Blown Away by the Community Spirit in the Windy City

 

By Alexis T.

Red Location Lodge, a former beer house that was transformed into
a bed and breakfast by Mama Africa and several other women.

The focuses of this week’s adventures were women’s empowerment, Black empowerment, and the idea of Ubuntu. Mama Africa told us her story about Red Location Lodge, a lodge in Port Elizabeth, South Africa former beer house that was transformed into a bed and breakfast by 15 women in 2008. These women worked their whole lives to destroy the beer house that distracted black children from their education. Instead of doing homework the children would carry liquor for individuals at the beer house. Mama Africa was one of the women who fought for equality for Blacks during apartheid to ensure that children would be able to get an education. She continued this mission by renovating the beer house into a bed and breakfast in which women could work to afford their children’s education.

The Ubuntu Centre, a center that provides educational, health, and
psychosocial resources for the local community

The Red Location Project was meant to better the community, both for the education of the children and to bring revenue through tourism. There are many organizations in South Africa that work through and with the community to improve the livelihoods of its inhabitants. The Ubuntu Centre is another community-based project that aims to educate children from “cradle to career” through the Ubuntu Pathways program, and provide health and psychosocial resources to the local community. The Red Location Project and Ubuntu Centre both employ the ubuntu ideals of altruism and sharing by being open to all individuals in the community. The Ubuntu Centre determines the needs of the community by working within and networking with the community. This inside-out approach ensures that the primary needs to the society are being attended to. The primary needs of the community are education, health, and psychosocial help. The Ubuntu Centre focuses on being open to all types of individuals, all desired career paths from music to science to technology, and giving back to the community through its sustainable design and educational programs.

The Ubuntu Centre, a center that provides educational, health, and
psychosocial resources for the local community

In another town called Victoria Mxhenge, the South African Homeless People’s Federation strives to improve the livelihoods of those in the community by providing free, stable housing. The organization went to great lengths to educate individuals on building techniques that allowed them to construct their own houses. Most of the houses were built by women and have been standing for 20 years despite developers claiming they would fall in 5 years. The program has provided housing for 136 families and the vocational education has provided the largely unemployed population with a skill set that makes them more employable. This organization speaks to the ideals of ubuntu and sharing by working within and providing the community with homes, skills, and stability resources. The organization continues to address the housing issue and has moved onto addressing unemployment, education, and the health of its citizens. The organization educates through a feminist lens that promotes women’s empowerment. Most of the individuals building houses with the organization were women and the organization promotes the importance of the women’s role in the house. This is extremely important in the town which has many single mothers. The skills taught to women are traditionally masculine skills, proving that women can do both the jobs traditionally associated with men and women. There is a similar feminist movement in the U.S. in which women take on the traditional masculine role of breadwinner or join masculine occupations such as engineering, proving that a woman can do anything a man does. The program also funds children’s education through bursaries that prepare students both for the university track and career path through vocational training. There are also programs to help children with homework and problems going on at home. The organization provides a safe space for the children where they can stay away from the influence of drugs and alcohol that can be found on the streets and focus on their schooling and wellbeing.

 

Members of the Victoria Mxhenge community and South African Homeless
People's Federation outside the Federation's center.

Community is an important concept in the South African culture which differs greatly from the culture of rugged individualism in the United States. Individuals learn to lean on each other for support as they did by building homes for each other, sharing resources and skill sets, and providing programs that uplift and provide opportunities for one another. In the United States, on the other hand, it is common to be closed off from the community and be self-sufficient. The organizations mentioned above were started by individuals who lived and grew up in the communities their projects are based in. This ensures that the needs of the individuals are met by having an inside view of what the community needs rather than an outsider’s assumption of the true problems. For the Red Location Project, it was destroying a beer house that promoted alcoholism and kept children away from school. This community has seen many improvements including paved roads, an increase in formal housing structures, and an influx of tourism which has provided jobs for more individuals. For the Ubuntu Centre it was ensuring that the community has access to health care, psychosocial care, and education. These three things can prepare children to enter the workforce instead of increasing the unemployment rate and provide physical and mental health stability for those living in undesirable conditions who cannot afford medical care. For the South African Homeless People’s Federation, it was teaching the largely unemployed community with a skill set of home building that allowed them to create their community from the ground up. This project not only educated but provided stability through their free housing program. The organization has also begun to provide educational and support programs for children to ensure that their needs are met in a safe environment away from the streets. At the heart of each of these projects is giving back to the community through the sharing of resources and knowledge, a quality that is not often exemplified in the individualistic United States.

