Scholarship Essay

Once again, I've been a little too caught up in life in Africa to keep you posted with what's going on here.  The original crew of volunteers and traveler's is dwindling, although new people do pop in for a week here and there.  I am now one of the lone volunteers on the Surf & Adventure program - meaning more responsibility and more time with the kids.  No complaints there.  I'm currently working on a story of my week long trip to Jeffrey's Bay, but until that is finished here is an essay I quickly put together for a scholarship application.  If anyone is still reading this, hopefully this will hold you over for a few more days:

            Each year countless students take the opportunity to travel abroad.  Whether to study in Australia, enjoy spring vacation on the beaches of Mexico, or backpack across Europe, young adults are constantly chasing adventure across the globe.  From a personal standpoint, my travels are a far cry from soaking up the sun on a warm beach or experiencing Germany’s best pubs.  In order to get the most out of my travels I need to maintain a high level of activity, and recently this activity has taken the shape of volunteering.  My interest in helping communities abroad was sparked after a sophomore year trip to Guatemala where five of us laid the foundation for a now thriving rural community center.  Currently, I am in South Africa having my most rewarding ‘vacation’ yet. 

            After completing my bachelor’s degree in May 2011, my gears were quickly shifted to a long summer of planning in order to take full advantage of a year break from academia.  By January I found myself just up the coast from Cape Town, South Africa working in a school and teaching surf and swim lessons to local township children.  Both aspects of the program are very unique, and every day here is filled with fun, excitement, and plenty of hard work. 

            Vissershok Primary School, where I am spending my mornings, is full of energetic students from the ages of about five to thirteen that come to us from the nearby township of DuNoon.  Most of the students speak English, but some speak strictly Afrikaans or Xhosa creating a sometimes challenging but always entertaining language barrier.  As a volunteer I am primarily working in a computer lab teaching math to students of all ages.  For any given grade from fourth to seventh there are math prodigies sitting next to students that are unable to count to ten by themselves.  This makes for a difficult dynamic in the classroom when trying to shape curriculum and lesson plans.  No matter the student, however, I have found very few things more rewarding than the smile on a child’s face when they finally grasp a previously foreign mathematical concept.

            Although I typically leave school exhausted from a day in the classroom, my energy level is completely restored when working with the children at the after school Adventure Program.  One day a week we are able to take the best swimmers of the group to the beach to teach them a little bit about surfing.  When these kids get into the ocean with a surfboard, I would challenge anyone to find a more excited and charismatic group of seventh graders.  This joy is incredibly contagious, and by the end of the day it is sometimes difficult to distinguish who has had more fun.  The same is true for the Adventure Program swim kids.  On days when we have swim lessons, we go to a local pool and spend a few hours teaching swimming techniques before giving them free time to splash around.  When these students become better swimmers they will be promoted to the surf group – a goal nearly every one of them works hard to attain. 

            Although my day-to-day schedule in South Africa is very rewarding, the bigger picture is infinitely more important.  If the math students don’t learn basic skills from us, including English, they will not be permitted to enter high school in the coming years and their education will prematurely come to a close.  Without a high school diploma, these children will not be able to find a job and will never see life outside of DuNoon.

The Adventure Program also has a much larger goal in mind.  About forty percent of the students at Visserhok Primary School have HIV.  As if that is not a big enough burden, simply surviving in the townships is a challenge.  The shanty houses share walls, the streets are lined with garbage, hygiene is virtually nonexistent, and healthy meals are a rarity.  By taking our eager seventh graders surfing and swimming for a few hours every day, their eyes are opened to a world outside of the barbed wire fences of DuNoon.  These students get to smile, play, and take part in the Africa that so many people visit but so few natives get to experience.  With a little luck they will move on to high school, graduate, and be motivated to succeed and help improve life for their friends and family back in the township.  With a little more luck, they will continue surfing for the rest of their lives. 

            Although there is nothing wrong with travelling to a relaxing beach resort, my idea of the perfect ‘vacation’ is a bit different from that all too common college aged stereotype.  I have learned an incredible amount during my time here in Africa, and I often find myself wondering who is teaching whom when working with my students.  Both the time I have spent teaching and working with kids after school has created the perfect challenge-reward relationship.   When I move back to the United States in June I will have only one regret – that I can’t stay in Africa any longer.   

Cheers,

JB