Nelson Mandela Day

All the COE study abroad students on Mandela Day

Today is Nelson Mandela day, which is a day where people are encouraged to set aside 67 minutes of their time to make the world a better place.  Mr. Mandela himself encouraged the world to make every day a Mandela day, but this day in particular is set aside worldwide, but especially in South Africa as a day of service.  

Distributing sandwiches.

Working that jam.

 

Impromptu Sandwich assembly line.

For our act of service we teamed with the Big Sock Story to hand out sandwiches and warm winter socks to people in need.  We spent our morning first making jam sandwiches and fish paste sandwiches (a local favorite).  All told we made more than 80 sandwiches to distribute. We then spent the next two hours handing out sandwiches to people in need.  It was a really wonderful experience, and the Big Sock Story was very much in need of volunteers so our efforts felt meaningful.

Lenny has a popcorn problem...

 






 




After doing our 67 minutes we went to UWC where we met with the College of Education faculty once again for an informational movie screening.  Dean Desai showed us two films, one on the Matric exam taken here in grade 12, and the other on the issue of gender equality specifically in education in South Africa.  Both films were really interesting and stimulated some wonderful and productive conversations amongst our little group.

Later that evening Levi, Lenny and I went to see The Fault in Our Stars at the local cinema, and though the differences are subtle some of the movie-going practices are not the same here as they are back home!  It was a wonderful movie, and almost surprisingly the experience was culturally informative as well.

Unfortunately the Wi-Fi in our rooms is once again on the fritz.  I’ll try to stay as up to date as possible!