At last...

I can't even begin to describe my excitement to come to Cape Town.  Although I was eager to get here, I am so happy we saved the best part of the trip for last.  It is breath-taking here.  I thought I had already fell in love with South Africa prior to arriving in Cape Town, but this definitely sealed the deal.  Our hotel is right on the beach with an amazing view of Table Mountain.  We got to see amazing scenery (on top of Table Mountain, Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, Boulder Beach- Penguin Colony, etc.).  One of the most moving moments of this leg of the trip was our visit to Robben Island. When we were on the ferry boat to the  island, I tried imagining what it must have felt like for all the political prisoners that made this same trip.  Although now the island seems like a place you could vacation, the water is beautiful and the view is out of this world, but all the ghosts of the past still linger on the island's presence.  I couldn't believe that I was walking some of Mandela's foot steps on this island, and seeing his cell where he slept for so many years...there were some intense moments.  We ended our visit with a night out to an authentic African restaurant that was amazing.  Great food and live music (plus I some how got dragged to the front of the restaurant to perform in front of everyone, haha).  This was the perfect ending to our journey here in South Africa!

~Nicole Krause

Yesterday was the last day of the Global Leadership Conference. Check out the university's facebook page to see our final night at the gala!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.425668794143028.94660.175257709184139&type=1

-Kate

Citizenship

Today wrapped up my cohort's theme of citizenship in a five minute video about what it means to each of us. I wanted to point out that as inclusive as citizenship can be, it is equally exclusive. Being a citizen does not mean being heard.

-Stephanie

Mandela Day!!!

Happy Mandela Day everyone! Mandela day is conveniently on Nelson Mandela's birthday. Today he turns 94 years old. This South African holiday is meant to motivate people around the world to change the world for the better. Mandela was in prison in 27 years and was free for 67 years.  This year the holiday asks for everyone to dedicate 67 minutes of their day to help make the world a better place.

Today we had Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu on campus to help us celebrate. Tutu is very well known in South Africa as a humanitarian.  He has dedicated his life to fighting against AIDS, poverty, racism and was a leader against the apartheid. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.  He is 80 years old but is still as charismatic as ever. Tutu had the whole campus excited for Mandela Day and it was an honor to be in his presence on this special day.

What can be done in this special day?

Seeing such an inspirational person today and being able to listen to his thoughts about South Africa was amazing. I am so excited to see where we end today and tomorrow. I hope everyone has a GREAT DAY on Mandela Day :-). I think we should all do something as a group for this special day, any suggestions? -Emmy

Thoughts

I have had this in writing for several days and wanted to share this with the group... July 12 2012 : Inclusion & Exclusion  As we have had over a week in South Africa, I can start to say that I feel a connection with the people of South Africa. As we began our journey here I have felt much more of a tourist from our accommodations to our tourist travels within the city of Johannesburg and mostly when we went into the community of Tk in Soweto. I have shared this feeling with a few of you, of what was my initial thought when I entered this community. When we entered and we were able to see and share our time with the children I automatically though of all the commercials of hungry children showed on television, as people who are in poverty and in need of our help - the American help, as we are "better" than others. As we have moved from our tourist attractions with TK Tours and into Bloemfontein to the University of the Free State ( U.F.S.) having conversations and interactions not only with faculty members of this institution, other scholars from around the world but also with students from South Africa, has been a wonderful experience thus far.   I am most grateful with not only being able to interact with students from UFS who are from Bloemfontein but also from other parts of South Africa, hearing their perspectives of what it is to be black, colored and white Africans in South Africa. Yesterday, I was able to enjoy some time with a group of white Africans, and it was quite nice and enjoyable. I felt that they included me in their lives, however when they spoke among themselves in Africans I felt the exclusion from them. This though brought me to a comment that a non-white student from South Africa had told me that "the white Africans speak horrible English because they don't try to learn the English," I felt her frustration when she stated this. This comment has bought me to  a question I have bad before and during this trip, why does South Africa continue to let students choose to have courses in Africans rather than English, if it was the language of the oppressor.  Today, I have come to my reason of attending this summit and my interest in research. Professor Pulms opened the discussion to start talking about one of the major themes of this summit -race and how privilege and power work together. I question why we have not been talking about that and why we did not start our summit with her speech and topic of reconciliation and  truth? I want to start having these conversations in order to understand where the people and most importantly the youth of South Africa is and where it's moving towards? Is reconciliation where they are standing or do they need to study their past not only looking at historical information but how it has affected the people of South Africa. Well these are my thoughts for now and I wish that we will addresses some of these issues as the summit continues if not within panel discussions but at least in our small groups.  -Emmy

Transformational Leadership

Coming into the GLS I wanted to challenge myself to become a transformational leader. Since I have been at the University of the Free State, I have realized that my definition of a transformational leader was too restrictive and more traditional. For myself, I have realized that I can be a transformational leader in my own life by just standing up and speaking up. When one thinks of leadership, you think of a leader of a group or a movement. While this is one direction to go, I now realize I can still have the same goals as these kind of momentous leaders by solely maintaining a state of mind. Today we heard from an inspirational comedian, Pieter-Dirk Uys, and he made one statement that truly hit home for me. He said sensorship is not the worst thing, but rather self-censorship. For me, I need to challenge myself to stand up and speak up, and not sensor myself. The final notion that I have learned that has effected my idea of a transformational leader is the notion that one must maintain their identity as a citizen in order to be an effective transformational leader. Citizenship provides content and ethical direction for a leader, and many individuals forget they are a citizen once they become a leader.

