Students from Gilroy and Morgan Hill will travel Saturday to
South Africa in a trip summed up in one word,
”
Sawubona.
”
Students from Gilroy and Morgan Hill will travel Saturday to South Africa in a trip summed up in one word, “Sawubona.”
The word has special meaning to the 16 juniors from Mount Madonna High School because of its meaning, “I see you.”
Gilroyans Blythe Collier, JonJon Blunden, Nicole Nascimento and Morgan Hill student Kabir Ahluwalia have prepared all year for this trip by learning about the different cultures of South Africa.
“Our goal is to interact with other cultures in attempt to discover how to truly ‘see’ them and how to let our walls down so that they can ‘see’ us as well,” Collier said of the theme Sawubona, a common greeting in parts of Africa.
The jam-packed schedule will be filled with interviews, visits to schools and appointments with charities.
Visits to Cape Town to interview Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and to Nelson Mandela’s prison cell during apartheid are just some of the stops on the trip.
They will also visit the children AIDS village at Botshabelo.
The last leg of the journey will take the students to Nkambeni Tented Lodge located in the Kruger National Park to learn about the ecosystem of South Africa.
In order for the excursion to become a reality, students raised more than $3,000 dollars for charity, as well as all their expenses for the trip. The airline they will be flying, Emirates Airlines, is allowing each student an extra bag to check for the items they are bringing to donate.
