Kayley learning to act on lessons learned

This past week was spent saying goodbyes and finishing up work for our internships. During all the hustle bustle I found time to sit down and think about the past four months a bit. Through all the conversations, memories, ridiculous stories, hysterical moments, depressing moments, and truthful moments, I have become someone else. Someone who can watch the news and say there is more to this story then we are told, someone who becomes extremely angry when reading Cosmo, watching most TV shows, or listening to the lyrics in most songs played on the radio and someone who asks questions.

I decided to apply for this program because South Africa was a place that I never thought I would go and I wanted an experience unlike any other. Boy did I get that!  I had this egocentric idea in my mind that I would be this great helping/giving back source for people here when really I learned so much more from the people here and in my house than I ever imagined. Coming here literally flipped my world upside down and I love it. Although at times it was scary and sad, what I feel and know is stuck with me forever. 

One thing that I am having trouble grasping is that throughout these four months we see the poverty that apartheid had created, we see HIV/Aids, Tuberculoses, Measles, etc, we hear stories of hate crimes towards different races and genders and we learn about what the terrible white supremacist government did to this country. Yet everyday we come home to a huge beautiful house with a pool, extra bedrooms, a gate around the property and a housekeeper once a week. Some of us are used to this kind of life, but most of us haven’t seen the other side. It is not fair that we can just step out of the hard poverty life and back into our own wealthy comfortable bubble when so many people have to live in shacks without electricity or running water. Nothing makes us better then them!

I have met kids that are working much harder then I did in high school and won’t get, as far as I will because they don’t have the resources I have. It is unjust, unfair and wrong! This is the knowledge and feelings that I will never be able to leave behind, they are ingrained.

So now here comes the toughest part of the journey, returning home and really being the person I have become. Not standing for sexist or racist or any unjust comments, and asking more questions about things I don’t understand and don’t agree with. Some say the journey ends here, but I say that the second half is going home and acting on everything we have seen and learned.