Week 3 : This week I was able to step away from my internship for a day and go explore what South Africa really had to offer. I attended the Sunday market. This was such an amazing experience I was able to buy myself a few souvenirs to bring back with me to the United States.
One thing that stood out to me at the market was the family environment. Everyone was so welcoming and all wanted to feed me. During week one of my internship I met a young lady named Yafika (Yah-Fi-Ka) Yafika is so nice, I first met her on day 1 of my internship when I was lost on campus looking for the correct building that I was supposed to be in and every since then she has been such a wonderful mentor and “sista”.
Yafika comes from a underprivileged part of South Africa and has a huge passion for music. One day she hopes to start a music school for girls who come from areas like herself. She always tells me that she is grateful she is to have to met me. We both are learning a lot from each other. She has really been teaching me the “African way”.
When I first moved into my room on campus everything was so new too me and I had to immediately adopt to a new way of living. My room was nice in space and comfort instead of a shower I had a tub. This was so funny to me because I haven’t taken a bath since age 6 and immediately stated that I wanted to go home. This wasn’t all after the tub came, no air conditioning, no wash machines and not being able to use my social media accounts.
In today’s American generation those are things we can not live without, Yafika sat me down and explained to me how privileged I was and that I shouldn’t complain over something that would immediately come back after the completion of five weeks. She stressed the word FIVE and said “Imagine how us people here in South Africa feel, not having a five week experience of limit sources but a LIFETIME”. It was at that moment that I placed my phone far away from my possession and started to become more familiar with my environment. There were a lot of things that I never imagined that I would try for example washing my clothes and hanging them outside on a rack to dry, and trying new foods and drinks. Yafika invited me to her favorite restaurant “News Cafe” and forced me to try two of her favorites, Chicken and Lamb Quesadillas and a Strawberry Cheesecake smoothie. THEY WERE AMAZING.
In conclusion I can not stress how grateful I am for this life changing experience. One of my goals when coming abroad was to not be afraid and this week I was courageous because FEAR KILLS Dreams and I do not need any fear deterring me from mines.