The importance of community in South African culture creates a welcoming environment. It also shows how caring individuals are towards one another. This was shocking coming from the U.S. where the focus is more on growing individually rather than community building. The South African culture focuses on sharing and giving back to the community rather than self gain which is synonymous with American culture. I feel that this creates a more trusting community where each person knows that they can rely on another. It also creates a more sympathetic and caring community where one can be sure that those in their community are looking out for them.

Stepping Into A New World

By Jimmy D.  

Me at Freedom Park overlooking Pretoria

When I told my friends I was going abroad they were shocked at the fact that I chose Africa. They said “why don’t you go somewhere normal like Europe” and laughed at the fact that I needed to take anti-malaria pills. My reasoning is I believe it is important to see the world, and not only go to the developed areas of the world, but also look at the developing areas that have a history of oppression. Learning about history is very important in being able to pave the path for the future.  One amazing part of the Nation Building, Globalization and Decolonizing the Mind program offered by CGEE is that not only are you looking at very developed areas such as Sandton which is considered the richest square mile of properties in all of Africa; you also get to compare it to one of the poorest townships in Johannesburg, Alexandra. Even though some of these townships may be poor in terms of money, they are rich in culture and heritage. During these tours we learned why and how this happened, and the simplest answer is that it’s an after effect of the Apartheid Regime.

 

Apartheid started in 1948 when the white minority gained power under the guise of the National Party (NP). The Apartheid system was put in place to control social and economic factors in South Africa to favor the NP. The black majority was paid very little wages to create wealth for the white minority in power. This happened through cheap labor and exploitation of the land and the rights of people who inhabited the land. To explore this issue further we took a tour of Soweto, which has a lot of historical context of Apartheid. As a group we saw how the people of Soweto struggled during apartheid, by being forced to live in Townships, in small, run down hostels and one room shared houses. Our tour guide highlighted how the Apartheid Regime would create division amongst the people of Soweto by separating them into communities based off of similarities and pinning them against each other by promoting violence and alcoholism which destroyed these communities and helped the apartheid regime (The NP) control the black majority. Another impactful visit of Johannesburg was the Hector Pieterson Museum, created to highlight the events leading up to the June 16th anti-Afrikaans protests. Hector Pieterson was a young boy who was shot during the June 16th 1976 Soweto protests. What was so important about this event was that the photo below was released to the world and sparked international attention to the horrors of Apartheid. This event also shows the power of media and how important it is to have freedom of the press.

                                                   

Antoinette Sithole, Hector Pieterson, and Mbuyisa Makhubo
 during the 1976 Soweto Uprisings

What South Africa is still struggling with is rebuilding after apartheid. 90% of the wealth is still held by the 8% white minority. Dale McKinley, one of our speakers and a former member of the South African Communist Party, spoke about how the African National Congress, (ANC) who took power after the apartheid regime fell, with Nelson Mandela as their leader, allowed for the white minority to stay in control of the economic “house”, while being able to take control of the social aspect of politics. The ANC believed it was important to fix the social aspect of politics to create equality and then later figure out how to redistribute the wealth, but as we see today unemployment is at an all time high and South Africa holds one of the worst Gini Coefficients. The Gini Coefficient determines wealth gap between the population within Nations. The ANC wasn’t wrong in what they did and I believe it was very important that they did whatever they had to do to reverse the apartheid era rules. As with any political action there must be a trade off, in this case it was social freedom and equality for all, while allowing the white minority to stay in control of the economic power. If this wasn’t done then the apartheid regime may of stayed longer than 1994. Also what is important to note is that it has only been 27 years since the apartheid regime came to an end and South Africa fully gained independence. I believe that South Africa has come a long way in the short time that has passed and that they have a bright future, especially with the determined people who work and live in South Africa.

