Amelia missing Cape Town everyday but treasuring the lessons learned

This program does something to people that is particularly unique and special for a study abroad program; it truly changes lives. There’s no doubt in my mind that I was a very different person last year than I am today. I don’t think I was as confident in my capabilities or myself or as focused. Not to say that I’m extremely focused now, but I’m more focused in pointing my life in the direction I want it to be in with the confidence that where ever I end up after graduation I will be successful and that’s definitely something I didn’t feel last year. I was very nervous about where I’ll end up, what my career would be, and that I would have to settle for a job I don’t like because it’s all I could get. But after focusing my studies in human rights in both America and abroad in South Africa I realized where my passions lie and that my career options are anything but limited. But it’s more than that, after living in Cape Town for 4 months and working in communities that welcomed me with open arms, I have grown as a person. I’m more compassionate, understanding, and can find more value in the relationships I have. I have learned to accept people with different opinions as me and search for the commonalities that bring us together. I miss Cape Town every day, but the memories, friends, and lessons I learned there I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

Bryan believes his time in Cape Town helped him explore himself.

Now that I have been home for almost 4 months I can’t help, but to think of Cape Town as a closed chapter in my life (at the moment). Since I returned to the states I have not had many opportunities to share what Cape Town is like or even look back at the pictures from my time there, but I feel that its due to me getting right back into the groove of things as a recent grad I feel like there wasn’t enough time to really self-reflect when dealing with more pressing matters. The faint memories that I have of the trip are less to do with the extracurricular aspects like seeing exotic animals like lions, or trying new foods, but are all of the people that I was able to interact with and the moments that I spent self-reflecting in Cape Town. One thing that I still find amazing is my memory of the Environment if you will, for example I can remember how to get to my old internship and I remember how the house we stayed at was set up and the address. I can even perfectly describe the Rondebosch Commons and the Mountains further out as if these images have been engrained.

I believe that Cape Town provided me with the ability to really visualize what I want the world around me to represent personally and professionally. Unlike most people I can’t say that I feel that I have changed from the person who I was prior, but I believe that Cape Town gave me the confidence and the ability to show traits of myself that I didn’t have an outlet to reveal or was too afraid to show. I believe that this program did a great job helping me explore myself whether it be a deeper understanding of my personality with the Myers-Briggs Indicator and learning how to expand and improve less developed areas for INTJs. Alternatively it could be the internship that I had which showed me an outsider perspective of my career field and showed me the amount of work required to be successful at grassroots organizing and tackling social issues. It could even be the day to day conversations with my co-educators and random citizens of Cape Town, who through discussion of the world helped me to solidify my goals that I had prior to leaving the U.S.

If I could rate the program I believe I would give it a solid 8/10 as a minimum the program really does try to take students out of their comfort zones and forces them to adapt to situations whether that be understanding how the transportation system works, understanding the various languages, or even understanding the social and economic factors that have made South Africa into the country that you see today. If there was anything that I could change I would have loved to stay in the townships, rather than the suburbs of Rondebosch where students can complain about bad Wi-Fi, appliances, insects, and many more insignificant “problems”. I say this only, because I believe that most students leaving the U.S. to travel abroad to South Africa understand the well-off side of the spectrum of economic disparity, but they don’t necessarily get to see the extreme poverty and how living in areas like townships will affect every aspect of your life. But when we only have to interact with coworkers who live in townships or go to work in townships for a part of the day in some cases. I feel as though we are using our privilege of wealth to escape the harsh reality that most people face which rubs me as exploiting the people who live there for personal gain.

Charity looking forward to further exploring possibilities

It’s very surprising to realize I’ve been back from Cape Town almost six months. I got back in time to walk at graduation and have since received my physical degree (which is supposedly symbolic as a compilation of all my work from undergrad) in the mail (WOOOHOO!!!!). It feels good to have closed that chapter. I’m not one to hold onto things once they’re done so I was ready to take on the challenge of finding my first post graduate adventure. Following a summer of traveling to some new spots in the U.S. and reconnecting with family and friends, that turned out to be interning in the Senate.

