Thus
far I have had the most amazing experience in Cape Town. I can't imagine how
much more I will experience in the next 3 months here. Although I've already
learned and done so much, Cape Town isn't exactly how I expected it to be.
Before coming over 7,000 miles from home, I tried to come without any
expectations and an open mind. Even though I wasn't expecting much there have
been a few things here in Cape Town that have surprised me.
First,
the most shocking thing for me has been seeing how extraordinary the disparity
is between the poor and the rich in the area. On certain streets you can drive
down and see nice houses on one side of the road, while there is informal housing
or townships on the opposite side.
Also,
I had no idea there would be such an enormous amount of informal settlements. It
is awful seeing the conditions in which some people have to live in. It makes
me especially sad when I see families that are homeless. The other day when a
couple friends and I were walking to Woolworths (the local grocery store), we
passed a homeless family. The father was going through trash cans looking for
recyclables while his wife walked alongside him and he rolled his two young
children in a beaten up small shopping cart. This is just one of the many
homeless families I have encountered in the past couple of weeks. It is typical
here to see people sleeping on random street corners and beggars on the street.
It shocked me when a homeless man came up to me for the first time and simply
asked for my leftovers. Now I know that this is a normal experience here
because of how many times people have asked me for food or my leftovers. I have
yet to turn someone down for food, but there have been a couple times I wasn’t
able to give people money, which is extremely difficult. This is because I know
I am so lucky to be in the position that I am in and the homeless person asking
for money will never have as much privilege as I do. Every day on this trip I
feel like the luckiest person in the world because of how fortunate I am.
I
feel that orientation did a great job of incorporating a lot of what Cape Town
has to offer in a short, exciting two weeks. I've learned so much already not
only through meeting locals, but by going to the District 6 Museum, the Slave Lodge, the Transcending Slave History Tour,
and the Sivuyile Baptist Church. My favorite experience so far was going to the
Sivuyile Baptist Church because even though the people who go to the church
come from such poor areas, they were in high spirits and so kind to us. I have
never felt so united with other people around me that I had just met.
I
also loved going to see my internship for the first time. I wasn’t exactly sure
what I would be doing before except for the fact that I would be working at
City Mission Educational Services. This school has 130 students that weren’t
able to make it in mainstream schools. The school recognizes that everyone has
different ways of learning and caters to each individual students learning
needs. Now that I found out more details I can’t wait to start working there on
Monday!
Regarding
the new presidency in the US, I have gotten many questions from people in Cape
Town about my opinion on Trump. Every time you tell someone you are from
America it is the first question they have to ask. To my surprise, whether
white or black, the people I have encountered here have told me they would have
voted for Trump and think that his new approach is a good idea for our country.
When I questioned why they were Trump supporters they actually didn’t know much
about him at all and were shocked to hear that he is not the person they
thought he was.
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