Why South Africa? (15 days until departure)

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my blog, where you can follow my adventures in South Africa over the next 5 and a half months!

15 days from today I will be boarding a plane in Newark, New Jersey, headed for Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam, I will be meeting up with the other 20 students in my program and flying to our final destination in Cape Town, South Africa, where we will live until June!

In the months leading up to this trip, I have been asked several times why I have decided to study in South Africa, when there are plenty of other options, some that would be considered safer, some that would allow me to travel Europe and some places, unlike South Africa, that I have never been to before. Well, I'll tell you why...

Yes, I have in fact been to South Africa. In January of 2010 my family and I spent three amazing weeks traveling the country led by our dear friends, the Wainwright family. It was perhaps the most amazing experience of my life.  But I wanted more. Three weeks was just enough time to visit all the major attractions and beautiful sites in South Africa, to go on a Safari, to stand on top of Table Mountain, to visit a lion park, to see Cape Point, and to spend quality time with friends and family. However, it was not enough to really understand the dynamics of a country recovering from the apartheid that had existed less than twenty years prior. It was not enough time to meet and speak with South Africans of the many different ethnic groups that exist within the country.  I felt that I wasn't doing justice to the people and the country of South Africa, or to my own view of the world, if I took those three weeks as the only picture of South Africa worth seeing.

And so, in 15 days I will return to live with 20 other students in Cape Town, to study at the University of the Western Cape, to perform service in Western Cape communities, to expand my research and understanding on the issues in South Africa since the end of the apartheid, and most of all, to see the other side(s) of South Africa.

I know there are plenty of people, my parents included, who are as excited for me as they are concerned for my safety. I want to thank you for your concern, and assure you that I have no misconceptions about what I am getting myself into. This semester, I am sure, will prove to be challenging in more ways than one, and I know that it will require me to practice caution that has not exactly been necessary throughout the past five semesters at Fairfield. I am, however, prepared for the challenge, and I want to thank everyone, my parents especially, for their support in this and in all my endeavors. Please have no doubt that you have prepared me well for this experience. I hope I have made you proud and that I will continue to do so by following my heart and my dreams.

Again, thanks for your support and for following my blog! I will miss my friends and family terribly over the next few months but South Africa--I can't wait to see you again!