UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 10, Page 6
November 5, 1992
Student summer visit is learning, growing experience
A funny thing happened on the way to Costa Rica: The students
planning to spend the summer working in the Latin American country
felt they had a call to go to South Africa instead, according to
Father Bob O'Connor, vicar for University Ministry for the Diocese of
Delaware and St. Thomas Parish in Newark.
"We had some money, but nothing to finance a mission of that
magnitude. But we all pitched in and raised funds by doing everything
from a 5K mission race to a Mexican feast. With much outside help, we
raised $30,000 in six months time," O'Connor recalled.
According to O'Connor, The Rt. Rev. C. Cabell Tennis, the bishop
of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware, has a companion relationship
with the bishop of South Africa in Pretoria, The Rt. Rev. Richard
Kraft. Delaware churches are linked to sister churches in South
Africa.
Tennis exhanged positions with Kraft, a Chicagoan who went to
serve in South Africa for one year and is still there 30 years later.
While Kraft was in Delaware in 1990, he spoke on the University
campus, one of the factors in the student decision to go to South
Africa.
"This was a reverse mission," O'Connor said. "We did not feel we
could make any major impact, but that we would learn and profit from
an experience that could change our lives."
On a wintry day in June (the seasons are the opposite of North
America's), after a two-day flight, the group arrived in Pretoria and
were taken into homes and given an orientation. Julie Carrick, a 1992
Delaware graduate, and O'Connor, acted as roving reporters visiting
the different sites and recording the visit.
The students were organized into teams of two: senior Ann Paglee
and Scott Curtice, Delaware '92, went to Winterveld; junior Missy
LeMieux and sophomore Heather Elgin, went to St. Mark's College, a
preparatory school for black South Africans; and Lisle Blind, Delaware
'92, and junior Sandy Graham went to Middleburg.
Winterveld
Winterveld, near Pretoria, was a wasteland of red dirt and tin
huts, housing locals and illegal aliens from other African countries,
O'Connor said. There was no running water, and coal was used for heat
and cooking.
Paglee lived with Steve and Mary-Ann Carpenter, a South African
doctor and nurse team, and their two small children. Paglee helped
Mary-Ann run four nutrition clinics for malnourished children and
their mothers, helping with food distribution and meals.
The women were encouraged to plant gardens, and Paglee helped dig
the plots and put up fences to protect them from wandering goats and
cows.
She also helped with a clothing sale. Donations from churches
were sold to the women for a small sum. "It was not a hand-out,"
Paglee said. "The women had to work to earn money for the clothes. The
big industry was embroidering t-shirts."
For the most part, men did not live in Winterveld all the time,
but would return from city jobs if they had them.
Curtice lived with a couple who had begun a school in Winterveld.
With the funds they had raised, the Delaware students bought games,
books and educational tools. Curtice used the materials with the
children and encouraged them to take part in activities, such as
playing with pegboards or drawing pictures to stimulate them mentally
and help physical coordination.
He also accompanied Dr. Carpenter on his rounds, seeing illnesses
that have been stamped out in the United States.
For Paglee, seeing such pervasive poverty was eye-opening. "You
get rid of stereotypes and see human beings," she said.
She admits to feeling some anger because of the political
situation and relationships in South Africa.
Because of her experience in South Africa, she has applied as a
volunteer for the Peace Corps. Curtice said he feels that progress is
being made and that this is a time of tremendous change in the
country.
St. Mark's College
Founded in 1986 in the village of Jane Furse by its current
headmaster and his wife, Peter and Elizabeth Anderson, St. Mark's
College prepares black South Africans for university-level studies. It
has dormitories and classrooms for its 350 students, and is staffed by
full-time teachers, who are mostly black, and volunteer teachers,
mostly from Great Britain and the United States. The classes are
taught in English.
Both Elgin and LeMieux were thrown into the thick of things
immediately. "Our first project was building a brick wall around a
garden to keep the small animals out. We knew nothing about building
walls but learned on the job, mixing cement and laying bricks," Elgin
recalled.
Learning on the job was the name of the game, she said. One day a
teacher was ill and Elgin was handed some notes and found herself
teaching 10-year-olds biology and geography. She also taught phys ed.
Some of her tasks were clerical, like addressing envelopes by
hand to donors and applicants ("You appreciate computers," she
commented). She also worked in the library, which she said was smaller
than most elementary school libraries in the States.
"Since there was no check-out system, they do a periodical
inventory. I helped with that and organized the books, cataloging the
new ones. In South Africa, books are expensive, which makes it more
difficult to obtain new ones," she said.
Although her plans are not definite, Elgin said she hopes to
return someday to Africa to teach in a place where she feels she can
make a contribution.
LeMieux said she occasionally helped out with classes, telling
the students about the United States. She, in turn, tried to learn the
Northern Sotho language from them. The students laughed at her
attempts. It was extremely difficult, even using different muscles
than English, she said.
What impressed her most, she said, was the openess and
friendliness of all the people encountered, in spite of the turmoil of
the political situation.
"Everyone was gracious and shared what they had with us, which by
our standards was not much. It was a growing and learning experience.
We ended up being the students, instead of the other way around," she
said.
Middleburg
Middleburg was a study in contrasts, according to O'Connor. On
one side of the hill, white South Africans lived in pleasant houses
with manicured lawns and gardens. On the other side, poor and
delapidated, black townships spread for miles. Zulus are the
predominant black group in this area.
The students lived with white families and went on visitations to
the outlying areas and schools with the Anglican minister, Father
William Rapp of Holy Trinity in Middleburg, the sister church of St.
Thomas in Newark.
Churches in Middleburg support small churches in the rural
communities. When attending services in the black churches, Graham
recalled that frequently someone, usually a woman, would start singing
and the entire congregation would join in, but not singing a single
melody-the experience was "overwhelming," he recalled.
A music major, Graham brought his guitar, which acted as an
icebreaker on some occasions.
"We didn't perform physical tasks but interacted with the people
we met. Whites were rare in the black areas, and when the word got out
that we were leaving to return to the States, many came to say
good-bye and a few even gave us small gifts.
"Our group has done other mission work, like handing out blankets
to the homeless in Central Park in New York. We were encouraged to
talk to the people we were trying to help there, and they seemed to
appreciate the contact and caring as much as the small things we were
giving them. The same thing was true in South Africa," he said.
At the conclusion of their visit, O'Connor and the students
participated in an Anglican Student Federation Conference, where
students of all races gathered together. Although the conference was
religious in nature, there were political overtones and discussions
sometimes became heated.
O'Connor said he was heartened by the experience. "These are the
future leaders of the country as apartheid is dismantled. I was
encouraged by the leadership and sense of responsibility many of the
students exhibited in the face of South Africa's many problems," he
said.
-Sue Swyers Moncure