Pre-Trip: Thoughts & Expectations

It honestly does not feel real that I will be headed to Cape Town, South Africa on Friday. I am feeling very excited, nervous, and eager. I am not entirely sure what to expect and I do not want to set myself up for any unrealistic expectations. My biggest goal is to learn as much as I can in two and a half weeks. I want to learn more about South Africa, social work, myself, and my fellow classmates. I plan to go into South Africa like a dry sponge, ready to soak up every experience and learning opportunity. I recognize that I am one of the younger faces in the program going out and I feel a bit intimidated, but I am so excited to learn from each of my classmates and professors. I suspect they have a lot of knowledge and experience in social work that will help broaden my horizon. I am looking forward to getting to know the social workers in South Africa and their culture. I am very excited to be a part of a study abroad that is very much a mutual learning experience and not a “white savior” mission. I am very interested to see how South African history has affected their daily lives. Listening to Trevor Noah’s book, “Born a Crime” painted a certain picture in my head of townships and the people of South Africa. I am curious to see how much of this picture rings true today.

I expect I will be very out of my comfort zone in the wilderness. The fact that I will be sleeping under the stars scares the living day lights out of me in a good way and I love that feeling. When I lean into those areas of discomfort, that is where I grow the most. I am not too scared or nervous about the remainder of the trip, it’s just the beginning that is freaking me out. I think it will be really fun though to go out and connect on a deeper level with these people before diving deep in to social work issues. I expect I will grow quite a bit in my understanding of social work on a global level. I want to gain a deeper understanding of the social issues in South Africa and what approaches the social workers are taking to address them. Overall, as nervous as I may be, I just want to show up and appreciate the space I will be given to explore social work on a whole new level. Our other reading we discussed in class, The Constructionist Principle by Gerard J. Simmons got me really thinking about my own set of beliefs and assumptions. I really want to show up with an open mind and heart, ready to accept new learning and experiences. Simmons states, “We can go through life on “auto-pilot,” automatically accepting and allowing our co-constructed beliefs and assumptions to guide us through situations. This limits our ability to learn and grow with experience, since we tend to repeat the same things over and over.” The very last thing I want to do is to assume and close my mind to learning from the people of South Africa. I know that I do have assumptions about South Africa, a lot that I may not even be aware of, but if I can show up with a brain ready to learn and understand, that will make a significant impact.

Overall, I am very excited and grateful I have this opportunity, but I know it may be hard. It’s going to be hard to face my own biases, my own areas where I need to become better educated, and how I can become a better social worker. I am also very sad to be leaving my sweet baby girl for two and a half weeks. I have been feeling a lot of lame “mom guilt” that is unnecessary and projected on me by others. It’s so silly because I believe my going on this trip is one of the best things I can do as a mother. I am so happy that I get to tell her one day about the time her mom went to South Africa to study something that meant so much to her. I will have so many cool stories to tell her and I hope it inspires her one day to pursue something she is passionate about. Right now, all she cares about is milk, snuggles, and pooping but I hope that my taking this trip will have a positive impact in the long run.