beautiful. The land is so vast here. South Africa is interesting because it’s a 3rd world country and a 1st world country. Next to the most prestigious house that even Americans would consider luxury might sit a shack made of scrap metal. While riding on the bus, I saw a zebra and an ostrich on the side of the road, like we might see a deer in the U.S. while driving in the car. Another thing I noticed was the number of women carrying babies on their backs like backpacks, wrapped in a towel. So practical! We visited the palace of justice where Nelson Mandela was found guilty and carried away in a van to his imprisonment. Then we visited the building where he was inaugurated as president. It was surreal seeing these two landmarks right after one another. South Africa is a very young country that has a lot of growing to do. It is the only country that had such an enormous revolution (Mandela coming to power and the apartheid ending) without a major “blood bath.” There were no major wars associated with this revolution. This country has a lot to teach us!
My placement site is the Inkululeko Community Centre. The Center is located in a shanty town that has a lot of unemployment, poverty, hunger, and drug/alcohol problems. The daycare program gives families a safe and cheap place to keep their children while they work. The center has 3 classrooms, from about age 2 to 6. I was in the youngest classroom for most of the day. The first thing I noticed was how bright and big the smiles were on the faces of the children.The children all speak a variety of languages, as do the adults that work at the daycare. Communication is a bit of a problem, but the children pick up on English quickly. The second thing that I noticed was the limited resources the organization had. There was no hand soap in the bathrooms, no sanitation tools and no clean water to drink! The teachers in my classroom, who are from Germany and voluntarily teaching at the daycare, told me that they don’t know if the children get fed at home. That is why they feed them 4 times per day. However, the only thing the children get to drink throughout the day is a cup of tea. They tell the children to drink from the sink when they are washing their hands in the bathrooms. I was appalled by this, especially with it being so hot here. However, seeing how the program runs and how the children live encouraged gratitude in me and taught me that happiness does not ride on the back of material wealth. If these children can be so happy and care-free without all the luxuries other children have, then so can I be happy without the commodities I tell myself I need.