~Nicole Krause

After a nice weekend in QwaQwa, we arrived safely in Bloemfontein to spend the remainder of the conference on the main campus. While traveling back, we visited the Basotho Cultural Village. We were able to see first hand how some of the native groups live and function as a community. We also tried some interesting foods and drinks like homemade beer, a sweet porridge, and a corn meal mixture. We eventually left the village and quickly stopped to visit a small town called Clarens that had nice shops and eateries.
-Kate

 We had taken a "Geographical Tour" of Bloemfontein, which included experiencing a entirely different world: Woodland Hills. It is a gated and fully secured area that is 70% White, and 30% mixed minority, less than 2 miles from extreme poverty. The visit to Woodland Hills created many perceptions among the students both local and international as to whether it is a segregated area or a mere class setlement. Within my cohort, we have been discussing the freedoms that come with citizenship which seem to contradict the whole idea of creating equality especially in terms of economic freedom. How do we address these issues while trying to spread the idea of republican citizenship?
-Stephanie

University of the Free State's Qwaqwa Campus

Yesterday morning we traveled from the main UFS campus in Bloemfontein to the Qwaqwa campus, which is about five hours away by bus. We are here for the weekend and are enjoying this more relaxed time. This campus is much smaller than the other one but it is surrounded by mountains so we have a really nice view.

We attended a short welcoming ceremony last night upon arrival and then settled into our residences before dinner. One of the things that we are all not used to is that they do not have central heating in the buildings here and they prefer to keep the doors open during the day. As it is winter here, you can imagine that it gets very cold. It's necessary that we wear layers of clothes underneath our coats to try to stay warm! Luckily, last night staff from the residences brought us all heavy, warm blankets to help us get comfortable.

After breakfast this morning we attended a lecture about the history of Qwaqwa and then ventured out on a tour of the campus. After the campus tour we piled into the buses to do a tour of the town. We stopped at a large open area that overlooks the entire town. The view was great! We didn't stay too long and then got back on the buses to get lunch on campus.

Other things planned for this weekend include international and local games plus some time for us all to work together in our cohorts to discuss what has been going on and start making the videos we will present later on in the week.On our way back to Bloemfontein we will take another drive through Golden Gate National Park for more beautiful views and animal spotting.

-Caitlin

During the education cohort, we talked about university education and its tuition price worldwide. I was amazed to discover that the United States has by far the highest tuition compared to all the other countries that are here. For example, someone from South Africa said her tuition was R22,000 a year which is about $3,000 dollars. In the United States, a year’s worth of a college education can range anywhere from $20,000 to $56,000. I was even more shocked to discover that Belgium provides all university education for free to anyone who graduates high school. In my opinion, it’s sad that education has become so much more business oriented than people and community oriented.  
-Kate

Gloablization at the GLS

After the first few days of the Global Leadership Summit, I am so excited to be here and take part in the conversations occurring!  Reflecting on the theme of globalization, I have realized that this conference is part of the globalization process.  A key feature of globalization is the dissemination of knowledge, which is one of the many things we are doing here.  We are sharing our experiences and knowledge with others from various parts of the world.  With that knowledge we are coming together to create global change.  It's already been seen that many of us have encountered similar challenges in our countries, for example racism.  Through discussions we can generate ideas towards solutions for the betterment of our society, which can then be brought back to our individual countries.  I am hoping for the globalization of change towards social justice.

--Katrina

The conference commenced today with an opening lecture given by Jonathan Jansen. He wrote one of our required reading books, Knowledge in the Blood, and focused his talk on transformational leadership. As Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State, he talked about some daily challenges his colleagues and he had to overcome to dismantle racism and discrimination within the university.

There were a few other speakers, including our very own Professor Allen, that touched on higher education and racism. Though the apartheid ended 18 years ago, its remnants still plague the community. There is inequality in education because of race and it was interesting to find out that South Africa still uses quota systems for college admissions. There is a lot of controversy surrounding this issue, though people at this conference have been very respectful while expressing their opinions.

-Kate

LION!!

