One of the genuine highlights of this trip was the fact that we met, socialized with, and learned from a plethora of South Africans, some formally involved in the educational system and, some, not at all. Looking back, meeting these people--Dr. Jez’s friends, her former colleagues, local professors and their students--provided us that same "breadth of understanding” that the Soweto Bike Tour did. What I mean by this is that they provided us with a richer, more robust view of the lived experiences of South Africans and the knowledge that there are so very many ways of being in South Africa that no one narrative applies.
Imagine had we only visited Eisikhisini and Soweto as compared to only visiting Lebone II and Melville, for instance. Imagine had we only viewed The Wound and not had the chance to view Catching Feelings. Such isolated and vacuum-like experiences would not have given us a representative view of the ways of living experienced by South Africans every single day. They would not have demonstrated the ways in which sociopolitical history and strife (read: colonialism, Apartheid, and capitalism) affected and continue to affect institutions and informal systems of justice for all South Africans, for better or worse. How could we possibly have examined the educational system absent this knowledge? Meeting South Africans (and immigrants to South Africa) of various cultures, socioeconomic groups, and professions provided us with some of our most important knowledge to this end, and that’s this: South Africa, for all the challenges it has faced and continues to face, is a deeply complex and often stupefyingly beautiful place--not just geographically and physically, but more importantly in the figurative sense. As I feel about my own society, it is worth the effort that so many have and continue to put into it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm Kelly. I teach English as a Second Language, business English, and writing. I eat poems for dinner. Archives
January 2019
Categories |