Lianna & Brenna
The dichotomy of being here has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. Some days, I feel as though I am on top of the world – nothing can stop me from enjoying every moment I spend in this inspiring country. On other days, the evidence of oppression lingering throughout the city sinks into my soul and weighs me down. Seesawing between these two transcending realities evokes within me an intense spectrum of emotion that I have never been so intimate with, especially so consistently within such a short period of time.
So much has happened since my last post. I’ve been at my internship for four weeks now and as I get more comfortable with SAEP being there becomes more and more rewarding. Forging new relationships with a group of warm-hearted, motivated people is so exciting. Lianna and I will finally be doing our environmental afterschool program in three schools in Philippi, and I am so looking forward to really getting to know the learners. I’m also getting closer with everyone on the trip, which is so fulfilling. Between internships, classes and every day experiences we are learning so much here and sharing it with one another; I love exchanging thoughts and ideas with my “co-educators”! We’ve all been trying to get to know locals, too, who have so much to say. Every day I learn something new about South African people and culture, which enlightens my perspective not only on local but global social issues. Being exposed to such a diverse community of individuals every day is exactly what I wanted out of coming here and the experience has made me think, learn and feel more than I ever imagined.
With this sincere excitement comes genuine despair and anger. With the more I learn, the more I know about harsh realities that plague so many people. Oppression and all the indirect effects of it have never been so consistently and bluntly in my face as they are here. More than half the people that I see on a regular basis live in extreme poverty and have grown up being normalized to various forms of subjugation. Between recognizing this and applying it to what I’m learning in classes, whose topics are so perfectly linked to the experiences we go through here, I realize how deeply embedded oppression is into historical and modern times, which overwhelms me with desperation. How did the world become this unfair when it doesn’t have to be? In Marita’s class, we watched a movie called Race: The Power of an Illusion, which illustrates how racism is an arbitrary social construct that came to fruition because a series of megalomaniacs decided that adding significance to a meaningless biological trait was the best way for people like them to succeed. Being exposed to this in class and then seeing the pervasiveness of racism in Cape Town has been mind-blowing. What I am seeing here mirrors what goes on in the rest of the country and world with varying issues, and I hate that so much injustice comes out of such meaningless norms.
Sometimes, I can drive through the townships and informal settlements and disregard the anger because I want to enjoy and celebrate the beautiful people who live there; but other times, my heart breaks to see the conditions in which my sissies and bhutis live. As challenging as this binary of realities is, these are the perspectives through which I know I will live the rest of my life. I want to know the beauty of it all while also sharing in the pain, so that I can do my part in making this world better. With all that said, there is no doubt in my mind that Cape Town is the perfect place for me to be right now.
Vernon & Brenna dancing at Blue Chip
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