 

Lastly, I would like to include a poem I wrote based off my observations while we drove through Johannesburg.

“Untitled” By: Jimmy DiGiulio

As the road winds in, the skyline comes into view,

Artwork littered around the streets, wall to wall

Trash lying beautifully on the ground as if it belonged,

Poverty is just as prevalent as the cars weaving in and out of the people,

Struggle and sacrifice unite those who reside.



One of the buildings in the Alexandra Township in Johannesburg

 

Living Sustainably

By Adelina Alcarez

We started out the week by coming back from our Swakopmund stay, a touristy German town, and ended our week in NaDEET, a camp-like area on the Namib Reserve at which there was no wifi and mounds of sand, all kinds of creepy crawlies, and oryxes for miles around us. Needless to say, NaDEET was my favorite excursion of the week.

In between, we attended a couple of class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Personally, I went to a couple of churches for my internship at an LGBTI human rights organization. A colleague of mine, Mickey, and I have been working on constructing a list of churches that are tolerant to the LGBTI community and measuring their tolerance. We do this by interviewing a leader of the church (if possible) and giving them a survey about their relationship with the LGBTI community. Thus far, most of the various places of worship have been a little apprehensive, yet welcoming and willing to talk with us. On Wednesday, we went to two churches. Both gave us a perplexing look when we first introduced ourselves. However, they were still willing to direct us to someone to talk to. I think that our experiences with churches may suggest that Namibia is ready to talk about LGBTI issues and even support their human rights, if well educated about them. What better place to start this conversation then with the system at which many members have shamed people for being part of the LGBTI community in the 16 century and many continue to make being LGBTI taboo today.

Description of the dry toilet system.

On Thursday, we left for NaDEET. NaDEET is a place to learn about sustainable eating, pooping, wasting, and cleaning. There is a dry, no-flush toilet. When dried, a person’s total amount of yearly poop can be just enough to fill a bucket. On top of that, there are dung beetles decomposing the poop at the very bottom, at least 6 feet underground. Their electricity was also powered by solar panels and food made mostly from solar cookers. Solar cookers look like large metal disks used to communicate with alien life, but they actually concentrate the sun's ray on the pot. They also had solar cooker in box form. There was a cup or bucket of water for the sinks and showers because there was no faucet; albeit, the shower did have a bucket attached to a shower head. I was astonished at how well the showers worked like a regular shower and how much water I could save by lowering the water pressure a little bit and not using water when I didn’t need it (like while I was washing and not rinsing). This tied in with the 17 sustainable development goals.

Surprisingly, the goals did not stop on issues directly associated with environment, but also social and economic issues like gender equality and poverty. On Friday, we went on a Dune Walk (which was more like a hike for me) and talked about the biodiversity of the Namib Desert. We encountered interesting creepy-crawlies like the Dancing Lady Spider and various fast pace beetles and a couple of oryxes. Something we also focused on was how connected each species is to each other; everyone’s actions can create a domino effect. For example, one year, there was a huge increase in the moth population. It is unknown why, but our guide Elias suspected it was because a predator to the moths was in low population. This created in influx of moth cocoons all over the desert. The oryxes mistook the cocoons for food. A moth infestation killed a large portion of the oryxe population that year.

Solar cookers. Not to be confused with alien
communication devices.



Later that day and weekend, we continued to learn about and live a more sustainable lifestyle. We watched a documentary about the NamibRand Nature reserve and NaDEET’s place within it. The reserve all started with one rich man who bought a lot of cheap land in Namibia to preserve it. It was rough in the beginning, but now it’s not only a place of animal preservation; it’s a place for research, a dark sky reserve, tourism, and environmental and sustainability education. I am so blessed to have been able to visit and learn from such an amazing place. I hope to put the education I learned here into practice and not only use less water and push for renewable energy, but also to educate myself about the environmental issues in the area I live in. This experience has changed my perspective on what role I play on this earth: to help protect it and protect the people who live in it. What a great week.

