Anna coming back to the idea that she's only a partially developed learner

Anna preparing to present as part of her group project

Last weekend our group got back on our giant tour bus and travelled about an hour outside of the city to participate in our Human Rights Training Weekend.  The weekend was held by an organization called Africa Unite, where two of us are interning, that focuses on issues of xenophobic violence in South Africa.  There were about twenty five South Africans in addition to the twenty three of us, so not only was this the first time I had really learned anything about refugee/migrant rights, but also the first time I’ve actually gotten to interact with a large group of South Africans outside of internships.  Although the workshops were informative, I felt the mixing of cultures was where the true spirit of the weekend lived for me.  There was this moment on the first morning, when we were all sitting around waiting to begin our first workshop, with no idea of what was to come.  Suddenly I heard a beautiful and powerful voice singing over the chatter of the group.  One of the South African women, Amanda, who we have met before at our various community dinners, had begun a song out of the blue.  Even more amazing was that almost immediately four or five other South Africans joined in, and before I knew it the noise of a restless room had been transformed into song and dance.  At the end everyone was settled, and we started the workshop.  This happened several times throughout the weekend, and at the end of the week we were singing along with everyone and learning dances ourselves.

 The mixing of cultures became apparent in other ways throughout the weekend as well.  In the beginning, we were divided up into countries, and told that we would need to present our plea for money from the UN at the end of the weekend.  At this point in my life, I’ve done enough group projects in school to have a basic idea of how these interactions play out.  Interacting within our countries, however, with people from such different backgrounds and cultures from me, made me start to question how much of what I think I know is based on how I’ve learned to interact with people who are like me.  Once again I’m coming back to the idea that I’m only a partially developed learner- that by only learning with mostly people from my race, and mostly my socioeconomic status, my skills are only half there.  I’m continuing to see how the ways white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism shape a society hurt everyone living within it.