My experiences in the Senate have been interesting and informative and I’ve appreciated being able to get an up close and in person look into how U.S. politics really functions. I’ve had the opportunity to attend some incredible hearings and briefings on topics around foreign affairs, housing, and high maternal mortality in the U.S. It’s particularly interesting to be here during an election year, especially with such a contentious presidential election happening. I’m still committed to being involved with politics and social justice issues within the U.S. but following Cape Town, I also realized that I wanted to explore opportunities in the international development field, with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Being in Cape Town opened the door for me to consider a completely different career path from what I originally envisioned. I really like the idea of being able to use the knowledge base I’ve gained as an Africana Studies major as a more central part of my career rather than a supplement. I also like the opportunity that this particular field presents to be engaged in more on the ground/in the field type work. Once my internship wraps up, I’m planning to transition into a position focused more within the international development field, so that I can gain that experience and discern if this is the right career move for me.

Time is seriously flying by. The holiday season is upon us and a new year is in sight. I’m hopeful that I’ll continue to utilize and grow from the knowledge I’ve learned and that my passion to make a difference in the world will be tested, empowered and realized in this upcoming year especially with so many potential opportunities and adventures on the horizon. As always, I look forward to moving forward and seeing what lies ahead.

Josh reflects on the past year as he prepares for the future

It’s pretty surreal to think that this time last year I was accepted into the UConn abroad in Cape Town program and would soon be leaving for a life-changing journey.  In reflecting on all that has happened and how I have changed in the last year, I truly am grateful that God gave me the opportunity to spend time in South Africa.  The experience I had in Cape Town was everything and so much more than I anticipated when leaving the US.  I expected the trip to be exploratory in nature to help me determine whether a career in development was what I wanted to pursue.  The trip ended up providing that answer and so much more.  I currently am applying to graduate programs to further study results-based development.  In the long run, I would love to mobilize the Christian community to lead change overseas.  I recognize that many view and will view this as controversial, but I believe the opportunity is immense.  Recently, I have been drawing up ideas seeking to create a sustainable business model that would utilize short-term programs to generate long-term solutions to some of the challenges I observed while overseas.  The model will seek to further develop entrepreneurs across developing countries, a skillset I found in abundance in both South Africa and in Ecuador over the summer.  No matter where I end up or what I end up doing, the key for me in life has always been about the why.  The trip to South Africa helped solidify that the “why” in my life in the past and in the future must be rooted in my faith in Jesus.  I’m grateful for what I learned and the many ways in which I was challenged.  I wish my co-educators and the future program participants all the best in their own life’s journey.  And to my friends from South Africa, I am confident that I will be back in Cape Town one day soon!

Eric integrating lessons learned into life lived

 

Libby, Maria, Mariko & Eric sharing their experiences at the Education Abroad Fair

Needless to say, I have undergone many changes in the way I think, feel, and behave as a result of my experience in Cape Town. As I had anticipated, my experience in the clinic taught me many practical healthcare skills, such as taking blood pressure, measuring blood glucose, and giving injections. However, Sister Castle and the other clinic staff taught me many life lessons including interpersonal skills and how to empathize with patients. I think that one of the biggest changes I have noticed in myself as a result of my time in the clinic, at my activist project, and in class is my ability to empathize. I have always done my best to put myself in others’ shoes, but now I make that a priority in every interaction. Like we learned about in our stereotyping unit, it is natural for the human brain to sort people into categories, but we can’t let that dictate how we treat someone. My co-educators were instrumental in my understanding of challenging issues concerning race, privilege, gender, human rights, and more. Under normal circumstances, if I were taking a class that I did not know much about, it would be easy to coast along and get a passing grade. But being surrounded by so many people, enlightening conversations were never hard to come by at home or over dinner. I really looked forward to reading through the discussion board to see how different people reacted to the same material, highlighting the unique learning opportunities that come with an interdisciplinary group of co-educators. Dealing with social issues in the classroom and on the streets of Cape Town all semester has changed how I view my role in the medical field and how I view my role as an activist and an ally. This semester made me realize that healthcare does not exist in a vacuum, and that, like Mary Bassett discussed in her TED Talk, it is very much divided by racial and class lines. I want to be sure that my future employer takes steps to make healthcare affordable and accessible for all, and that I will have the opportunity to teach health education and promotion. I learned so much from my co-educators in terms of privileges afforded to white males, so I really feel that since returning to the United States, I have paid close attention to those privileges and done my best to reject them. My co-educators also taught me how I can use my voice to be an ally without necessarily taking the attention away from the leaders of a movement. At the risk of sounding “extremist” or “radical,” I have become more unashamed of my positions and what I feel is right, and have made them known to close friends who hold opposing views. I think that being surrounded by Capetonian culture where people are so passionate and vocal for their rights has made me realize that I have been observing from the sidelines for too long.

