UConn -> Cape Town: Kayla's excursion filled with learning and adventure

Kayla and Terri at the Nelson Mandela House

This past week we traveled to Johannesburg for 5 days and then to Kruger National Park for 3 days. The whole trip was an unbelievable experience. Johannesburg was filled with various museums and learning experiences. We went to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital which is one of the biggest hospitals in the southern hemisphere. This hospital is located in Soweto. It was amazing to hear all of the things that the hospital has done and still continues to do for the community. They have many programs in place to help with HIV/AIDS as well as many other illnesses that the community faces. We also visited Nelson Mandela’s home which was also located in Soweto (the largest township in South Africa). There, we learned about a lot of his family and his past before imprisonment and what happened after he was released. I really enjoyed seeing the place where Mandela spent a large portion of his life.

Some of the museums/sites we visited included the Apartheid Museum, the Hector Pieterson Memorial Site, the Sharpeville Memorial, and Memorial Johannesburg Prison and Constitutional Court. These places were absolutely amazing. The Apartheid Museum was so big and had so much to see that I really think I could have stayed there for days. Before we went in, we were given at random our tickets to enter and on each one, there was a label which said either “white” or “non-white.” And that determined which entrance you were allowed to walk through. I liked how that kind of put things into perspective of how people actually lived and how separate everyone was with people who were not in their race. As much as I loved the museum and all of the learning and videos, it was also really hard at times. It’s hard to believe how people were treated here during apartheid and how it only ended 17 years ago. People who were not white were not treated like humans in any sense and were constantly dealing with abuse and torture. Hearing personal stories and watching videos of how police officers treated people was really disheartening and upsetting. It is amazing to me that these people continued to fight back and resist this oppression to stand up for their rights. And after that long, hard struggle, apartheid ended and they are still on the road to an equal country. I really loved to hear what black and coloured people did during this struggle and how hopeful they were throughout that time. Many of them fought till their death and put up with unimaginable torture to stand up and fight for equality and resist the oppression of apartheid.

Hector Pieterson was a young boy who was shot to death when protesting with a bunch of other school children for educational rights. The government was oppressing them by forcing the teachers to teach the classes in Afrikaans which made it even harder for the students to learn. During this protest, the police officers were shooting shamelessly into the crowd of kids. Many innocent people were injured and died here who were just standing up for their education so they could learn and have a future. The Sharpeville Memorial was also hard at times because it was at the police station where the Sharpeville Massacre occurred. 69 people died here and around 180 were injured. The sad thing about this is that the people came unarmed and the police opened fire on them and continued to do so until there was silence. Most of the people who died were shot in the back which shows that they were running away when they were shot and not fighting or resisting. This just goes to show the countless torture and carelessness of anyone who is not white. The Memorial and Johannesburg Prison displayed the conditions that people lived in while in prison and the differences between white and non-white prisoners. I couldn’t believe that even in prison, people were treated so differently. One of the hardest things that I learned while being there is the amount of torture that was put upon people of color. Some people were put in solitary confinement for such long amounts of time, even lasting up until one year. I could not imagine being in an enclosed cell with no lighMOt or anything for that matter for a whole year. I feel like that is one of the worst types of torture because the person is secluded from all life and never knows what time of day it is and how much time is going by and what not. And the thing that bothers me the most is that these people who are locked in this solitary confinement usually didn’t do much of anything wrong. Visiting these places definitely gave a bitter sweet feeling when thinking about what these people went through but then knowing that they did succeed with what they were fighting for.

Morning Safari at Kruger

The end of the trip was definitely a change of pace. Kruger National Park was awesome! We went on a sunset safari the day we got there and the next morning we went on a sunrise safari. Both were amazing experiences. We saw many animals including giraffes, elephants, impalas, rhinos, hippos, wildebeests, a lion, and more that I do not know the names of. The lion actually walked right by our truck! It was so cool to see these animals in their natural habitat and observe how they live. Some of us also went on a safari walk in the evening which was also a great experience. There were about 10 of us and 2 guides who drove us to a place where we then parked and walked through some of the land. We walked pretty far into the woodsy area and saw a few animals from a distance as well as many different insects. It was really cool because a lot of the time, we could feel the ground vibrating along with hearing in the distance the loud stomping of the elephants or big animals walking around. While walking through, I felt so small amongst everything and it really gave me a different perspective of it all. I really enjoyed the walk although I was pretty scared a lot of the time. I loved being at Kruger. The whole trip was just an amazing experience and it was nice to also learn a lot while having such a great time. But now that we are back, this means that we only have 5 weeks left here so I hope that we will make the most of it!