South Africa Sparked a fire for international health care in my heart and changed my life Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Working with a american based program I felt like the work load and expectations/ standards of work were simmilar, if not easier than a normal semester work load. The work load provided great opportunity for learning and personal research but was not too overwhelming that you were locked inside doing homework all day every day. SIT provided the last month of the program as a time for Independent Study Project and I loved this time. It was a time where students could look into a subject that they were very excited about and structure it to their comfort level, and immersion level. I chose to live and work in a complete immersion situation and I love it. I learned I could write more than I ever thought. On a negative note, there was a week where we participated in a red cross class, as a health major I did not learn anything from that week, or I could have learned everything in a day, so I felt there could have been a better use of academic learning time.

On-site administration of your program

At times it felt like administration was not as organised as it should have been. During our rural home stays alot of the activities we were supposed to do didn't happen because scheduled leaders and community members were not contacted or didn't show up. Alot of the times we just ended up waiting and killing time. Sometimes the administrators were more concerned about making the budget work out than the experienced. Especially at the end of the program I felt like the administration should have been more available and active in independent study projects, there was no supervision, this had its pros and cons. We had freedom to peruse any topic we wanted but finding resources were left completely up to us. I had to find a home stay family, traditional healers, a host clinic and translator in a different rural area by myself. the administration made no accommodation for disability support for dyslexia. Over all the program size was good we broke off into smaller groups of 12 for rural home stays, i got to know every one on the program.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived in a number of different host families and I feel in love with them, they were one of the best part of my study away experiences. They help with integration into the culture, and helped with my language skills. In shorter homestays I felt like a guest, and it was a little uncomfortable but in longer homestays I was part of the family. In the townships I felt safe with my family but would not have gone out at night by myself, I just had to be street smart, and not do anything I wouldn't do at home. I did not like the time living in the apartments. I felt like you can live in apartments anywhere in the world but not with homestay families. i felt like I was being a tourist instead of being integrated into the culture. My home stay family/ friends were not even allowed to visit the apartments, it was segregation because of class, and race. My language skills suffered not living/ communicating with home stay families or communities for a month.

Living with low income families we ate alot of chicken, fried foods, miliem meal. Lacking in fruits and vegetables. This was alot of the cultur. Living in the apartment we had access to grocery stories were we could buy healthy food, but our food stipen was limiting. We payed alot of money for the program and only had a food allotment equivalent to $4 US dollars/ day for breakfast lunch and dinner. I survived but it made eating healthy with out using extra money not budgeted for food difficult.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

My home stay family was very helpful with cultural experience and integration. I made lots of local friends, who taught me the culture. The program had great experiences, with the Reid dance, Traditional Healers, drop day in Durban, Hector Peterson museum, living in the townships, visiting rural communities and hospitals, the draconburg mountains were amazing!

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

My health was good, good fast access to modern medicine, and doctors. If I had gotten seriously injured during my independent study project I would have been concern but that was a risk that I took living in a rural area. I was safe because I was smart, but during my independent study project If anything had happened to me no one would have known in administration for a month. There was not checking in, or accountability. I felt safe with all my homestay famlies

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Considering I did not know any Zulu before the program my Zulu did get butter, but I wish the language component was longer instead of only 4 weeks. I wish we had had more homework to keep us accountable for studying. We practiced with our home stay families, which was by fare the mosts beneficial. I used Zulu every day when I was there, especially during my Independent Study Project. I was living in a very rural area where only 10ish people spoke fluent English. Many people could string a few sentences of English together and I could string a few sentences of zulu in order to communicate but it was the most difficult part of the experience. I didn't realized how much I assumed people should know english.

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• Host Family
• Apartment
• Hotel
• Hostel

Select all that apply

• Americans
• Host Family