  

Amidst the Stress and Sand

By Maddie Dilday

As we approach our last few weeks in Namibia, we are all doing our best to finish final papers, pull our integrative projects together, and still enjoy our time in this beautiful country. While this can be a very enjoyable experience, I think almost everyone is feeling some sort of stress. But in the middle of all this stress, comes our final group trip to NaDEET. NaDEET is short for Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust. Essentially, it is a small oasis in the middle of the Namib Desert Nature Preserve, where they teach about environmentally sustainable living, all while living out this life. And for a few short days we got to live it out with them.
 

There are 3 major moments throughout the trip that I know will stay with me. The first of which is the dune walk that we took just outside of NaDEET. In total the hike was about 6 km, 3 both way, and we walked throughout the dunes outside of the NaDEET. On this walk we were able to see the amount of biodiversity that the dunes of Namibia hold. The majority of the diversity is on a small scale, specifically they have a large diversity in the types of bugs that the dunes hold. I found this fascinating as biodiversity is a topic that I have often heard about in class, but that I rarely have had the chance to see. Although the creepy crawlies were just that, creepy and crawly, the dune walk was an amazing experience that I am hoping to have the opportunity to do again once I am back in the United States.



Above is a picture of a Dancing White Lady Spider that was
seen on the dune walk. It received this name due to the
"drumming" patter it leaves in the sand in the morning.

The next activity on the itinerary for the weekend that blew my mind was the drive to a nearby mountain, as well as the hike up the mountain. The drive was gorgeous, it was one of those moments where you are stunned by the beauty that Earth holds, and you think about just how small you are, and how much of this beauty that you have yet to see. Having the opportunity to see the Namib Desert in this way is one of the highlights of my entire trip and I hope that I am one day able to return to this beautiful country.

 

The final activity that we had at NaDEET was by far my favorite. The entire group went out to the top of a near by dune, and we star gazed for about an hour. NamibRand is one of the few International Dark Sky reserves, and a top tier reserve at that. As an Astronomy major, having the chance to see the night sky with such clarity was out of this world. I wish I had been able to capture the view of the stars, galaxies and dust that could clearly be seen in the dark night sky, but unfortunately my phone's camera isn’t strong enough. But, it is an image that I will remember for the rest of my life.

This picture was taken on the drive to the mountain range.
This country's beauty just does not end.

Overall, NaDEET was a interesting and enjoyable break from the stress of the final papers that are piling up at the end of the semester. Although we only have 2 weeks left, I am sure that they will be packed with as many adventures as possible.

Exploring waste management, Islam, and Swakopmund

By Michelle Andersen

 

Windhoek waste management site

My week started with a visit to the waste management site with our environmental class. We got a talk from the leader of education, Estelle, and learned of her struggles as the only one in her department. The rest of her team and most of their resources were moved to a different government office, so she has issues getting educational materials about waste management to the local people. From what she told us, it seems as if the people do not know about the recycling program or the difference between the various types of waste bins. With a lack of resources, she is fighting an uphill battle. When we went to the waste site, the gorgeous backdrop of the mountains was covered by the piles of trash. They try to do some sorting of recyclable items on site but it can be a challenge. Most of the waste is simply flattened and covered with sand to keep it from blowing away. Waste management is a huge problem in Namibia with the lack of necessary infrastructure and education.



For religion class, we learned about one of Namibia’s minority religions, Islam. We discussed the five pillars; fasting, alms giving, praying five times a day, declaration of faith, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, if you can afford to. We got to visit the school that April, our Professor Lamont’s wife, is opening soon that is built on land that the mosque owns. April told us about her curriculum, values, and hopes for the school. The Sheikh Imam furthered our discussion by going into detail about the history behind the small Muslim population in Namibia, the effects of this, and Islamic beliefs. Islam is considered a way of life and should be reflected in a person’s every action. We ended with a tour around the mosque and seeing one of the daily prayers.

