Becca experiencing solidarity and hope as she looks forward to her internship

The first week and a half of orientation have been a blur. Despite all we’ve crammed in, I feel like I will never be able to see everything I want to. I did not know that it was possible for a place to have everything a person could ever want, but it seems that Cape Town comes close. I have had some of the best food I’ve ever tasted (but I think I need to be vegetarian for a little while—I’ve had enough meat to sustain me for about a year).  I do not think I will ever get sick of the view of Table Mountain from the Rondebosch Commons where I run every morning, but it is wonderful to know that the beach is just a few miles away.

Probably the most impactful experience I’ve had thus far was when we went to the Baptist church in the Township Gugulethu. I am not, and have never been, a religious person and I am skeptical of institutional religion, but standing in that church and listening to the beautifully intertwined harmonies of the hymns, I felt like I finally understood why people are so passionate about it. Even in an area plagued by poverty and violence, the sense of community I felt in that building and the purity and hope I heard in the voices of those singing around me made me feel so optimistic.

I think a lot of times, being a political science and human rights major, I start to feel very weighted down by the complexity of the issues I am learning about. I realize that it is so important during these times to find moments like this where you can experience the solidarity that foments hope and allows change to happen.

I think that this is why I’m so anxious and excited to start my internship. I have a feeling that I will gain more from my experience at the Economic Justice Network Forum than I will ever be able to give to them, but it will be so empowering to actually engage in projects that will teach me skills to effectively address the intricate problems that I see.