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Welcome to Our Blog

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

As anyone who has participated in UConn's Education Abroad in Cape Town will tell you, there are no words to adequately explain the depth of the experiences, no narratives to sufficiently describe the hospitality of the people, and no pictures to begin to capture the exquisite scenery. Therefore this blog is only intended to provide an unfolding story of the those co-educators who are traveling together as companions on this amazing journey.

As Resident Director of this program since 2008 it is once again my privilege and honor to accompany another group of remarkable students to this place I have come to know and love.

In peace, with hope,
Marita McComiskey, PhD

(marita4peace@gmail.com)

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Mariko can't wait to meet more people

Mariko at Maiden's Cove
The initial settling in and plane rides have officially passed, but my anticipation of what the next three months will hold is still building. While I’ve left the country before, I have never felt as I did when arriving at the airport last Thursday morning to embark on a journey with a group of students who were essentially strangers to me at the time. Considering I now feel closer to a lot of the people on this trip than I do to some of my friends at home, it’s odd to think back to how nervous everyone was sitting in the JFK terminal on the first day. It’s amazing to me how easily the lack of strong wifi here can generate a steady flow of conversations that rarely arise amongst my peers back at home due to our “face in the phone” culture. I also attribute the ease of making new connections to the one major commonality amongst the students in this group, compassion.

Upon flying into the Cape Town airport, I was already overwhelmed by the views, but couldn’t help but immediately notice the disparity. Before our plane even touched the runway, the shadows cast over Cape Town’s beauty by current and past policies were obvious. A quick glance out the plane window revealed mansions with swimming pools fit for Hollywood homes, while seconds later, the aerial view exposed expansive lots of metal shack rooftops. Despite the likely sobering effects of this program, the house we are staying in falls more in line with the aforementioned Hollywood-like homes than the township residences. I was expecting it to be very difficult to live comfortably in a house with 17 students, but so far it has been one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in college. Aside from struggling to fight jet lag until a reasonable bedtime and unpacking our abundance of suitcases, we didn’t physically do much on the day of our arrival. Mentally, on the other hand, I was busy trying to grasp that I get to call South Africa home for the semester. Being able to see Table Mountain from my bedroom window definitely helped with the realization that I have finally arrived.

The following first couple of days of orientation went by in a flash because we did so much (tour of Rondebosch, UCT, District Six Museum etc.) in such a short amount of time. The tour around the Peninsula was definitely my favorite so far because Cape Town’s coast trumps all others in the world; and as long as I’m by the ocean, I’m happy.  However, I repeatedly notice the juxtaposition of beauty and oppression throughout the city. On the tour of the Peninsula, Vernon pointed out the Ocean View Township, where we will be doing our homestay.  He quickly added that this community has no actual view of the ocean, but is rather a clutter of poorly funded housing units, pushed away from both the city and beach. Although a seemingly minor point, it’s significant in teaching us to understand how easily manipulative language can mask discrimination, allowing the corruption that exists here to be visible only to those who pay attention. I cannot wait to meet more people here and get a feel for my upcoming role as a student-intern in the next couple of weeks.

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