Study Abroad and Cultural Immersion in South Africa

Katie is a senior at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Katie's gap year experience during spring semester 2007 involved study abroad and cultural immersion in South Africa through the School for International Training. She took classes in Zulu language, public health, and participated in a homestay with a Zulu family in Cato Township outside Durban. The last month of her semester was spent conducting independent research of emergency health services to rural communities. Following is a Q and A session I had with Katie about her unique study abroad experience. Katie also contributed a few paragraphs that testify to the powerful impact a cultural immersion can make on young person's life!

Q: Why did you decide to take this unique study abroad experience?

A: I decided to study in South Africa because I knew I wanted a completely different cultural experience. I wanted to be immersed in a culture that was 100% different from mine, and I was interested in African culture. I wanted to be challenged.

Q: Why did you choose this particular program with the School for International Training?

A: I chose to go through School for International Training
because they focus on field based learning and independent study. I really liked that independent study aspect of the program. Also, I'm interested in public health and this was one of the only programs that offered that type of education.

Q: How did you discover this program?

A: I found out about School for International Training through Lafayette's study abroad office. I told the director that I wanted a very hands on experience and she recommended the program.

Q: Did you raise any money to help pay your way?

A: I work at my school so I had some money saved.

Q: Were you able to gain your parents' support for your idea?

A: My parents at first were not comfortable with the idea of me going to Africa, however, I gave them a presentation on the program and South Africa to show them that I really wanted to do this and I would be safe, and they felt much more comfortable.

Q: What are you doing now, and what are your plans after graduation?

A: Now I am a senior at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. I am a neuroscience and English major. Next year I am doing Teach for America in New York City. I will be teaching elementary school.

Q: How did your experience in South Africa change you?

A: This experience definitely did change my view of the world and how other cultures live. I understand different people's habits and appreciate their differences to mine.

Katie's Reflections on her Immersion in South African Culture:

For anyone who has spent time abroad, it is difficult to explain the personal impact the experience has on one's life; it is ineffable. I made the decision to study public
health in South Africa blindly. With no more than six clean shirts, and a few pairs of jeans, I arrived in Johannesburg and immediately felt the oppression of the immense
equatorial heat of the South African sun. This was one of the first contrasts from the Colorado winter I came from. After traveling to Durban, I found myself dropped off in the middle of Cato Manor, a township outside the sweltering city.

For a month I lived with a family that greeted me with a melting popsicle and a heavy meal of unidentified meat and putu. Their humble life-style, which at first stunned me,
soon became a refreshing break from an over-bearing American culture. Each morning, I ran with a friend through the township. At first the South Africans stared at us; by
the time we left Cato Manor, children on their way to school cheered us on by name and a few of the women started to run with us. I learned that one can bathe easily in
two inches of water taken from a community spigot with a bucket.

I began to understand and speak a little Zulu which opened the opportunity to make South African friends. This allowed me to have a first hand account of the social issues
within the country. I listened for hours each night as my new friends explained to me, in impressive English, the AIDS crisis and its effects. On can read all the literature
available about the crisis, however, it will never have the same impact a personal account from someone living with AIDS in the middle of the crisis.

After my stay in the township, I traveled to different parts of South Africa. The final month of the program was designed as an independent study project on an aspect of public health. I chose to research emergency health services to rural communities and to facilitate this I lived inside the gates of Ladysmith Hospital. This hospital served a population that lived in extreme poverty.