On my way to Bushbuckridge!

Hey all!

Currently, I am on an eight hour drive up north to Bushbuckridge..so long joburg! Since I last wrote, so much has happened in traveling and with in the group! Over the past few days, we've learned more and more about wilgespruit, the town we are living in. It played a huge role in the anti apartheid movement, and during the apartheid served as the only multi racial institution in all of south Africa. Many refugees and activist groups were based in wilgespruit. It was wild to hear some of the stories from the anti apartheid struggle and from members of the black consciousness movement. our group visited soweto, the largest black township in all of Africa, and the area that all many blacks had to move to during the apartheid. The houses are tiny and all packed together, and as we walked around the streets I could feel the strong sense of community amongst the people. During the day, I spoke with Shakes for a few hours about his experience growing up in an integrated society and how his generation feels about the apartheid. He also taught me a lot about Zulu culture and traditions and i realized that many of his traditions are similar to that of Judaism. So cool! At night, he took our group to a club in joburg to experience some of the night life, which was great.

On Sunday morning I went with some friends to the Rose Bank flea market - so amazing! Filled with tons of beautiful art work, jewelry, delicious local foods, and fun crafts. I hope to find many more craft markets here in sa and in the other countries as well. In the evening, we had a panel with 4 people who played very different roles in the apartheid - a black reverend, a member from the black consciousness movement, a white woman who fought with the anti apartheid movement in black neighborhoods, and the former minister of defense from the apartheid govt. Hearing from all four of them was fascinating. One thing they mentioned that really affected me was that when most of us walk around the streets here, no one can tell were American, we will just be seen as descendants of oppressors solely based on the color of our skin. It is very evident how clearly many people view everything as black and white here. At the end of the panel, rev Trevor challenged us as Americans to be more humble and evaluate why we are oppressing so many in the world and occupying countries and consuming 60 percent of the worlds resources. This was really heavy and provoked a lot of thoughts on what my role and all others in my groups role is in all of this.

Two nights ago, our group did an activity where we each shared our 'river of life', the story of how we got to where we are now, in small groups. My group of six ended up speaking for over three hours and I was so impressed with how open and willing everyone was to share with each other. It was a really special experience and I can tell that everyone feels much closer now from this.

Yesterday we watched an extremely powerful film 'long night's journey into day' which depicted four out of the thousands of trials during the 90s held by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These personal stories brought various sides of the apartheid more alive for me and made me think a lot about the process of healing and forgiveness. At night, the staff of wilgespruit made a Braai, festive south African bbq, for us as a last night celebration before we left for the north. All of the meat eaters said it was delicious (and the veggies were great too) and we had a great time dancing to local music outside. As a group, we presented a song to the staff to say thank you for hosting us -which they loved! And this morning, they prepared a song and sang back for us.

All in all, my week in south Africa has been wonderful, very eye opening, thought provoking, and filled with many intense conversations. The hospitality is amazing and everyone is so kind and happy to have us in their country. I am so excited to meet my host family and live in the very rural and tribal Bushbuckridge, and experience another side of south Africa.

Stay tuned!

Jess