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TRIP TO SOUTH AFRICA … Our
much anticipated, ‘Oakland-Johannesburg Student
Peace Exchange’ trip
finally took place in June 2003. Seven youth
from McClymonds High
School in West Oakland, and seven adults
went to Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Rev. Kelvin Sauls, himself a native of Johannesburg, and one of the main driving forces behind this project, paved the way for a comfortable arrival and reception for all of us. He traveled to Johannesburg a day before us in order to streamline the last bits of co-ordination required at Johannesburg. On the very first day of our arrival, we saw the Youth Appreciation Day ceremony which celebrated the attainment of freedom for South Africa, from the apartheid government. This ceremony was important for them to remember what their parents had overcome and to hold strong. The apartheid Government had been in control in South Africa since 1949. It was a period of time when Blacks were separated from Colored people and Whites. The people at the ceremony said it was important for them to teach their history to everyone so that they would remember, and never forget the tyranny of Apartheid. The ceremony included a theatre performance that relived the lives lost and the many initiatives undertaken during the years of their struggle for freedom. The ceremony culminated in their singing songs in remembrance of the songs of freedom that had formed an integral part of the non-violent movement initiated by Nelson Mandela. In all, the first day was an incredible celebration for all of us and clearly a fitting start to our stay in South Africa. STAY WITH FAMILIES … We had envisaged our project to be as much about teaching the Peach Empowerment Process and exchanging Peace tiles for sections of the World Wall for Peace, as about a person to person cultural exchange between our two communities. In that spirit, our hosts from Ennerdale Technical High School, arranged for us home stays with some wonderfully gracious and loving families that made us forget that we were only temporary guests from 10,000 miles afar.
TEACHING THE PEACE EMPOWERMENT PROCESS … Teaching the Peace Empowerment process to the students at Ennerdale High, was a unique experience for all of us. What made it unique was the fact that the process was imparted not only by the mentors but also the students from McClymonds High. They attended classes in the Johannesburg school interacting and sharing their own experiences from the Pep workshops in Oakland. Soon, the students from McClymonds had become heroes to their peers at Ennerdale High, even as they collectively shared important lessons in non-violent conflict resolution. Amongst the student group from McClymonds, one girl, Irene, had a fall of blue hair which made her very popular. Then Keenan who was our only Tenth grader and a member of Downs Memorial Church told the adoring group at Ennerdale that he was single and available and that he would love to come back and go to college there. Meanwhile our Peace Empowerment Process unfolded in a wonderful way. The youth were very strong in their participation, drawing wonderful pictures and participating to the fullest capacity. They walked a mile in another’s shoes, experienced the ‘fire’ element of Peace as well as the ‘water’, ‘air’ and ‘earth’ elements. They worked with the Blueprint of emotional wisdom and expressed their own emotions within each zone of our emotional being. To initiate our ‘Air’ element of Respect and ‘Earth’ element of Loyalty, we decided to create a skit/drama through which we discussed the issues of dating and HIV. All in all it was a very deep and powerful week. It turned out that they were on vacation for three weeks and didn’t get to paint tiles until the following week during their vacation. Every morning we taught the Peace empowerment process to the more than three hundred ninth graders and every afternoon we went on a field trip to important sights like Nelson Mandela’s house. CULTURAL TOURS IN AND AROUND JOHANNESBURG … As part of the broader scope of our trip, we spend time with the children there visiting art museums and historic sites and learning about traditional crafts.
There the refrigerator was bolted shut because chemical and biological weapons were not ‘invented’ by the Apartheid government but were used over there in order to “do in your enemy”. Nelson’s lifelong friend did the tour for us and spoke of him with the deepest love and respect. Other than the historic sites, we explored caves and wild animal reserves and had an opportunity to shop! Every US dollar almost magically got transformed into seven and a half Rands. The Rands got exchanged for some beautiful crafts that all of us got back as prized souvenirs. VISIT TO CAPE TOWN …
We learned a lot, we gave a lot and we received an experience to remember.
Carolyna
Marks
July 17, 2003 |
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This
trip was preceded by a 12 week long Peace
Empowerment Process
workshop at McClymonds High School in Oakland,
with a highly motivated
and receptive group of ninth grade
students. As part of the
workshop, the students at McClymonds as well as
their mentors painted a
wonderful group of tiles for a section of the
World Wall for Peace at
our host school- Ennerdale Technical High School
- in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
After
weeks of anticipation and preparation, the day
of our much awaited
journey finally arrived. We were to fly on
British Airways via London
and the students were clearly excited. Six of
the seven students had
never before flown on an aircraft.
Traveling together as a group
provided the perfect platform for all of us to
share our collective
excitement and energies in the hope of a life
altering experience.
I
will personally always remember my stay with
Mable Harrison and the
hospitality she extended to Dorothy and I.
Mable teaches math to
the seniors at Ennerdale High and was part of
the organizing team that
arranged the home stays. She pleasantly
surprised me by suggesting
translating my book ‘Creativity in the Lion’s
Den - Releasing our
Children from Violence’, in Afrikaans - the
second most widely spoken
language in South Africa after English. 
Our
visits took us to the Museum Africa in Newtown
that showcased the
turbulent history of the region as well as
brought us face to face with
the realities of Soweto (South West Township).
Soweto, a sprawling
shanty land, was the direct outcome of the
apartheid government’s
system of forced removals, moving the Black and
Colored populations to
specified areas in order to ‘keep them off White
land’. We went for a
visit to Nelson Mandela’s Soweto home in Orlando
where he’d spent many
years.
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