As I reflect on our journey to and from South Africa, I came to realize that the most impactful and rewarding piece of the experience was the people we met along the way. From the airport to the townships, I became fascinated by meeting new people and hearing their stories, passions, joys, and challenges. My first experience began on the flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town where another ACE student and I met a student from Spain also going to volunteer in Cape Town for a surfing program. The student was in the same row on the 11-hour flight as us, so you can imagine there was a lot to talk about. Once exchanging our reasons for traveling to Cape Town, we were in awe by the fact that we were both attending a three-week volunteer trip and also somehow managed to be on the same flight back to Amsterdam from Cape Town after our trips concluded. Before parting for our three-week trips, we arranged to get each other a gift in celebration of the coincidence and planned to exchange them on our return flight to Amsterdam. After this interaction, I became further excited by the people I was yet to meet along our three-week journey across the world.
Once we landed in Cape Town and traveled to the city to our hostel, I found myself facing one of my biggest challenges for the trip. I felt uncomfortable in this new city so far away. I had never been to another country where I would be fully immersed in its culture and communities, as we were about to be. Although that excited me, it also really scared me. The first night and day felt extremely uncomfortable being in a new place so far away from home. While they had warned us of several safety measures, I still was hesitant.
Despite the initial fear, soon enough I found myself more curious about the beautiful city and wanted to explore all of it.
Fortunately, we were guided and protected by Evelyn and Joans, our program leaders. Although we had never met them before, they cared for us like we were their own. Throughout the three weeks, we were able to share lots of laughs with them, learn about their lives and travel experiences, and share the joy of traveling together with them. Alongside Evelyn and Joans was the driver of our van (but more importantly friend) named Shane. Shane guided us through the city and countryside with his knowledge of his hometown. He helped us feel protected at times when we may have felt uncomfortable in such a far place from home. Evelyn, Joans, and Shane became some of our favorite people we were able to share our traveling experiences with and learn from.
Despite sometimes strong language barriers, I believe the children and adults/caregivers we met in Langa township were the most influential people I met along the way. Before arriving in South Africa, I was aware of the challenge that language would pose, but I had never truly experienced a full language barrier, so I did not know how to navigate it at first. Eventually, we learned you do not need to speak words with one another to share joy, emotions, or even hardships. With the children who we could not communicate with, we learned to communicate through energy. We played games, shared smiles and high-fives, and found a way we were still able to communicate. It felt powerful to share laughs and kindness despite not being able to speak to each other. One of my highlights was the kids challenging me to arm wrestling. This brought back feelings of my childhood, and I realized although we were so far away, kids are just kids. In a sense, I think the language barrier helped us learn more about each other through our actions. The people we met in the townships taught us a lot about the importance of community, family, positivity, and resourcefulness. I was most impressed by the township’s efforts to be cleaner and more sustainable. Many houses and establishments had gardens in the back yard in an attempt to produce and cook their own food. Something worth noting was that nothing went to waste in this community. It was inspiring to see how grateful the people are for what they have, and I believe this is an important thing to bring back home to my life and community.
In closing, I cannot forget about my ACE group that I was lucky enough to meet and learn about on this journey. You would think us all being student-athletes at the same school we would have already connected already, however, that was not the case before this trip. Therefore, these were also some of my favorite people I met along the way, and am grateful to have eleven new friends at Duke. It was incredible sharing this journey with such a talented and successful group of student-athletes.
With our new shared bond, I believe we will be able to support each other and serve as a reminder that our day-to-day lives at Duke and beyond are not as hard as we think it is because we’ve now seen a true hard.
I cannot pick a favorite memory or day from this trip as it was all vastly different and impactful. This is why I chose to remember the people with which we shared these experiences because while I might not always remember the delicious pastries from Giovanni’s, I could never forget the stories we heard from the people we met there.