Study Abroad Journal: South Africa

In grad school, I was fortunate to participate in two study trips to post apartheid South Africa. On the first trip, we studied Media and Politics, meeting with Donald Woods and Alistair Sparks, as well as touring the SABC.

Both trips consisted of students from Webster University’s home campus in St. Louis, and the Vienna campus. For the second trip, we were required to keep a journal. These are excerpts from that journal.

Thursday, 10 June @ 23:22 – Johannesburg

I am extremely tired. We attended two lectures at Wits. However, I was too jet lagged to really pay attention.

Saturday, 12 June @ 00:42

Friday-

Very eventful day. The car with the Vienna students crashed and was totaled. Jennifer was in their car too. She had a head injury and it was bleeding profusely. Traumatic and scary. The interesting thing I noticed afterwards was that except for the one white man who seemed to know first aid, all the whites who stopped came to check on our group or the white driver of the other car that was in the crash. But, for the South Africans who stopped to help, white went to whites and there were a number of blacks who were standing near our black driver. They didn’t seem to be doing anything, other than perhaps giving him moral support. I went over and checked on him, but it just seemed to be his leg that was hurt.

(The STL students had started out the day with that driver, but his driving was erratic. At one point, he had hit and skimmed along a guardrail on a curve. At our first stop, we complained to Anthony, the lead instructor, who had the drivers switch vehicles. After the accident, it was terrifying to realize that we could have been in the accident instead of our Vienna classmates.)

Sunday, 13 June @ 01:12

Saturday-

First real day of the study trip. Attended TRC conference. Neat meeting people from around the world. My mind is so busy and there’s so little time.

At the party in the evening, I knocked over Darko’s wine glass and broke it. I was taking it to throw away and ask for a mop, going through the crowd and saw a man at the buffet with a starched white shirt with a dish in his hand. I asked him for a mop or broom and said ‘where’s the trash?’. He angrily replied that he was one of the musicians. I said, ‘Oh sorry! I saw the white shirt.’ ‘Yes,’ he muttered, ‘and black face,’ and walked away. I found the kitchen and asked for the mop. I looked when I got back, and the waiter (and the guys in the kitchen) were all white, wearing white shirts and dark pants, with bow ties.

Sunday, 13 June @23:16

Finally, an evening with a little piece of calm.

Today I noticed beggars on the street; a little shoeless girl came up to us while we were at a restaurant at Rosebank Mall. I don’t remember seeing any beggars on the last trip. I asked Nisreen (who had also been on the previous trip) and she said that she remembers seeing them the first day, but that’s when I was at the doctor getting my ankle looked at. She does think that there are more now though. (I had sprained my ankle between STL and Joberg, and ended up wearing an Aircast for the rest of the summer).

People seemed more positive and energized about things two years ago. Now things do seem to be reflective of a ‘formerly’ racist society. I can see more that the way people interact, even more than in STL/US, that the legacy of the past still affects the way people think and act and respond to others.

I can see that this is going to be a long term process and I don’t know how many ‘average’ South Africans realize this, but at least some of the people at the conference can see the long road ahead.

The first morning session was interesting. Brent, who is staying in the dorm with his wife and daughter, was the first speaker. Although sparse in build and in speech, he said much more with his few remarks than Andre du Toit did with his lecturing.

The second session dealt with women. I was only interested in one of the papers, but that one turned out to be the weakest.

I’m surprised to find so many people from the US here at the conference. Maybe the reason there are so many US academics is that South Africans are too close to the subject. Perhaps an outside perspective can help them to (try to) be objective or more critical.

The group seems to be coming together. Strange how some things seem the same for this trip and others so different. Things are definitely more relaxed, less regimented and hectic. Though Maggie and Barb seem to be a part of the accident people because they went to the hospital. Only Brenda, Tabatha, and I were left behind. I didn’t cry til after the ambulances left, and then again when we got back to Wits. Tabatha has been saying that she doesn’t want the accident to be the one thing that dominates the entire trip, but it will affect it. She says she doesn’t want to hear any more about it, but we’ve all got to work it out, especially those who were in it.

Woke up last night, couldn’t get back to sleep – kept replaying the accident in my mind. When I finally got back to sleep, I dreamt that I crashed my car.

Wednesday, 16 June @ 02:37

Yesterday was the last day of the TRC conference.

The first morning session was really neat. A man who had worked in the state archives and discovered the systematic removal and destruction of documents was one of the speakers.

The second morning session featured Carin (Brent’s wife) from the dorm, and an interesting apartheid propaganda video.

Today we went to the diamond mine. There was quite a bit of pollution (smog) over Pretoria. We have new cars and drivers.

In the evening, after dinner, there was a big meeting. The other STL students want to go to Cape Town. I don’t know anything about it, since I was at the dinner at the woman’s house. I don’t disagree, so I went along with them.