Through journaling, completing in-class exercises, and having conversations with my co-educators, I came to understand the value of regular self-reflection. It helped me process many of my changing thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs and allowed me to shift my frame of reference from time to time. As I reflect upon my time in Cape Town, I realize that I am still undergoing constant revision and am certainly not yet the person I want to be. The values exercise that I completed the other week made me realize how much emphasis I place on values such as understanding, empathy, fairness, and equality. These have not been the easiest to integrate into my daily life, so I want to make sure I am trying to live them out whenever I can. These are not as easy to measure as success and achievement, so I will need to be patient and stay committed. As I have mentioned a few times before, I did not expect to get so much enjoyment out of attending poetry readings, plays, and other aspects of the fine arts. I will admit that I have not been as participatory in these events as I was in Cape Town. I want to start to incorporate these into my weekly routine more often because they allowed me to learn about unfamiliar topics through fun, alternate media. With so many events happening on campus, this shouldn’t be too hard. Finally, in order to make my hope for the future a reality, I need to become civically and politically engaged in movements that I care about. This means supporting leaders and politicians that hold positions that align with my beliefs. This means shopping or seeking jobs at businesses or corporations that treat its employees fairly and carry out business in ways that are ethical. Just because things are the status quo for now, does not mean that they always have to be.

Megan H crucial realization that justice is not purely academic

Today, although I am in the same path regarding my career, I feel like a very different person. I am still concerned with resume building, however my internship in Cape Town showed me that fighting for causes that mean something and getting job experience do not have to be mutually exclusive. I am vastly more socially conscious, and saw first hand the tangible effects social policy has on the every day lives of incredible people. Working with activists, volunteering with kids and being in a community that has seen so much turmoil to achieve democracy and equality taught me that justice is not purely academic; it is greatly emotional and personal. Unless you understand that, you don’t understand the need for justice in the first place. I am now much more aware of mindsets that are distinctly American, or western, that much of the world does not share. Not everyone in the world is primarily concerned with their career; not everyone in the world believes that it is “every man for themselves” all the time; not everyone in the world is taught to be skeptical of strangers. These things are all distinctly related to American individualism and exceptionalism, and do not constitute the worldview of a majority of humans. I realize now that I am not the “norm,” I am extremely privileged. I benefit not only from demographic aspects like being white, coming from a middle-upper class family, etc. but from living in a stable country, from having sanitary infrastructure around me, living in a country where the majority of media comes from, etc. These were things that I would never have realized had I never left the country, and gone to Cape Town specifically.

Isabel and Megan

Amelia feels blessed to have an experience that opened her eyes

I’ve been home for about 4 weeks now since leaving Cape Town. When I first got here I wasn’t happy at all. Yes I was excited to see my family and friends but I knew nothing had changed here while I had changed so much and I was dreading the basic question of “how was Africa?” When I first arrived I did a few things that was unlike my extraverted self. Within the first couple of days my mom wanted me to go to the city and go to all these dinners and be with a bunch of people and I just refused. I wanted nothing more than to lock myself up in my room for a few days and just reflect on my experience, which doesn’t seem like a big deal but for me it definitely was. I did that until I went to surprise my friends at school, which helped a lot with coping of the reality of my life at home. Honestly I was surprised at how so many people expected me to be able to summarize my entire 4 months there into a few sentences. I made them ask me specific questions and really just talked about my experience when it seemed relevant or they seemed genuinely interested. 

Overall coming to terms with my home life hasn’t been as emotionally difficult as I expected but trying not to fall back into those old traps of what I used to do has been difficult. I’ve been trying to read instead of watching TV, eat healthy again (because I definitely let that go while I was in Africa), and just trying to think as I would in Cape Town. Me thinking as if I was still in CT and at Africa Unite is what led me to write a letter to the MTA because I felt they were doing a disservice to the surrounding areas by not having student discounts on their extremely expensive tickets. My parents and friends laughed at me but I felt good knowing that I was taking some sort of action to express my anger and I know I would have laughed too if I didn’t get the exposure I had gotten in CT. Honestly I just feel blessed to have had an experience that has opened my eyes to the many fascinations of this world and that I’m able to further that connection by keeping in contact with the wonderful people I met there. This won’t be the last of me, Cape Town!

