South Africa

Remember last spring when part of our family went on a learning tour of the South? Well, a few months later, the trip leaders sent an email saying there would be a second learning tour the following year — to South Africa. And now, in two weeks, I’ll be joining that trip, and writing about it. Expect magnificent essays because . . . it’s SOUTH AFRICA!

I’ve traveled through Central America, and lived in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico (and I briefly set foot in Canada for a few days), but now here I am flying over the Atlantic to a whole new continent. I know, I know, so many of my friends and relatives (including my older kids) are world travelers, and a trip to South Africa doesn’t seem like a big deal but for me it feels borderline preposterous. Unreal. Just thinking about it makes me feel fizzy inside. 

We’ll be in Johannesburg for the first week and then we fly to Cape Town for another six days, and then a bunch of us are heading to Kruger National Park for several days of safari. It sounds exotic, and it is exotic, but it’s not going to be an easy trip. If I learned anything from the trip to the South, it’s that these trips are Work. They are physically exhausting and emotionally draining, and this trip (in particular) is requiring a lot of preparation. 

When I signed up for this trip, I knew next to nothing about South Africa. Thankfully, the South African organization that is hosting our group provided us with an extensive reading list a few months back, and then a few weeks ago they gave us a stack of core readings to wade through. Thus far, I’ve read Steve Biko’s I Write What I Like, The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots From A Hidden War, I’m currently in the middle of My Traitor’s Heart, a friend’s recommendation, and I already read Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime. There’s also a movie list; some other locals who will be going on the trip have been getting together Friday nights to watch Cry, The Beloved Country, Cry Freedom, Sarafina (I watched that one at home and had to darken the screen and turn the volume off for large swaths of it), and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.

The readings are hard. Some are so dense that I feel like my brain is breaking, and some are so graphic that my stomach turns. In fact, I had to make a rule that I would only do my South African readings in the morning. Anything later than that and it was too distruptive to my sleep. (My sleep still does get disrupted by the distressing images, but less so.)

My husband has been reading some of the books, and he’s been coming along to the movie nights, too. His involvement has helped ground me in this swirl of new information, new feelings, new questions. Generally speaking, he has a much (much, much, much) more comprehensive understanding of history than I do, so it’s been helpful to be able to toss around my questions with him. 

Slowly, I’ve been getting my footing, locking down key dates, familiarizing myself with the different ethnic groups, the various political parties, the geographical lay of the land. Now I’m beginning to dig into the theories, the motivations, the world views, the political systems, the deeper (and slippery-er) complexities and the ways in which South Africa’s story connects to Nazi Germany, slavery in the US and the US’s genocide of the Native Americans, and the turmoil in Palestine.

Recently, the entire group, plus our South African leaders, have been having weekly zoom meetings. This is not a learning tour, they said, and it’s not an excursion. Tourists pass through a place; pilgrims allow a place to pass through them. A pilgrimage is a way of unlearning speed, and it’s a different posture from “mission.” Pilgrims are there, not to make a difference, but to eat together. If you cannot hear the mouth eat, you cannot hear the mouth cry (Rwandan Proverb).

I fly out in three weeks. I’m over-the-moon excited and more than a wee bit apprehensive. It’s gonna be A Trip, that’s for sure.

Also for sure? You’re gonna hear all about it.

This same time, years previous: farm tour, chicken chica, Italian chopped salad, a bakery shift, the quotidian (9.23.19), a bunch of things, grape pie, a day in the life, better than cake, test your movies!, baking with teachers, the quotidian (9.24.12).