Readjusting- Mindsets and Arriving Home

Leaving South Africa felt very bittersweet, and too easy. As we said our goodbyes at Osborne and drove to the airport, there was no fuss, no grand sending off. We were simply leaving, but it didn't feel right. I felt obligated to give the country a send off better than "Okay, our classes our over. Back to Boulder then!" After all the hospitality that we experienced in South Africa- from our first days in Soweto to the farewell dinner in Cape Town- it didn't feel like we were simply ending the trip, but instead leaving behind our small niche in a community that had taken us in with open arms.

Back home, I've moved into a new apartment with new roommates, one of which had volunteered in Kenya for a month and had similar feelings of helplessness simply going back to her old life. Instead, we agreed, it was like you wanted to tell everyone you interacted with how Africa had changed you. Our trip- a mere 3 weeks, mostly in class- was such a great way to get a new perspective on how I do things in the states- how lucky I am to get to go to school, work near where I live, and have the ability to move around as I wish, including traveling to places like South Africa. Seeing people appreciating the opportunities that I have always had available has given me a fresh perspective on my own life and how I'm taking advantage (or not) of those opportunities- particularly in getting a college education. The trip helped me to feel refreshed and motivated, and it's evident in how engaged I am in the summer course I'm taking.

Speaking of which, I've gotten to engage what we've learned about race over and over since returning. I'm taking Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, and last class we had a big discussion about race and racism in the United States. Perfect for my new found South African knowledge! It was interesting to see people in my class work through discussing race in the states the way I had weeks before. It was interesting to make points that people weren't considering, and to share some of the experiences we had in South Africa regarding race, like how the wealth is distributed there and how people don't discuss race in the States. The ties that I've found to what we discussed in class and what I'm studying in Anthropology have become so numerous that I'm now trying to get major credit for our class in Anthro, something that I hadn't considered doing before the trip. Now I'm finding it easy to make the connections between our study of South Africa's post-Apartheid world and the ethnographies that I'm going to be working on in the coming weeks.