Controversial monument depicting the German soldiers
who dies during the genocide

Additionally, this week we traveled to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay to learn about the historical and current issues there. Our tour guide was Laidlaw Peringanda, who is a Herero activist who is passionate about the Herero-Nama genocide by the Germans. In the town square, there is a monument to the German soldiers who died committing the genocide. The local Germans and their government are denying that there is a problem with this statue and refuse to take it down. Next, we went downtown to visit the cemetery,  where there is a large section of unmarked graves of those Herero and Nama people who were murdered during the genocides. The German government donated a plaque which refers to their deaths due to "mysterious circumstances," despite the heavy photographic and official documentation of a genocide order. There is even a wall surrounding the cemetery because people were building houses on graves. From Laidlaw’s tour we expanded what we learned in Lüderitz and saw again the lack of proper memorialization for the losses of the local people. 
 

Namibian peoples memorial from the Germans referencing the
genocide as deaths due to "mysterious circumstances"

 We also took a tour of a fishing factory, which is a major part of the local economy. The factory is not running until Monday because no fishing is allowed during October to let the fish population to replenish. The ministry was late with announcing what each factory's new fishing maximum quota would be, which caused the delay. During October, the factory pays for employees to travel home as well as providing a bonus. There is competition from foreign boats who do not follow the same rules but they are not allowed to have a factory on-shore unless 51% of the employees are Namibians. From what our tour guide told us, it sounds like there are many regulations in place to try and create sustainable fishing as well as proper treatment for Namibians.

Later that day our group hiked the tallest dune in Namibia, Dune 7. It was a struggle to get up but the view was worth it. Overall, it was a great trip filled with discussions of social issues, the economy, and seeing the natural beauty in the area. This week covered a lot from environmental waste issues, Islam in Namibia, and the history in Swakopmund.

Dune 7

 

From Ocean to Ocean

By Caroline Pratt

Appreciating the Durban skyline

Still recovering from the busy month of October, I was exhausted and excited about the last few trips of the semester. While all of the CGEE trips are great, some independent travel has made my study abroad experience so much more impactful. Last weekend I traveled to Durban, South Africa. One of the other students and I caught a plane after class on Friday and made our way to a city so different from Windhoek. Durban, a common tourist destination for South Africans, was like no other South African city we had visited so far. It was so diverse and full of surfers and beach goers. Walking around, I felt just like I was walking down the boardwalk of California. While we were just there for the weekend, we filled our time with people watching, eating the local cuisines like Bunny Chow (half a loaf of bread filled with curry, one of the most filling meals of my life), and spending time on the beautiful Indian ocean. We also visited the Moses Mabhida Stadium, constructed for the 2010 world cup, and the Ushaka Marine world, the largest aquarium in Africa. It was incredible to have the freedom the explore the city independently and see an entirely different part of South Africa, far different than what we had seen in Joburg, the Eastern Cape, or Cape Town.
 

Coming back on Monday, there was no time to waste with classes and internship Tuesday and Wednesday before the entire group left for Swakopmund. One of my highlights of the week though was visiting the local Mosque in religion. Being Catholic and never having the experience of going to a Mosque before, it was eye opening to see a place of worship that functioned very differently than my own. We spent most of the lecture learning about the history of Islam in Namibia and about the teachings of Islam. With the Muslim community making up such a small percentage of the Namibia population, it was cool to see how they functioned as a minority religion.

 



Becca and I enjoying the Swakopmund Atlantic Ocean

Come Thursday the group headed to Swakopmund, a coastal town on the Atlantic Ocean, known for its German architecture and beautiful beaches. On our first day, we took a tour around town where we saw the many lasting memorabilia to German colonialism. In the center of town, we saw a giant sculpture commemorating the fallen German soldiers and went to the glamourous German cemetery, located just next to the large resting place of the Herero and Nama that died during the genocide, with graves unmarked. In the very corner of the cemetery is the monument to the Hereros and Namas that was removed a few years prior because it ‘smelled’ and was moved back after it received some push back. We then saw the townships and where most of the population of Swakop lives. Laidlaw Peringanda, our tour guide and artists/activist, did a great job of providing a holistic view of Swakop and we saw it for what it was instead of the German tourist town that looks like it could be straight out of the German section of Epcot.

