South Africa

Here is a little something I wrote after my trip to South Africa. This hardly covers the whole of my trip, but it's a start. I didnt even talk about the Black Jewish community with whom we spent Shabbat.


March 6, 2008

South Africa.
I don’t know what my Year Course experience would be like without Olami. The trips that Olami has taken me on have been phenomenal. I had an absolutely amazing time in South Africa. My trip was well balanced between Judaic studies, touristy sights, and educational activities. I learned so much without even realizing it.
One highlight for me was going to an orphanage. The Israeli embassy of South Africa decided to adopt an orphanage and we went to visit. I expected the kids to be reserved and held back because of hard pasts with being abandoned or something. I was so wrong – the kids immediately played games with us, showed us their beds, and modeled for the camera. A few girls asked me when I was coming back and it was so hard for me to tell them that I would only be there for one day. They spoke English and could understand about five different languages. South Africa has 11 national languages and 63 known other languages.
I learned a lot about the apartheid. It’s absolutely mind blowing that I was alive during the apartheid and never even learned about it. Like it’s one thing that segregation was legal in the US and then it was outlawed before I was born and it’s a whole nother thing that integration was IL-legal! Goodness me.
I stayed with a White, Jewish host family for one night. The different opinions about race were present between the father and the two girls – ages 16 and 17. Their family had a black housemaid who lived in their house. She wore a long blue dress with a collar, the typical southern maid uniform. The father treated her like a slave almost. He told her to come into the living room. She responded, “yes master.” Then he demanded her to dance. He wanted us to be able to see traditional South African dancing. This poor old woman was like 60 years old and not so fit. She told him she couldn’t, not on her old feet. My friend Sophie was with me. We went with the very sweet mother to pick up one of the girls form dance class. I loved this. Not only did I get to see a very good hip hop class, but I feel like I witnessed change. The class included Indian, Black, and White kids. None of them saw color when looking at each other – they joked around and danced together in harmony. This shows that when the next generation in South Africa takes over political offices all will be right. Also, once the older people are not there to indoctrinate their racist opinions on the youth, racism will hopefully be forgotten.