Summer 2023: Kalahari Experience Trip, South Africa

In Summer 2023, my High School selected me to travel to South Africa for two and a half weeks as a geography and reading teacher.  The project, the Kalahari Experience, provides human and education resources to several underserved communities in the Moshaweng Valley of South Africa.  The valley is so remote, that the nearest “city” is some three hours’ drive away.  Having spent three years in neighboring Mozambique and South Africa, I felt a definite connection to the project. 

In my time there, I had the privilege of teaching three geography classes per day for adults working to complete their high school equivalency, as well as spending time teaching younger students to read in English.  While initially, it was surreal to be teaching a group that was older than me, I came to understand how fortunate I was to have adequate supplies, resources, and technology – it made me wonder what the students in these schools could achieve if they had such access.  Having said that, it was made clear to me later that our ages were insignificant, and what we were trying to accomplish was more important. In the end, I am certain that despite going down to help teach, I probably ended up doing more learning about the struggles of the larger world around me.

Prior to the trip, I partnered with the Kalahari Experience via my Youth4YouthInternational NGO.  Part of the Kalahari Experience involved working with underserved youth to help teach them to read in English.  As this aligns well with past Youth4YouthInternational projects, my goal was to help raise funds to purchase supplies to take down to South Africa.  As it was a warm summer, I decided on a lemonade stand, where I displayed posters and materials about the Kalahari Experience near my apartment.  In one weekend, the lemonade stand generated more than U.S. $200.  The money was used to purchase children’s clothing, school supplies, and children’s books in English, which we brought down and delivered personally! These books became part of a school-sponsored reading room, where we would bring kids from the schools to read books in small groups.