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Foreign correspondence: Student schools us on her trip to Africa [BC-WLT-CORRESPONDENCE:CH](Charlotte Observer (NC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) What's it like to live in a far-off place most of us see only on a vacation? Foreign Correspondence is an interview with someone who lives in a spot you may want to visit. Sarah Gaspari, 18, is a senior at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, N.C. Through the Traveling School program for girls (www.travelingschool.com), she spent her fall semester in southern Africa. Her group consisted of 12 American students plus four teachers. Q. You spent the last four months of 2009 in Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Was it easy to tell them apart? A. The landscapes were clearly different. The seasons were changing when I was there, and that helps. It was the beginning of spring when we arrived in Zambia, our first stop, so the trees hadn't blossomed yet; Namibia was more isolated and raw. South Africa was greener. We could differentiate by culture because we studied the dominant culture of whatever area we were in. For instance, we interacted with Zulus only in South Africa. But Zulus and other cultures cross boundaries and aren't limited to one place, so telling countries apart by the culture is difficult. Q. How much did you pack? A. We each had a backpack and a daypack. The program gave us a very specific packing list. The Traveling School knew what they were doing, and were clear on what we should and shouldn't bring. For clothing, we had maybe six outfits, total. We lived out of our backpacks. The school advised us on water purification kits and medicine and other essentials. Q. What was the most useful thing you packed _ and the least useful? A. Most useful was a journal. It's not a practical item, but I'm thankful I brought it because even if you don't have time to pull out a camera if you're passing a herd of elephants on the road, for example, you can write about the experience later. Least useful? For some reason, I brought along an external hard drive. I didn't even touch it: I came over-prepared with memory cards for my camera. I just didn't need the hard drive and would've been unable to transfer photos to it anyway. The computers I used over there were a little slow and sometimes the Internet network would be down. You just learn to deal with it. Q. Their spring and summer come at the end of the year. How was the weather? A. It was pretty hot and could be very humid. But there were times when I had to wear long underwear, sweatpants and every layer I brought _ but that would be because it was windy. Toward the end of the year, it felt a lot like the middle of a Carolina summer: hot and sticky. Their summer is their rainy season. The rain wasn't too different from our summer storms. It probably rained an hour or two a day. There were also times when it drizzled all day. Q. Moisture plus heat... How were the bugs? A. Not as bad as I thought they'd be. We were in rural areas 40 to 50 percent of the time and had to wear mosquito spray and take malaria medicine. But the mosquitoes weren't that bad, actually. Sometimes there were a lot of flies and spiders at our campsites. I'm terrified of spiders and I did fine, so it wasn't too bad. Q. How were your animal encounters? A. Some were planned. We went to Chobe National Park in Botswana, Etosha National Park in Namibia, and Kruger National Park in South Africa and saw the "big five," the most difficult animals to hunt: lion, Cape buffalo, elephant, leopard and rhino. One night a leopard came right up to our truck _ and leopards aren't too common to see. Some animals were close; others were at a distance. Our guides were really good at spotting them for us. There were also impromptu encounters. We saw some elephants and zebra, and lots of impala just off the highway. Sometimes giraffes would run across the road. Q. What were the roads like? A. In South Africa, they were just like the ones here, though maybe a little more narrow. We drove on some bumpy dirt roads in Zambia. The roads varied considerably from place to place. In every country, rural villages were more prone to have dirt roads. Q. Did you eat local _ or American? A. We had a cook traveling with us, and we ate spaghetti and other standard food. We had a few dishes from his homeland; both he and our driver were from Zimbabwe. He made sadza, which is like white polenta. We ate it with vegetables and a meat dish. You eat it with your fingers. It's a common meal where he's from and is very good and filling. The fruits and vegetables we ate weren't particularly unusual. Q. What about brand items _ the same as in America? A. They had Coke and some other things we have here. I noticed their Coke was a bit sweeter. They also have their own brands, like a potato chip called Simba. Q. The absolute highlights? A.I really enjoyed Cape Town _ there's such a living-history feel to it. We also did a township tour and got to see the aftermath of apartheid. We talked with people who were victims of apartheid and who protested against it. That was an incredible learning experience. We also went to the coast of South Africa, which was beautiful. We saw whales jump up randomly from the water, and that was pretty cool. ___ Know someone who lives in an interesting city or country who would like to give us the inside line on visiting there? E-mail, in English, [email protected]. ___ (c) 2010, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Visit The Charlotte Observer on the World Wide Web at http://www.charlotte.com/ Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. KeyWords:: BC-WLT-CORRESPONDENCE:CH BC WLT CORRESPONDENCE CH |