If you are not inhaling, you are exhaling. BREATHE, it’s the only thing you HAVE to do to live. This is my meditation mantra, it keeps me grounded in the practice, but it’s also a reminder to set my intentions. To live, all one has to do is breathe, that simple. Everything that comes in addition to breathing, is just that, additional. To ensure that I don’t get too muddled by the extra things, it’s important that I identify what I hope to gain from the things I want to do — set my intentions, have “goals”.
It is important to remind myself not to confuse goals with a detailed plan or itinerary, and to leave room for things to go astray. Many of the best things come out of a willingness to go with the flow. This is especially important when traveling in another country and collaborating with partners.
I carry this reminder with me, and I hoped to share it through my actions with our cohort in South Africa. To ask, what were your intentions for the trip, as a student, a parent or an observer?
So — what were the objectives for LearnServe South Africa 2018?
- Observing and understanding social issues that South Africans face
- Exploring how the history of South Africa contributes to these social issues
- Exploring organizations that are responding to these issues or the root causes
- Partnering with a social enterprises to define a problem that we could identify and implement a solution
- Immersing ourselves in South African culture through visiting museums and living in a homestay in a Capetown community
- Growing as change-makers and leaders
How’d we do?
As I’ve considered and reflected on this question in the weeks following the trip, I have thought about what we did each day. On Day 1 — with a well-respected elder and social entrepreneur, Lindi Twala — we toured Alexandra. Alexandra was developed before the government-sanctioned system of apartheid. After Alex, we took a 10-minute walk across a bridge into Sandton, one of Africa’s (yes, the whole continent’s) richest square miles! We kicked off the trip diving deeply into South Africa’s history and the legacies of apartheid and economic inequity. At least for me, it was a visceral experience to travel such a short distance between two extreme examples with vastly different levels of wealth and access.
We spent the rest of the time in Johannesburg embracing and growing with our peers at Kliptown Youth Program. Together we considered how young people, like Hector Pieterson, can create change. Many of us leaped out of our shells during our time with KYP; we built new friendships and exchanged cultures with the young people we met. It was exciting for us as leaders to create the opportunity — through a “privilege walk” — to remind ourselves that despite how the world often measures “development,” many of us from the US and South Africa have similar challenges. In retrospect, our young leaders had already begun to explore their lives, and notice many similarities to our peers in South Africa.
Wow! That was the first 5 days, and already we’d explored social issues, learned about the history of these social issues, and met leaders and organizations that were impacting these issues! Wait, let’s not forget that in the visit to the Hector Pieterson museum our young leaders engaged and challenged each other and their peers to design a framework for youth government with the young folks at KYP.
Capetown brought about our homestay experience. The adults walked from home to home to check in with each family, and would you know that many houses kicked us out! The students were quickly and easily adjusting to their new families — they told us that we had to go, use the bathrooms in our own homes, and eat our Mamas’ dinner! Three days flew by and capped with a lovely dinner at the community church.
Atop Table Mountain there are telescopes that capture different areas of the city. It was majestic. If you’re willing to jump from one telescope to the next, you’re able to put together the entire spread of Capetown. Our time in Capetown was a similar experience. We explored several social enterprises that provide youth empowerment and community improvements, and target social issues of gangsterism and unemployment. With each new experience, our young leaders gained a piece of the puzzle to put together the varied “spread” of social issues in South Africa, how the history of apartheid affects these issues, and how leaders and organizations are responding to and dismantling these issues.
You see, step by step, we tackled the intentions we set for the program. We learned and grew individually and as a collective group. The trip brought about many challenges to our ability to be leaders for 16 days straight, and we pushed forward. When some of us didn’t quite meet expectations on one day, others supported us and helped us shine as a cohort. We challenged each other to be greater students and leaders alike. We redefined respect and considered how our experience with South Africans reshaped our understanding of the age-old concept.
One morning after a visit to Harambee, an organization equipping young people with the professional skills and placement opportunities to pursue fruitful careers in South Africa, I asked, “what have you gained from this trip?” and there were a wealth of incredible responses: “a greater sense of self,” “a different outlook on South Africa and the world outside the US,” “an understanding that we’re really not so different,” “relationships with people across the world,” “patience and willingness to be corrected”! The even more incredible responses came when we asked, “what did you have to contribute to gain these things from your experience?” (:
The first evening in-country, we all responded to the question, “What do you hope to gain from the experience?” I wonder, if we look back in our journals, how many of us accomplished those things even if we haven’t congratulated ourselves.
Remember, with each new experience, new semester or season, set your intentions. Consider, what do I hope to gain from this experience, and what do I have to do to access these things, to unlock these characteristics in myself.
Great rising!
T. Courtney Williams, LearnServe South Africa Trip Leader