Emily Reppert- Study abroad South Africa

This last couple weeks I have been doing a lot of work for classes so I thought I’d finally make a post about all of the educational things I’ve done in South Africa.
All of my classes this semester I picked because they’re not the typical classes I could take in America. It’s interesting to see how different classes are when the United States isn’t the center of attention and you get so many different country examples. I’m always default to historical examples from America so I think it’s cool to hear other country’s histories. It provides a unique perspective that is really educational.
My Transitional Justice class is my favorite this semester. The professor is amazing and really encourages students to learn more and think more critically about the world around us. She’s teaching us about the different kinds of justice and how they are applied in African situations like Apartheid, the Rwandan Genocide and the Gacaca courts, and the conflicts in the DRC and Sierra Leone. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I barely knew anything about these topics until this class which makes this class even cooler for me.
My history class is also very good. It is a mainstream class, meaning it is offered to local students and not primarily international students. This can be challenging as some things are in Afrikaans (most of it’s in English though which is really nice). This class is really cool and I’m learning some interesting things, (like De Beer, the largest diamond company, came up with the idea for using diamonds on engagement rings!)
Finally, my last class is LSCE (Learning Service and Community Engagement). This is a very unusual class as we don’t really have lectures but we as students give hour long presentations on appointed topics. On Monday’s we work with kids at Lynedoch primary school and help teach a class with arts and crafts and other games. I teach fifth grade (with a group of 3 others) which is challenging but can also be fun. Last Monday we had the whole class make cookies which they really enjoyed. 😀
Along with classes, there are many other things to do here. There are many museums and historic places to visit. Several weekends ago, some friends and I went on a sight-seeing bus tour and went to three different museums. We went to the South African Museum, the Jewish Museum, and the Holocaust Museum in Capetown. (Still on the list is the District 6 Museum). They were super interesting and I took a ton of pictures!

Now off to the Garden Route for my mid-term break! (How is it mid-terms already??)
-Emily R