A Very Eye-Opening Day
Some days I have to remind myself
that I’m in South Africa, and other days I feel as if I’m in a different world.
This Wednesday was one of those days where I felt as if I could have been in
Wonderland. Upon boarding the minibus (vans that drive around Cape Town picking
people up for cheap) Wednesday morning, to attend my internship, I realized
that one of the workers of the minibus was a young boy. This boy couldn’t have
been older than 12, yet he was working on a Wednesday rather than sitting in a
classroom. When I was his age I was still watching Disney Channel and playing
outside at recess. The inequality and hardships in Cape Town sneak up on one
without any warning. It makes me deeply upset that many children around the
globe aren’t getting formal education and will miss out on many opportunities
due to this. However, this motivates me to help make sure that more children
don’t go through this in the future.
Following this I arrived safely at
my internship, where the organization was welcoming about 6 new interns. My
coordinator at Surplus People Project is also overseeing these interns, so I
was fortunate enough to be able to sit in on their first meeting. These interns
were taken on in order to promote a youth project in their own community with
the mission of Surplus People Project in mind. The meeting involved the new
interns discussing the issues that are facing youth in various communities. The
most discussed topics were crime/gangsterism, poverty, and lack of role models.
I had so many role models growing up that I never had thought of the severe
implications of not having them. A good portion of time was used to discuss if
the interns should be targeting crime or poverty in their programs. During my
time here in Cape Town I’ve seen both great poverty and happiness, and I found
it very eye opening to be able to hear from youth my own age discussing very
different problems from mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment