Emotions play a large role in any student’s experience abroad: confusion when faced with a different culture, fear within a strange environment, and excitement to gain a glimpse of new sights and sounds… the list is endless. Such emotions are only heightened when students are immersed in a program that focuses on a country’s heavy history of oppression.

When designing the international service-learning (ISL) program in South Africa, West Chester University (WCU) faculty understood that students would grapple with disorienting feelings during the two-week immersion in the country’s culture and history. In recent years, faculty have implemented a journal project designed to guide students’ reflections on their experiences.

Daily journaling provides a safe space where students can reflect on--and grapple with--disorientation. Journey to South Africa highlights student journal entries at the conclusion of each section of the book. The following four entries reveal the varied experiences of disorientation and subsequent reorientation that take place throughout the program.

After visiting Robben Island, the infamous prison where anti-Apartheid activists such as Nelson Mandela were held, one student--a history major--reconsidered their perspective on history:

“...hearing all of my tour guides explain their personal connections to the history of the locations was both jarring and intriguing. Listening to the experiences of . . . Sipho's [the Robben Island guide and former inmate] stories of torture at the hands of the police, along with political action and jubilant hope, forced me to re-examine my views of historical narratives. History is all about historiography, which can be defined as the methods as to how history is studied and examined. Changing my historiographical interpretation of apartheid in order to better understand the personal stories woven into the fabric of the history made me a better historian and a kinder person…”

A second student connected their classroom learning to their real-life experiences in South Africa:

“We stopped at the District Six museum and got a chance to speak with one of the facility organizers, Noor Ebrahim. He told us personal stories about his life during apartheid. He lived in District Six, and as a consequence of being “colored”, was forcibly removed from this area along with his family. One of his main points was that we are all people regardless of color, socioeconomic status, or religion, we are all people. The District Six museum was incredibly eye opening. We had learned extensively about apartheid in classes. However, reading stories from people who lived through this period and seeing images of their family made it register in my mind as even more “real” rather than just a historical event to be read about in textbook[s]."

Another student navigates feelings of surprise that originated from their interactions with South African youth living in Nkosi’s Haven, a care center for women and children with HIV/AIDS:

“...At the center, my personal interactions highlight ended up catching me off guard. Riley, Anna, Lindsey, and I spoke with two teenagers, as we tended to gravitate away from the numerous young children and look for people closer to our age. The conversation was fun and interesting, and filled with humorous sarcasm about dating problems; the usual stuff anyone our age loves to gossip about. It wasn’t until the nighttime, when Dr. Loedel spoke to us at the debriefing session, that we learned that the boy we spoke to was Gail’s adopted son Thabo. Only then it made sense his last name on his ID card said Johnson. Personally, I would have expected the child of someone as famous as Gail Johnson to act differently around people, especially random American travelers like us; instead, Thabo was a genuine, kind, interesting, and helluva talented teen with big ambitions; just like his mother.”

Finally, a fourth student grapples with the juxtaposition of their own privilege against the poverty of many South African families:

“Coming face-to-face with poverty in South Africa has been hard. But driving through it in a coach bus, seven feet above the ground is somehow harder. We were physically above these people and it did not help the fact that some of us were already feeling that way mentally. All doubts aside, driving through this informal settlement was tough. My mind began racing about how some houses have power while others didn’t . There were some satellites scattered throughout the town but who even had a TV? Who did the cable companies send the bills to? Did these people even have physical addresses? All these logistics were flying through my mind…”

The journal project, paired with surveys of students who participated in early programs, has allowed faculty to explore the basis for students’ learning in the ISL program. They have discovered that learning develops out of disorienting experiences; structured, routine reflection facilitates students’ abilities to make sense of, and therefore learn from, these experiences.

Journal writing remains a key element of the Honors College’s ISL program in South Africa. It continues to benefit students’ learning as they navigate a country far different than their own.