Prompt: Discuss and reflect upon how your experiences (or the lack thereof) have influenced your

ideas of cultural/racial/ethnic diversity, (language, people w/ disabilities, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, etc.) and the importance of teacher and student involvement with community service.

Before taking off in a plane, flight attendants explain the safety features of the aircraft. I can hear it now buzzing over the PA system, "Ladies and gentlemen, in case of an emergency please be sure to secure your own oxygen mask first before assisting those around you." I realize if I am unable to breathe, then I am of no help to anyone else. On a recent flight after hearing this, I became cognizant that I was everything in my life without taking a breath for myself. Against my parents better judgment, I decided it was time for me to study abroad. I have always been interested in volunteering, so I was eager to apply to this specific global studies program stationed in Cape Town, South Africa. The purpose of the trip was to study and document the global ramifications of social and spatial inequalities in post-apartheid South Africa. Prior to studying in South Africa, I had very little knowledge of what the apartheid was; I had never learned about it in high school. I am still stunned that we learn about the genocide of the Jews and Native Americans, but not something as recent as the apartheid. It is frightening to think how much control we give the government and how little control we have by ourselves. For example, who decides what is important enough to be included in schools text books? The two short weeks I spent in Africa helped me understand the importance of school reform and made me grateful to be minoring in secondary education. I met a professor from the University of Cape Town who told me that education has no value if it is not used to better humanity. I plan to use this as encouragement to educate people and combat ignorance. The community project involved spending two days at Blikkiesdorp which means tin town in Afrikaans. The houses are made entirely of tin with two to three rooms where up to six people live. We donated clothes, books, and school supplies to an Islamic school run by one woman. This same woman cooks for 95 children four days a week out of her home. There were 7 other students in my group and we planned our activities for 30-40 kids from ages 5-14 and named our assignment Project I Believe. When we arrived, I was overwhelmed to see more than 150 children waiting for us in the heat. We had different stations set up including face painting, story time, and an art station. The art station consisted of a broken door on the ground where the kids drew what their aspirations are. The last station was a mural of their handprints, name signature, and each childs occupational goal. Our ambition for Project I Believe was to counteract the patterns that suppress the youth of South Africa. I will continue to work towards this goal by continuing the pen pal relationship I have established. This will help to maintain the kids motivation to overcome the cycles that suppress them. It is common in the poverty townships of Cape Town for kids to fall into the same cycle as their farm

working parents instead of making their own future. By the same note, the government suppresses classes with the caste system of education. Poor students must attend the poverty schools, the same follows for middle and upper class. Essentially, it is illegal for impoverished youth to overcome their educational circumstances. One repercussion of the apartheid is the overabundance of homelessness with no available jobs. People actually pay rent to other destitute families in order to live in their backyards. This all began with the segregation of an entire country and still continues 16 years later. Laws no longer segregate races; now they simply segregate classes. Any discrimination is not the same now as it was then. It is an echo of history; it shifts, but does not change in the drastic way that is necessary. My trip to Africa was not one of martyrdom, but instead it was a quest to find truth in myself. I would be naive to think that the small community projects my group was involved with made a mass difference in those childrens lives. The truth is that those kids offered me so much insight into myself and into my career goals. They taught me more than I could ever have taught myself. In school we are taught the concept of equal rights, but I wonder if it really exists, or if it is simply an ideal. Paradoxically enough, the concept I have the least tolerance for is intolerance itself. The two weeks I spent in South Africa enriched my education at UIUC by allowing me to cultivate my communication skills which will be useful to me post graduation as a mentor to students. Learning about the political unrest of Cape Town and South Africa enhanced my knowledge of contrasting political cultures around the world. I experienced all facets of this dynamic country, the rich, the poor, the beautiful, and above all, the beauty I saw in its people. The most important souvenir of my South African adventures will be my ability to relate to students of other races more effectively by utilizing the theory cultural relevancy. In this theory, educators are urged to consider a students background and to dissolve all biases.

My encounters, adventures, and experiences in South Africa presented me with unforeseen obstacles left to be defeated. A byproduct of these frustrations was an improved management of different aspects of life such as conflicts and compromises that are necessary every day. By immersing myself in post-apartheid South Africa, I was able to have experiences that will aid me in overcoming the clandestine racial segregation that still exists in American society and as a future educator. I plan to utilize the higher understanding I will gain in order to weaken racist ideas negligently taught in schools, thus advocating the progression of peoples.