I left Minneapolis on August 31st and arrived 36 hours later in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town looked like paradise from the plane—with mountains, ocean, and vineyards. When we arrived, the Lexia International director picked me up from the airport along with the other students and took us directly to our host families in Bellville, a Coloured suburb in South Africa about twenty minutes from the center of Cape Town. Bellville was created during apartheid when people of color were forcefully removed from the city by the apartheid government and divided into designated suburbs and townships on the outskirts of the city.

My family couldn't have been a better match. My host-parents, like my mom back home, were both teachers. I had two 'brothers', one 'sister', and a baby 'nephew' with whom I got along with magnificently. They were spirited and fun and reminded me of my family back home. Because of my Latino features most people thought I was related to the Apollises. It was therefore easier for me to feel included in that community than many of the white students on the program.

The rest of my program was really terrible. A lot of our money never got to us. We didn't get to do all of the activities that we were promised. Our director had very few contacts. Our professors didn't really attend classes. I ended up leaving the program early and doing my own thing. On my own, I met Professors and reporters, politicians and grassroots organizers. I sat through Parliament and met President Mbeki. I saw a speech by Zachie Achmat, leader of the Treatment Action Campaign. He is an AIDS victim who is postponing his own AIDS treatment until affordable treatment is accessible to every South African. I met stars from Backstage, a popular nighttime soap opera. I volunteered at a crèche (a pre-school/nursery) in Langa, the oldest township in the Cape. I got to hang out with the actors/dancers of African Footprints, a contemporary musical on the history and experiences of blacks (Xhosa, Zulu, etc.) in South Africa I was invited to partake in series of events with women's rights organizations such as the New Women's Movement. I also helped organize a Gender and Local Government Transformation with the Gender Equity Training Network.

My most memorable experience in South Africa, however, was with the Mandela Park, Khayelitsha branch of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign. I met my closest friends and my boyfriend in this campaign.

In 1994, when Nelson Mandela's African National Congress took power, they promised the historically oppressed people of South Africa, especially in black communities, a democratic society that would provide more jobs, equitable distribution of income and wealth, and basic needs such as land, housing, water, electricity and social welfare. These promises were stated in the original Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP), a Keynesian economic plan proposing growth and development through reconstruction and redistribution. In 1996, without consulting the people, labor unions or community groups, the ANC changed its economic plan to GEAR, a neo-classical economic plan in line with global structural adjustment programs proposing growth and development trough neo-liberal market-oriented growth strategies.

GEAR has had a terrible effect on the poor people of South Africa, many of whom fought in the liberation movement against apartheid. The ANC and GEAR have privatized land, homes, water, electricity and health services, leaving the poorest people on the street without basic necessities to survive such as water and electricity. Since GEAR's inception, almost a million jobs have been lost. Unemployment is conservatively reported to be 25 percent but it is most likely as high as 40 percent.

In townships such as Khayelitsha, it can be up to 80 percent. Twenty-two out of 42 million South Africans live in dire poverty. Many of these people are pensioners, elderly or disabled. Often it is the sickest people who are kicked out of their homes. Sometimes they get "rightsized" to live in a government funded home. Some of the homes I saw were literally made out of tires stacked in the shape of a square.

Community organizations in the poorest townships of South Africa, such as the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC), have organized to fight for their rights. I had the privilege to work with the anti-eviction campaign in Khayelitsha (the biggest and poorest township in the Cape). The AEC's aim is to fight evictions, water cut-offs, poor health services, expensive utilities and police brutality. I actually witnessed an old lady get physically battered by a police officer at the protest. The AEC holds mass mobilization demonstrations and popular education initiatives. However, the AEC has absolutely no funding. Unlike the liberation movement, it is not getting International funding or middle class support. This is a poor people's movement and their only allies are other poor people's movements throughout the world. My friend Max Ntonyana, the chairman of the AEC, is being pursued by the authorities. He was previously in jail for a month on charges of intimidation because he planned to protest at a courthouse. Now, the government wants to re-arrest him for violating bail restrictions that prohibit him from coming to Anti-Eviction meetings. There is a legal battle to keep him out and the community of Khayelitsha has no more money to fight it. These are the current conditions of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

Working with the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign was an incredible experience because I got to see so many extremely admirable people put themselves on the line to protect their community and to fight for human rights despite the fact that they were being oppressed by the very same institutions that they had once fought to change. It's hard to know that many of my friends are now in jail or in hiding or without homes. It is difficult to accept that my privilege and background gave me the ability to leave their struggle and come home unharmed. As much as I care about that community which accepted me with open arms, I do not historically belong to that community and I will never fully understand the risks that they face everyday. I do want to propose this to the Macalester Community and organizations (such as SLAC, MPJC, Amnesty International, MacCatholics, etc.): many of us are privileged, relative to many other people in the world. Many of us have money. All of us attend a good school and many of us belong to organizations that are well funded. We have a responsibility to help other people, which is what Macalester organizations do ... mostly domestically. We also need to help sister organizations throughout the world, especially the "developing world" who are fighting similar battles (against neo-classical capitalism, poverty and for workers rights and justice). We have a lot to learn from each other. I cannot fully explain to you how much I have learned. Can Macalester organizations, either this semester or next semester, team up with the AEC to help them out with funding ($50 goes a long way in grassroots organizing), share tactics and provide support? I think we can and we should. Please contact me if you are interested in helping.