Kayla wishes she still in Cape Town in some ways, but also nice to be home

I’ve officially been home for 3 weeks. I can’t believe that I’m no longer in beautiful Cape Town. I was really nervous to come home because I knew I would be expected to answer so many questions about Cape Town immediately. When I first got off the plane and my family bombarded me with questions, I felt like a zombie who couldn’t answer. The 16-hour plane ride was likely the culprit for this. However, recently I’ve found myself opening up more about my experience and being willing to share more than “It was great!”

What has surprised me most about coming home is just how many people knew I was in Cape Town. I live in a small town, however, people I really don’t even know have come up to me and asked me about my time in South Africa. The other day I was in the town hall to get a lease notarized and the town clerk (who’s name I don’t even know) asked me how South Africa and bungee jumping was! I was so taken aback I can’t even imagine how she would know that. It’s really fun to hear how people respond to the fact that you were in Cape Town for 4 months.

I miss so much about Cape Town- the co-educators, my internship, the food, the children at my activist project. On the other hand, it is also nice to have some of the conveniences of home such as a dryer and a car. However, I would trade those conveniences to be back in Cape Town any day.

So far, this summer I have been keeping extremely busy. I have an internship that I’m working at 3 days a week and then a part-time job I’m working at 5 days a week. I’ve found that keeping busy is the best way to keep myself happy otherwise I get so sad realizing how little there is to do in the area around me. I miss waking up in the morning, going upstairs, and asking my friends what adventure we’ll be doing that day…whether it be going to the beach, a food market, the city, etc. However, overall, my transition back to America hasn’t been incredibly difficult. I wish I was still in Cape Town but in some ways, it is also nice to be home.

Cape Town Coeducators:Amelia, Becca, Lily, Emily,
Megan, Mariko, Isabel, Collette, Kayla, Caroline

Meg wouldn't trade her Cape Town experience for the world

Coming home has been so much different than I thought it would be like. I thought I would have reverse culture shock the minute I stepped off the plane and be weirded out by everything. This only happened when we were walking to customs and everyone around us seemed like they were walking at lightening speed, which was a terrifying reminder that I was back in a country that took time very seriously. However, the first couple of days seemed easy, like I fell right back into everything. And then the realization hit that as of now, I am here for good, not going back soon, stuck. That was pretty daunting.

 Of course I miss the people a ton, but I have been in contact with some of the CMES staff which has been really nice. I miss the daily routine, and shockingly enough I actually do miss living in our crazy crowded house. Going from being able to always talk to someone to living basically by myself has been a hard adjustment for sure. But above all, I think the hardest adjustment had been dealing with this feeling of suffocation. I got so used to being able to go the beach or hike a mountain or even paraglide whenever I felt like it. There was always a sense of space and freedom living in Cape Town that is definitely not the same here. Living in New York City makes me miss and think about the mountains at least twice a day.

It has been interesting noticing the difference in people’s attitudes also. No one in New York smiles at you or really even looks you in the eye. A few times people have struck up conversations with me on the subway, but my sisters say this is rare and only because I probably look like the most approachable one. I have no problem with this, I feel bad for majority of the people who live here who move place to place with headphones in and heads down, I cant help but feel like the are missing out on so much of life. It is also really interesting to be around people who don’t always understand your love for nature, or why you relate everything back to social justice without even thinking about it, or why you keep mentioning the phrase, “when I was in South Africa…”. Avoiding that last part has proven more difficult than I imagined it would be. It’s so hard not to talk about the trip because that has been the last four months of my life! Also people ask about it all the time, so that just makes me think about it even more!

I think in general the transition back was easier than expected, but also more lonely than expected. I miss the feeling of feeling like I am living the life I want to be living. I miss the feeling of living a life with purpose and not just moving through the motions. I miss the freedom that Cape Town provided, the adventure, the excitement. But even though I miss it, I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. I count my blessings every day that I had this trip in my life, and cannot wait to continue to see how it shapes me and my life to come.

Meg's South African smile

Alex Z sees Cape Town in her future

It's been less than three weeks away from Cape Town and I'm already channeling my focus into buying a plane ticket back in late December. For those who haven't experienced Cape Town...you have no idea how much it's going to hook you until you get there. Every aspiration and plan that I have right now involves getting back there to feel the sheer happiness that I've experienced nowhere else. I've been keeping in contact with my friends (coworkers from my internship at the aquarium), and keep them informed on my life and when I'll be back home to see them.  It's been hard to adjust to this average life...one that I've always known and have come to realize is too slow. Adventure is in the future, and as of right now, that's in Cape Town.

Alex with co-workers from Two Oceans Aquarium