This week was
our last week of classes in Windhoek before heading to Cape Town. It feels like
we just got here yesterday and we are already in the wrap-up week of our
program and starting to say our goodbyes! In each of our classes we did a
wrap-up of everything we have learned and in our development class we had one
last presentation where we discussed two different issues of development we
learned about and their effects on each other. It was hard to walk into every
class this week realizing it was the last one.
Our first
goodbye started with the internship farewell party. Throughout the semester
most of us have been working on an independent project that our internships can
use after we leave; that way, we could leave a lasting impact on the
organizations. This week we got to present our independent projects to everyone
in the house and to all the different organizations. Many people made pamphlets
or games that their internships will be able to use for years. Our internships
had a lasting impact on all of us. For some of us they helped guide our paths
for the future and for others they taught that we could help out in the
present. We learned that because civil society in Namibia is new it is still
struggling to find its footing, and even if as interns we do the smallest of
tasks we are still a big help to the organization.
In Politics and
Religion we reviewed what we had learned throughout the semester and realized
that without our classes we would not have gained such a good understanding of
life in Namibia. We also learned that all our classes over lap with each other
and without one it would have been difficult to understand the ideas and themes
in the other classes.
In development
everyone presented on different topics we had learned about throughout the
semester. It was fun to watch everyone get excited about different areas of
development and present on them. Each
person showed how the two topics they learned about affected one another. For
instance, Amy’s project was on unemployment and education in Namibia and she
showed what a large impact having or not having secondary schooling has on a
person’s ability to gain a job in Namibia’s competitive work force. She also
explained how if people are unemployed they will not be able to send their
children to school which continues the cycle of unemployment and a lack of
education in families.
At the end of
the week once our classes ended we began work on our integrative projects.
These are projects that incorporate elements of topics we have learned about
from all our classes, home stays, and internships into one twenty minute
presentation. It is yet another way that we are able to see how all the classes
have similar themes that have a large effect on Namibian society. All in all,
this last week of classes really showed how much we had learned and gained from
this semester here, and it will be hard to say goodbye as we get ready to spend
our last week in Cape Town.
No comments:
Post a Comment