A Brief Overview

Hello all,

This is the first blog of my experiences in Southern Africa. I intend to use this site to tell my journey through personal accounts, intellectual thoughts and poetry.

I am one of 23 students participating in a study-abroad program in Windhoek, Namibia. The group consists of people from a large range of universities across the United States, coming with a multitude of different perspectives. Some of the areas of study include international development, international service, political science, philosophy and religion. I will be taking classes in development, religion, history and doing an internship. My internship will consist of assessing children with trauma- among other things-through an organization called Peace Center. I will also plan to travel to different parts of Southern Africa during this time.

So far my time in South Africa has been powerful, moving, inspiring and yet heart-wrenching. It has been difficult to comprehend and come to terms with the great inequalities that I have seen. The first week was spent in Jo-burg, the weekend with home stay parents in Soweto and the last couple of days in Pretoria. It has been a challenging time of gathering thoughts and perspectives and trying to discern their meanings.

During my time in Jo-burg I have heard from a variety of speakers, visited museums and other important sites. I have experienced various perspectives in regards to the political, economic and theological climates, providing a framework for understanding South Africa and the remnants of the apartheid legacy. I will talk briefly about these experiences in my next blog. I will now finish up this entry with a poem I wrote after an early rise in Jo-burg. In all the racial ugliness that has drastically shaped South African history, I look towards beauty found in the land and people. The interpretation of the natural aesthetic demonstrates some of my sensory understandings of the land.

A South African Morning

Early morning calls

As familiar sounds speak life

Into the dawning of a new day

The fresh crispness is made known

Through the winds gentle gaze

The elegant birds speak a sweet tune

To awaken the sleeper

From a laze of susceptible blues

Nature’s noise falls together

In a synergy of hopeful melody

That entices the listener to be

Drawn out into the morning light

Which speaks no remedy but

Carries a sight of great tranquility

For the early listener knows

The beauty which takes hold

In the winds relentless murmuring

And the birds incessant chirping

Where excitement is told

In an ever growing glow

Which awakens one

To this experiential flow