The second day of our trip we spent learning all about foreign investment in Namibia and conservation. We visited Sea Works, a Namibian run fishing factory. We learned about all of the laws and regulations put in place to ensure Namibia benefits from the industry such as 51% of all industry must be Namibian owned. Unfortunately, we went while the factory was closed because Namibia has a law that there can be no fishing done during the month of October. This was great though because it allowed time for employees to return home and still received compensation. Later that day we went to the Namibian Dolphin Project where the two employees were working to do research and help the local industries. 

Group photo during our ATV Dune trip in Swakopmund

On our free day, the entire team went ATVing all around the dunes and I spent the rest of the day enjoying life on the Atlantic. It was truly a week to remember, from the Indian ocean to the Atlantic in just seven days. Study abroad is something.

Life on the Farm

By Evan Carr

Following an amazing week with our families in the rural Khorixas area our homestay experiences for the semester are already over! While this is a sad realization I feel incredibly fortunate for the experience this past week, but also to be connected to three great families across the Southern Africa region. A huge thanks to Sarah, our Homestay Coordinator here in Namibia, and all of the staff for making this week a great success!

Returning from a trip into town.

Our schedule in the so-called “Damaraland” area allowed for plenty of time bonding with our families on the farms combined with ample opportunity to continue the learning process with our busy schedule during the day. Our homes for the week did not have plumbing or electricity so we quickly adapted to the local lifestyle of cooking over fire and open-air toilets, but we were also fortunate to experience stunning night skies thanks to zero light pollution. Daily activities on the farm ranged from playing with baby goats and donkey cart rides to games of Owela under the sun and hot cups of Rooibos tea around the campfire. Owela is a local game requiring strategy and wit that was traditionally played between chiefs to settle disputes in the community. Another highlight of my week was the opportunity to develop my Damara language skills. As my host grandmother, the head of my house, did not speak English it was important for me to pick up some phrases in order to connect with her. While mastering the four clicks used in Damara presented a significant challenge, I was able to hold very minimal conversation in Damara by the end of the week about things like how I slept or how hot the weather was. Our week on the farm wrapped up with a big party where all five homesteads on each farm came together to celebrate the week and eat delicious food to our heart’s content. We danced and the sang the night away as we exchanged American and Namibian songs and dances with our families.
 

While we ate breakfast and dinner and spent nights at the farms, we spent our days together as a CGEE family. Some highlights of the program included visits to Cornelius Goreseb High School and the traditional court of Khorixas. The traditional court operates under the jurisdiction of the local Damara clan and mainly deals with domestic issues and theft, while other matters are left to the municipal court. It was valuable to see how people in rural areas integrate their traditional community structures with those of the modern Republic of Namibia. We delved further into Damara culture with a visit to the Damara Living Museum. In order to preserve their culture, people working there run demonstrations on blacksmithing, natural medicine, and jewelry making. Our trip also included a visit to the Twyfelfontein UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the site of many ancient rock art drawings, and to a petrified forest. These excursions helped us to put into context topics we’ve discussed in our History, Politics, Environment, Religion, and Development classes.



My family for the week. Grandma Christa was the head of the house and the farm.



Following our week on farms in Khorixas we spent two days at Etosha National Park. This visit was capped by the sighting of a leopard that came right up to our van and let us follow it down the road for a few hundred feet. We were incredibly lucky to see such a rare animal (there are only about 600 in Namibia) at such a close range. We also saw lions, rhinos, many giraffes, zebras, springbok, and more! A visit to Etosha is a quintessential Namibian experience and it was great to get out there and see it with our group. I’m looking forward to our Fall Break next week and to catching up with everyone once we return to hear stories of their travels.