The past few days of my trip to South Africa have been very interesting. My total journey from the United States to where I am staying at Tzaneen took me two days. However, within that journey I managed to meet four South African people who already influenced my experiences. The first man I met was my travel companion for the airplane ride from the United States into South Africa and he made it clear to me that there is still racism in South Africa, which is not surprising because the apartheid ended just about 15 years ago. He was a white man residing in South Africa and told me that he thought that many of the black people where I would be travelling to would be rather stupid. The second man was working at the airport in Johannesburg as a sort of escort from gate-to-gate, and was the first to mention how the country lacked the ability to provide sufficient jobs for the people in South Africa and was therefore not shy to ask me for a tip. Finally, upon arriving in the Polokwane airport where my boss at the IMAGE program would pick me up I spoke with two women who would keep me occupied until she came to pick me up. These two women were the most influential to me, this is because they openly offered their help to me after having never met me before showing me where to find an ATM and being concerned about my well-being. Although they were older they were exciting to talk and giggle with me as though they were teenage girls, they told me that their way of life there is to be very forward and blunt with what they were thinking. These people were my introduction to the culture in South Africa.
My car ride of about two hours to the village of Tzaneen from the Polokwane airport was a world of information. We passed townships of those who are poor living in shacks where my boss informed me we would be doing sight visits to in the future, behind these small closely packed villages were large rocky mountains that seemed to jut from nowhere. The roads were extremely windy and steep where common accidents occur because there are no side rails and really no speed limit, upon climbing the hill we ourselves came across one of these car accidents. I was told that it would take an ambulance at least 45 minutes to reach the accident site and another hour and a half to get to a hospital from the location the accident occurred in. It was through this journey that I was able to see the true South Africa that was not shown in pictures on the internet while researching the trip, however, it was this South Africa that intrigued me and seemed to pull me closer to my desire to do the work.
My first full day in South Africa consisted of visiting an overcrowded grocery store where the woman who stood behind me told me that this was common every day. While eating food in the same mall I soon learned that everything closes at 5:00 pm for safety reason, so the town comes to a stand-still in the evening, as soon as the sun goes down. Therefore, it was my introduction to the importance of being in the compound of my hotel after the sun sets.
I was surprised at how friendly people were as I walked through Tzaneen with groceries and asked questions, from my friends that I had made at the hotel I later learned it is because black South Africans like English speaking white people but do not like Afrikaans speaking white people. This is because there is still deep racism between those who speak Afrikaans and black people in South Africa, this has been made clearer as I spend my time with black South Africans and get odd stares from other people in the village, or am scolded by Afrikaans for spending time with my black South African friends. This was one of the first lessons that I learned here, I also learned that the black people in the village can not find jobs beccause their skill levels do not meet what the jobs are looking for and this is because of the history of the apartheid that has kept the elder black South Africans from getting educated and the cycle of dropping out of school passes down to their children. My friend who happens to work at my hotel spent a whole evening with me discussing the cycle that occurs from the history of the Apartheid and the lack of mentoring programs to encourage the younger generation to get a job, this therefore leads to a gap in the skill levels that jobs are looking for and what the people of South Africa had. There is also a concern that Zimbabweans are stealing their jobs because they immigrate in and take the less paying jobs which leads many to feel that they will never be able to find a job at a good paying job because the Zimbabweans are bringing down the level of work. This lead into our discussion of how the United States and South Africa have similar problems with school drop-out cycles and immigration concerns, making these two countries more similar than I had expected their concerns to be.
Finally, I had the opportunity in these past few days to learn about their view of America. The number one thing that everyone had to tell me was that they did not believe that Osama Bin Laden is dead because the president just said he had killed him and didn’t show the body, and because they believe him to be a very tricky man. They also are afraid that if they travel to America that Americans will want to retaliate from the killing of Osama Bin Laden on them. However, what was most entertaining was that the few American television shows that they get are Cheaters, Maury, Tyra, and Jerry Springer. They often laughed at me saying that America is so corrupt, and they could not believe that we do not allow drinking until the age of 21. It was interesting to learn what their belief of the US is and I continue to learn more everyday as they ask more questions about what life is like in the US.
My car ride of about two hours to the village of Tzaneen from the Polokwane airport was a world of information. We passed townships of those who are poor living in shacks where my boss informed me we would be doing sight visits to in the future, behind these small closely packed villages were large rocky mountains that seemed to jut from nowhere. The roads were extremely windy and steep where common accidents occur because there are no side rails and really no speed limit, upon climbing the hill we ourselves came across one of these car accidents. I was told that it would take an ambulance at least 45 minutes to reach the accident site and another hour and a half to get to a hospital from the location the accident occurred in. It was through this journey that I was able to see the true South Africa that was not shown in pictures on the internet while researching the trip, however, it was this South Africa that intrigued me and seemed to pull me closer to my desire to do the work.
My first full day in South Africa consisted of visiting an overcrowded grocery store where the woman who stood behind me told me that this was common every day. While eating food in the same mall I soon learned that everything closes at 5:00 pm for safety reason, so the town comes to a stand-still in the evening, as soon as the sun goes down. Therefore, it was my introduction to the importance of being in the compound of my hotel after the sun sets.
I was surprised at how friendly people were as I walked through Tzaneen with groceries and asked questions, from my friends that I had made at the hotel I later learned it is because black South Africans like English speaking white people but do not like Afrikaans speaking white people. This is because there is still deep racism between those who speak Afrikaans and black people in South Africa, this has been made clearer as I spend my time with black South Africans and get odd stares from other people in the village, or am scolded by Afrikaans for spending time with my black South African friends. This was one of the first lessons that I learned here, I also learned that the black people in the village can not find jobs beccause their skill levels do not meet what the jobs are looking for and this is because of the history of the apartheid that has kept the elder black South Africans from getting educated and the cycle of dropping out of school passes down to their children. My friend who happens to work at my hotel spent a whole evening with me discussing the cycle that occurs from the history of the Apartheid and the lack of mentoring programs to encourage the younger generation to get a job, this therefore leads to a gap in the skill levels that jobs are looking for and what the people of South Africa had. There is also a concern that Zimbabweans are stealing their jobs because they immigrate in and take the less paying jobs which leads many to feel that they will never be able to find a job at a good paying job because the Zimbabweans are bringing down the level of work. This lead into our discussion of how the United States and South Africa have similar problems with school drop-out cycles and immigration concerns, making these two countries more similar than I had expected their concerns to be.
Finally, I had the opportunity in these past few days to learn about their view of America. The number one thing that everyone had to tell me was that they did not believe that Osama Bin Laden is dead because the president just said he had killed him and didn’t show the body, and because they believe him to be a very tricky man. They also are afraid that if they travel to America that Americans will want to retaliate from the killing of Osama Bin Laden on them. However, what was most entertaining was that the few American television shows that they get are Cheaters, Maury, Tyra, and Jerry Springer. They often laughed at me saying that America is so corrupt, and they could not believe that we do not allow drinking until the age of 21. It was interesting to learn what their belief of the US is and I continue to learn more everyday as they ask more questions about what life is like in the US.
