Cape Town Journey

A New Man?

I had been told before the trip that going to South Africa would be a life changing experience and that I could not help but come back a different person. I had been very skeptical about how truly “different” I would end up being, but I found that after my trip I did in fact feel different. Though I am not now a completely different person, I do feel that I have learnt a lot from my time in Cape Town.

I have found that I do in fact really enjoy community service and working with people young and old. I have always enjoyed the social scene, but interacting with people while doing something with purpose is just all the more satisfying and enjoyable. 

Being back in America, I also now find I have a new appreciation for how privileged I am. Though I have seen with my own eyes that lack of money does not mean lack of happiness, I still find that having poverty at almost its most extreme, I am now much more grateful to be able to live the life I do and a lot more conscious of the poverty that exists throughout the world. 

Hamba Kakuhle

Though we faced many emotional and difficult situations while in Cape Town, saying goodbye to all the kids was perhaps the most challenging and upsetting of them all. Over the three weeks, we had formed quite a close bond with all of the kids while playing soccer with them, working with them, and laughing with them. The knowledge that it was more than likely we would never see the kids’ smiling faces again was hard to come to terms with, and we were even warned by the head of our community service group days before to prepare for goodbyes. I thought this advice was a little ridiculous, but when it came time to leave forever, I realized how difficult it is to completely end a relationship. This goodbye was not just a see you later or see you tomorrow, but it was a see you never again.

After having to say goodbye to the kids, I realized how hard it was going to be to leave everyone on my trip. I had formed strong friendships with a number of people even in such a short period of time, and though it was more possible for me to see those on the trip again, we would never be all together as a group.

White, Black, And Whatever Is Left In Between

On our first day in Cape Town during orientation, a lot of emphasis was put on accepting others, more specifically, accepting other races. We literally had to find someone of a different race, hug them, and say, “I accept you as my brother/sister.” I thought this was insane and essentially pointless, and it wasn’t until we left the Bishops campus that I understood the importance of the activity in South Africa.  

The racial divide in Cape Town and South Africa as a whole is shocking. Though the Apartheid Government has not been in power for 15 years, the race groups in the country remain almost completely separate from one another. During Apartheid, South Africans were separated into blacks, coloreds, and whites, and all groups were kept separate. Blacks are black people from South Africa and are normally darker than coloreds. Coloreds are any people who aren’t white and aren’t from South Africa originally.

Though one might think that blacks and coloreds would bond easily, this is not the case. Blacks generally speak the language Xhosa while coloreds generally speak Afrikaans, and both groups have different cultures and religions as well. Because of these differences, Cape Town is almost completely racially divided. We were told that in the black townships 98% of the residents are black and in the colored townships 85% of the residents are colored (the other 15% being black not white). The whites live in the richer areas, and often have no need to ever go to the black and colored townships. The result of this division is a complete change of scenery and quality of life from one area to another, which was at times disturbing and upsetting to see.