We had an amazing driver on our safari.  He kept in touch with other drivers to know if there were any animals out.  We were driving down another road after seeing the elephants when he heard something on the radio.  He didn't say what it was, just to hold on.  He drove fast over the bumpy roads and everyone, especially the people in the back, had to definitely did have to hold on.  As we were pulling up he said "get your cameras ready!"  We got to see about 5-6 young male lions run across the road!  This is a picture I was took :)

-Katrina

Languages of South Africa

People of South Africa speak many different languages. Their main language is usually influenced by their race and location in the country. We have found that most White South Africans speak Afrikaans while most Black South Africans speak Zulu. Some of our new friends we have made here have taught us a little of their language.  Here is a few phrases I have learned so far:

In Zulu:
Hello - Sawubona (pronounced saw-bone-ah)
How are you? - Kunjani (pronouced un-janney)
I am fine - ngiyaphila (pronouced knee-ya-pee-ah)
Thank you- ngiyabonga (pronounced knee-ya-bonga)

In Afrikaans:
Good day - Goeie dag (pronounced as it sounds in one word)
Very nice- Leeker (pronounced lack-er)
Thank you- Dankie (pronounced donkey)
Fricken awesome- Flippen mooi (pronounced flippin' muy)

-Calvin

Hector Pieterson Museum

While in Soweto we visited the Hector Pieterson Museum.  Hector Pieterson was a thirteen year old boy who was shot and killed on June 16, 1976, which marked the beginning of the Soweto Uprising.  On that day, students had organized for a march against the use of Afrikaans as a form of instruction in schools.  Afrikaans was the language forced on blacks by white Afrikaaners.  We had the honor of having Hector's sister, Antoinette, Sithole, tell us what happened that day.  She recollected how her brother tagged along with her out of curiosity.  They got separated and when she saw him across the street she called him over.  He was smiling and she told him to stop because she didn't know what was going on.  People everywhere, she stayed with her brother.  However, they got separated, and when she came back out to the street she couldn't find him.  She noticed a group of people looking at something, but didn't know what.  She waited for her brother, who didn't come.  The first thing she noticed was his shoes, and then she saw his face on the body a man was carrying out of the group of people.  It was Hector; it was her brother.  She shouted and tried to get him help, but he was already dead; shot innocently by police.  The museum tells the story of the Soweto Uprising and is in memory of all those lost.  This picture is outside the museum with Antoinette Sithole.

-Katrina

Elephants walking in a pack and an elephant eating. Within 15 feet of our Jeep!

-Kate

Some snippets of our  trip thus far!

Sorry for this late post! We didn't have any internet connection the first 3 days until we arrived just an hour ago here in Bloemfontein at the University of the Free State. Soon the conference will begin.

To recap every major thing we've done so far, we've visited:
-The Apartheid Museum
-The Soweto Museum
-Soweto and in particular the town of Kliptown where we met many of its children. A very poor town, but rich in love and in community which was deeply touching.
-The Pilanesburg game reserve! We saw zebras, giraffes, springbok, antelope, elephants within 10 feet of our jeep, lions, warthogs, hippos, and many, many wildebeest! We had a very experienced tour driver who took us on quite an amazing and crazy drive through the park.
-Nelson Mandela's house
-The market downtown
-the Regina Mundi church. It was incredible to actually see the gunshots that policemen shot at student protesters gathered there during the apartheid
-A few malls (which are humongous)
-Desmond Tutu's house
-Hector Pieterson Museum. Here we met Hector Pieterson's sister who recounted the day she lost her 12 year old brother to a gunshot during the student march in Soweto during the apartheid. Her story and pain deeply affected us all.

Pictures will be posted soon. Again sorry for the wait, but we're having the time of our lives! =)

-Kate

So-we-to

This first part of the trip has been an amazing experience.  It is very powerful after reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography to visit some of the places where he led his struggle.  I am struck by how much work still needs to be done in South Africa.  Before coming here I was blown away by all the progress that had been made (mostly legislative) since Apartheid.  After arriving here and exploring the Joburg surrounding areas, I realize the laws do not reflect the times.  Apartheid is still very much alive here and segregation is still in full effect.  What is even more disturbing is the disparity between the rich and the poor.  A middle class does not seem to exist, it goes from one extreme to the other.  This was a great way to start out our journey in South Africa...

~Nicole Krause

LESS THAN A WEEK UNTIL OUR DEPARTURE! =)
-Kate

A beautiful picture of Johannesburg, a city we plan on seeing in person very soon!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uCQjWKeT4ZU/Tv3pCbBpiKI/AAAAAAAA7bo/fO7KV_cvISg/s1600/Johannesburg+%25281%2529.jpg

-Kate

TIME ZONE CONVERTER:

Use this Time Zone Converter to determine what time it is in South Africa compared to your time zone.

BROCHURE:

Binghamton Study Abroad South Africa Brochure
Click the above link to get a brief description of this study abroad summer program!

GLOBAL SUMMIT SCHEDULE:

Click this link: Global Summit Schedule: to see what we will be learning in Bloemfontein at the University of the Free State.

A picture of Cape Town, South Africa. (Taken from  http://www.cometocapetown.com/wp-content/uploads/images/cape_town.jpg)

(Haven't left yet. Just checking to make sure photo posts are working correctly.)

-Kate

Preparing!

Still preparing to leave! We will be having a few more meetings to learn more about South Africa, its history, and our trip details before we leave the 4th. Stay tuned!

-Kate