Katherine's focus on the positive

Cape Town Study AbroadCoordinator & Capetonian Extraordinaire,Vernon Rose with Katherine on Signal Hill

These past few days we were given the opportunity to visit each others’ internship sites. On our way to the last internship site, we stopped off for lunch. While we were waiting for our food, the woman working at the counter started asking us questions about where we were from. As we got to talking, she told us that she would love to come back to American with us. One of the girls in our group replied by saying she would gladly switch places with her and live in South Africa. As this conversation was going on, I couldn’t help but think about how amazing it would be to live in this city, as well as why on earth anyone would want to leave this place. But then I thought to myself “Am I saying this because I’m a white middle class American here for a short period of time?” I mean while three months may seem like a long time to stay in a country, it’s no measure to actually living there. The sad reality is that as beautiful as this country is, there is still so many issues facing this country- this city. After hearing about the issues of social, economical, political, as well as sexual injustice mentioned at the internship sites, you begin to realize just how much depth there is to this city beyond mountain ranges. However, I did observe another aspect of Cape Town through the various internship sites; as much as the people of this country are facing poverty and crime and injustice, they all still seem to focus on the lighter aspects of life. There wasn’t a single internship that we visited where people didn’t mention the beneficial impacts that have occurred in Cape Town. And I hope that that is something that I can take out of this experience- having such a positive attitude on life, focusing on the good rather than dwelling on the bad. And I hope that as I work at my internship, I, too can be a part of that difference that keeps people of this town focused on the positive.