By rbhargava
I’ve been in South Africa for over two weeks now, and now am settled into life at Stellenbosch. There’s much I could review and discuss about my past week, so I’ll try my best to highlight the most important and interesting aspects of the past several days.
Last Sunday, I was able to move into my dorm from the Sustainability Institute. My dorm, Metanoia, is the largest residence on campus with about 500 students. There are very few international students here, I’ve met 9 so far, so living here is a fantastic opportunity to meet South African students and fully integrate into the university life here. I’ve already made many friends here, unlike most of the 400 or so international students here for the semester who are living either in private residences or in a university complex that is for international students only. The upcoming week is Metanoia Week, a celebration of the residence, and should be full of many more fun times with local students. I’m very lucky to be living here as I understand many people have study abroad experiences that leave them with few friends from the area they are studying in.
Last week was also the first week of classes. This semester I’m taking three classes – Learning, Sustainability, and Community Engagement (LSCE); Cities, Sustainability and Community, and Transitional Justice in Africa. The LSCE is an innovative 9 credit course that meets Mondays and Fridays at an elementary school outside Stellenbosch. On Mondays, we teach students…I’ve been lucky enough to be placed with 7th graders. Having taught 7th graders previously in India, it will be exciting to compare the two groups. On Fridays, the class returns to the school for an entire day of theory on sustainable community engagement. I’ll most likely be posting entire posts just on this program as it will certainly consume much of my time here. The Cities, Sustainability, and Community course is the one I am taking as part of my CIEE program and began last week with the praxis week at the Sustainability Institute. Lastly, the Transitional Justice in Africa course is one offered at Stellenbosch specifically for international students. I have yet to take an Africa-specific course at GW, and the first lecture of the class seemed very promising and insightful on post-conflict justice in various countries across the continent.
The highlight of the week though was, of course, was getting more exposure to Stellenbosch and South African culture. Students here are extremely friendly and I’ve been able to converse with a few South Africans about what it means to be a South African, specifically post-apartheid. I’ve noticed that while the issues of apartheid are still very apparent and racism still can be found almost everywhere, the students I’ve met at Stellenbosch have little interest in the policies of the past and give hope to a much brighter future. However, that being said, the lack of opportunities in South Africa cause many of the brightest students here to leave the country for better opportunities elsewhere.
I want to end with one specific story that I hope will give a better understanding of what South Africa is like today. Last weekend, I planned a trip to visit Cape Town with a few friends. Over the course of the week, I asked as many people as possible how they got to Cape Town, what means of transportation they recommended, etc. I asked specifically about taking a train there, which was the cheapest and easiest option. To give some background on the train system here, trains are traditionally only used by blacks and coloreds, and therefore have a certain reputation. Some students told me to avoid the train at all costs, while others told me to only take first-class during rush hour, and others had told me to go in a large group. On the other hand, one white South African girl told me she had traveled alone on the train once and was fine. My friends and I ended up taking the train to Cape Town and back and had no problems, although we definitely didn’t feel completely safe on it. The lesson here though is the remnants of apartheid are evident in everyday life. Trains are still “for the blacks”, and white South Africans will rarely use them. From what I’ve been told, no one has been murdered on the train system we used, but the decades old reputation of the train system persists. “Blacks use the trains…and therefore its dangerous.” Too many people here are isolated from other racial groups and relatively content with what is going on, and that only perpetuates the problems of apartheid.