We all have watched those one and a half hour documentaries about poverty, starvation and disease. The movie ends, the lights flicker on, and we go back to our everyday life, full of our complicated Furman problems. The students preparing to go on the Africa Study Abroad trip this semester will soon be unable to return to everyday life after an hour-and-a-half. The program, started by Dr. Don Gordon in 1983, has evolved into a 9-week experience in Southern Africa during the Spring semester. All abroad trips are life changing, but after this trip students will be unable to look at the world in the same way.
The trip entails four weeks in South Africa, three weeks in Namibia and two weeks in Botswana. Students are constantly moving from one place to another, going to large cities, conducting home-stays in villages, and camping in Botswana. Everyday includes new educational experiences, from visiting museums, hospitals, and nonprofit organizations to going on safari, these students are constantly stimulated. On top of their busy traveling schedule, students are keeping up with four classes, which include Study Abroad Photography; Poverty and Childhood Development; The Stage, Social Struggle, and Theory; and Global Health Inequalities. The last class listed takes a focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
You do not have to be in a specific field of study to get accepted for this study away. Rhodes Hambrick, a Chemistry major who applied for the trip as an aspiring physician, said “I have long been inculcated with the idea that modern Western biomedicine is the ultimate solution for all the issues in global public health. And yet, one of the themes of this trip has been that any approach to effecting positive public health outcomes must be culturally competent.” Hambrick expects the visit to force him into a humble recognition of his ignorance.
Summer Woods, an English major, has an interest in international human rights law as well as photography. Woods has proposed that for their Photography class, they give the children their own disposable cameras, in order to see what the African people themselves capture.
Preparation for this unique experience includes studying photos, watching documentaries, and extensive readings. The students also hear personal accounts from professors and students who have gone before. Hambrick explained that the preparation is necessary in order for students to learn as much as they can on their journey. The information fed to students prior to departure lessens the shock and allows them to apply what they see to an academic framework.
After talking with my peers who are about to depart on this extraordinary adventure, I found that one of their biggest worries was returning after nine weeks in Africa. They expect that adjusting back into our luxurious Furman life will be difficult. When we ask our friends how their trip was they will have trouble putting it into words. This little article cannot begin to scratch the surface of what they will do on their study away. If you are interested in learning more I encourage you to visit the Africa Study Abroad page on Furman’s website.
