When I first came to Cape Town I knew I had this additional “activist project” that I had to do. All I knew was it was a self constructed/chosen volunteer project somewhere in the local community. I also knew of this requirement of a minimum of 24 hours that was to be devoted to my activist project. One of the few other requirements was that I find something I am passionate about.
I certainly am passionate about my work with the Firefighters. Bongi is an incredible individual who has the capability of inspiring everyone around him. From my initial conversation with him I knew that he was someone that I wanted to be around. Throughout the course of the semester I grew closer to him as we both worked towards making the Firefighters as great as their potential. The soccer players were just as amazing, always appreciative of the time and effort we put in. By the end of the semester they addressed me by name and went out of their way to converse with me, making me feel truly at home. More than once Bongi genuinely thanked me for the work that I was doing, but it never felt like work. I wasn’t fulfilling the requirements of some assignment given to me in class, I was doing something that I loved with a group of people who provided for me as much as I provided for them.
Did I need to tutor on Wednesday nights? Of course not, easily everything else I was doing with the Firefighters would have been suffice. But what else was I going to do with my time, sit on my computer at home? I love Khayelitsha so spending another evening on a long and crowded bus ride didn’t sound all that bad to me. The tutoring allowed me an opportunity to interact with some of the older players, as the practices I attend are the U11 and U13 teams. Getting to know these athletes was awesome and once again I think I learned more from them than I ever taught them.
The thought of my work with my student as being an activist project makes me uncomfortable. More so than my work with the Firefighters, this truly was something I stumbled upon that captured my heart and my passion. While I easily could count this as my activist project, at no point (until writing this paper) did I ever think of it in that light. The relationship I built over these few months has been one of the most rewarding and yet emotionally taxing experiences of my life. Everything I have done with him has been out of the love that I have for him and my desire to bring a little more cheer into his life. He was never my activist project, and he was way more than just my student, he is unlike anyone I have ever met before and will influence me for the rest of my life.
In the end, this trip itself was an activist project for me. It was stepping outside my comfort zone in a way I had never done before. It was living in a house with 16 other people (which could be an activist project in itself) and dealing with being homesick for the first time since I was a little kid. It was about building relationships, both locally and from afar, in a way I never could have done had I stayed in the States.
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| Bongi and Dan |
I have had three and a half months of an activist project and it has inspired me to do more back home, where I am already thinking about different volunteer work I can do. In the end, it will be Bongi and my student who keep me going, who give me strength, encouragement, and inspiration, even though I will not be anywhere near them. I hope my “activist project” has made as big of an impact on those I worked with as it did on me.
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