Apart from the poverty, garbage, and ‘homes’ -most are made of no more than some wooden or metal sheets- I was surprised to see the residents’ cheerfulness and the pride they take in their slum. For this project, it’s important to respect existing social networks, and be careful not to look at the problems from a superior viewpoint. It’s essential to talk to the residents in order to find out what the actual problems are.

My group focuses on youth, and to that end we’ve conducted research at a secondary school to determine what young people do in their spare time. Sadly, they hardly do anything, and the main reason for that is a lack of facilities. With the help of the children and their parents, we’ll be looking into desirable facilities, and how they may improve the living conditions of the kids.

The second day we spent at the school, which happened to be very modern, I came to the painful realization I wasn’t in the Netherlands: the school closed early because one of the teachers had raped a child. None of the children were very surprised, since ‘it tends to happen here’…

When I’m not studying I try to travel as much as I can. I’ve already visited Durban, Port Elizabeth, Jeffrey’s Bay, and Cape Town, and just returned from Mozambique. Two weeks from now, I’ll be going on a safari with a 4x4, travelling through Botswana to the Victoria Falls. It’s the best semester abroad I could have hoped for!