Thursday, 17 June @ 21:20

Got to sleep in this morning – a bit anyway. Went to Kathy’s friend’s house to watch the inauguration. Nice calm day, relaxing in the yard. Came back to the JCE afterwards to rest.

Thoughts: Group dynamics need to be addressed.

Friday, 18 June @ 01:41

Today (Thursday), we went to Soweto in the morning. We got to go inside Mandela’s former house, which we didn’t get to do last time. Very nice, modest, middle class home. Interesting to think of him and Winnie living there. Having seen both of their new houses, they certainly have both come a long way, economically and politically.

Lion park in the afternoon. I got bit by a lion cub!

Jennifer is leaving tomorrow and we’re going to the Drakensburg.

Monday, June 21 @ 08:40

Friday-

Jennifer left, which was sad. In the morning, we went to Wits and learned about San rock art, which was quite interesting. Then, wait, wait, wait. When they finally come with the cars, it’s rush, rush, rush. I rode with Kathy, Maggie, and Anthony. We ate bad subs and the car was hot. We arrived late. It’s cold and windy. There is NO ELECTRICITY in the hut. It’s scary, no lock on the door. We went to bed early.

Saturday-

Got up early, it’s very cold and my feet are numb. Scary eggs for breakfast – fed them to the dog. His name is Speed. Reg Stroh comes and we go to the museum. Then go to Spionkop. Afterwards, went to a ‘Zulu village’, which was very upsetting, inappropriate, embarrassing, and insensitive. It was thoughtless and rude to stand there talking about the people who lived there right in front of them. I would’ve left if I could have. *

In the evening we had a braai, with scary chicken. The other ‘cabin’ has locks and a shower and a deck and couches and SPACE. We had a nice evening, the best one so far as a group.

The stars are beautiful.

Sunday-

We’re up early and leave with Malcolm. Go to Charlotte Peak Hotel and the other students hike. I’m supposed to sit and read, but decide to go on a horse ride. It’s beautiful.

On the way back in the afternoon, we stop and they buy more big baskets, making an already crowded car incredibly tight and uncomfortable. However, we still manage to be civil to one another and cooperative.

I’ve got saddle sores.

* Note: I spoke to my friend Tumi about this after we returned to STL. She said that it sounded like a zoo, and she’s right. She said that the appropriate was to do something like that is to go in and speak with the headman of the village and then meet the people and allow them to offer you hospitality.

23 June @ 19:36

Yesterday-

We got up early and flew to Cape Town. Barb is driving now!

We missed our appointment in the afternoon.

The guest houses are really nice.

Today-

We went out to the waterfront last night.

Today we saw the jackass penguins and went to the Cape.

I walked to the end of Africa.

Friday, 25 June @ 12:24

Thursday-

We went to Robben Island. It’s different this time. The walls have been painted and they’ve installed signs. It seems touristy. There are two gift shops.

In the afternoon, we had an appointment at the Cape Argus. The man was very interesting, but we were unprepared for a meeting and it’s a bit late in the game to do something academic after so many things, like the Amnesty hearings, have been cancelled, yet other things, like the visit to Gold Reef City, were rescheduled and kept in the schedule.

Friday, 25 June @ 15:37, KLM #594

Everyone but me and Sonya went out last night. They didn’t even leave until 23:30.

Kim left yesterday for Vienna. It was nice having the quiet night and being able to relax alone.

It was basically a good trip, in spite of the bad beginning and all the mix ups. We really didn’t do enough academic activities. Robben Island was probably the most historically significant thing we did. The TRC conference in Johannesburg was pretty interesting, but I don’t know that we were able to get as much out of it as we could have.

Personality conflicts aside, we really spent too much time together and not enough time interacting with South Africans. Also, just as it seemed we were really getting to know the other group, we came to Cape Town and went to different houses. We all needed a break from one another by then, but it was at the expense of the cohesion we had gained.

Overall, this trip was less hectic than the last one. I also got more sleep and food this time. It was great seeing Nisreen again. I enjoyed meeting the Vienna students, especially Darko. Poor thing, stuck with ten women. He told me that he had thought I might be a guy and was happy that he wouldn’t be the only one.

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(The accident actually was the best lesson about post-apartheid South Africa. Kathy, the local instructor from WITS, had asked her students if they knew anyone who could drive the visiting students. Someone recommended their cousin, who was the driver in the accident. When Kathy, a white professor, asked the black cousin if he had a driver’s license, he answered in the affirmative. Because, the legacy of apartheid meant that if a white person asks a black person for a document, the instinct is to just lie about a stupid piece of paper. Sadly, nobody actually asked to see his license, or it would have been discovered that he didn’t have one, and should not have been hired to drive visiting students around Johannesburg.)