At a Glance: The Adventures of Two Globetrotting Scripps Students

Adventures in East Africa: Georgia Macy, SC ’14, answers questions about her semester abroad in Kenya and Tanzania

[in]Visible: Coming from a women’s college, how have your experiences in your host country differed?

Georgia Macy: In terms of statistics, I stayed with 30 American students (26 of whom are women) and about 20-30 staff members, who were mainly men and from Kenya and Tanzania. East Africa tends to be a very patriarchal society; the most blatant example of this bias occurred when a chairman of the town council in Rhotia, Tanzania asked our group why the women were asking the questions, because it was his impression that men were smarter. However, the women I met were some of the strongest and most motivated group of people I have ever known. We volunteered at an HIV testing clinic run by women who fought to improve education and decrease stigmatization about HIV/AIDS. I stayed with a retired Tanzanian couple after my program, and the wife asserted several times that she believed “women are the movers and shakers of the world.” There are certainly extreme hardships for women in East Africa, but the vast majority of women I met were motivated to gain educations and better lives for themselves and their children.

[i]V:Favorite host country food?

GM: I have to say chai ya tangawizi (English translation from Kiswahili: ginger tea), and all of the social activities that go with it. It is almost like normal tea, but you make it with an excessive amount of milk and sugar; everyone meets up in the afternoon to have their chai. People sit, relax, and have time to enjoy each other – something that seems to be underrated in our fast-paced world.

[i]V: What is your favorite class abroad?

GM: My directed research project in wildlife management. I mean honestly, when else does “class” mean “let’s go to various protected areas and count all of the animals.” You know you are getting used to East Africa when seeing a giraffe by the side of the road is normal. I still dream about being back in Amboseli, Lake Nakuru, Lake Manyara, and Serengeti.

[i]V: What would you like Scripps to know about your host country?

GM: I would love to tell Scripps everything. Since I cannot, I’ll simply tell you what several staff members and professors told me before I left. They love American students, and they love sharing their beautiful wildlife, country, and peoples with others. There are, of course, several issues with cultural tourism and local peoples benefiting little from the ecotourism business. However, I can tell you that I almost always felt sincerely welcome and never felt afraid; it is so easy to fall in love with Kenya and Tanzania and their citizens.

[i]V: Favorite Motley drink?

GM: Dirty chai. I mean the English word chai, of course. I was at first disappointed that ‘having chai’ merely meant having black tea in Kenya & Tanzania.

[i]V: Funniest faux pas/miscommunication?

GM: My professors were all well educated (all had Ph.D.’s or their master’s), but sometimes unclear on American idioms. For example, my wildlife management professor expected us all to understand when he lifted a bent index finger and asked us to promise not to worry about exams; we eventually realized he meant for us to ‘pinkie swear.’ Another professor confused the terms “wee hours of the night” for the “weird hours of the night” and thought that “tree huggers” were “tree muggers”.

In my homestay with a Maasai family, my mama knew little Kiswahili and even less English. I knew about as much Kiswahili as my mama knew English; I also knew how to say hello politely in Kimaasai. This made for interesting communication. When my fellow student and I were trying to carry water (it was in a jug with a strap attached to it), we tried to put it on our shoulders like a purse. This caused all the mamas (not just our own!) at the water source to bowl over laughing – the silly wanafunzi (students) didn’t realize that you put the strap across your forehead, and carried it on your back!

Greetings from Germany & Korea: Katie Evans, SC ’13, discusses her semesters abroad in Germany (Fall 2011) and Korea (Spring 2012)

[in]Visible: Coming from a women’s college, how have your experiences in your host country differed?

Katie Evans: The social scene was completely different. This has to do with a lot of other factors, though: A lot of students see study abroad as four months of parties, and they don’t expect classes to be all that serious (this was the case for a lot of my classes abroad, but I also had kind and interesting professors that wanted me to learn something). A lot of kids just went clubbing all week long or showed up to class inebriated, and people would say things to me like, “Why don’t you ever come out with us?” or “You finally came with us!” When I think about it now, though, the people who said those things to me were almost always boys—other girls didn’t really care if I preferred going shopping or TV marathons to clubbing. Interpret that as you will.

I have an older brother, but being around men more often did take some getting used to. I met some nice guys while I was abroad, I even dated for a while, but I also dealt with a lot of casual sexism, which brings me to my next point…

The other big difference was probably the lack of political consciousness in the students and even the administration and teachers. I don’t think Scripps is some kind of progressive utopia, far from it, but liberal is the norm and there’s a great, loud progressive community in Claremont overall. Not so when I was abroad: I heard a lot of straight-up sexist and racist things from teachers and students alike, and except for a few wonderful people, I’d be called “oversensitive” if I spoke out. My Korea program took us to Japan and had us pose for a group picture in front of a mound of ears cut off the bodies of Koreans and delivered to Japan as battle spoils, and they encouraged us to smile and wave peace signs. I found it pretty offensive, and I wasn’t the only one, but so much other offensive stuff had happened so far that I didn’t think I would get anywhere pointing it out. Like, the health specialist they had consult us during orientation—this is the man that would take care of the President if he ever fell ill in Korea—openly slut-shamed women in front of us and told jokes about how the Korean police wouldn’t investigate a woman’s rape because she was “asking for it” by going to a hotel with a man. I could go on and on about messed up things that happened while I was abroad, but I don’t want to dampen the fact that going abroad two places for a whole year was probably the best decision I made as a college student.

[i]V: Favorite host country food?

KE: I ate a lot of spätzle in Germany, which are these really tasty egg noodles, and chocolate croissants, which I guess aren’t really German, but they were so readily available that it felt like a staple of German life. My favorite Korean food, by far, is tofu stew with white rice. It’s one of my favorite foods, period.

[i]V: What was your favorite class abroad?

KE: The classes where I was just learning the language with no “set” subject, just whatever grammar, topics, vocab the teacher decided on, were the most fun. For whatever reason, the teachers in these classes seemed more interested in the topic and invested in how much we learned and liked the class. They were really nurturing. They were the teachers that asked me how my day was, or what fun things I was doing on the weekends.

[i]V: What would you like Scripps to know about your host country?

KE: I think Germany is really underrated as a tourist destination. People romanticize France and Italy a lot, but we have this image of Germany as either a wacky, lederhosen-and-pretzel place or a crazy uptight economic power. The food is cheap compared to a lot of other European countries, the shopping is often reasonable, and there aren’t the crazy lines outside of museums and castles that you encounter in Paris or Rome. I was worried when my parents, who don’t speak German, came to visit, but everyone was really nice to them.

As for Korea…it’s just really, really fun. In America we have this image of Korea cowering in the shadow of North Korea, but that’s really not the case. You’d never get that idea by looking at Seoul, or talking to Korean kids our age. The subways and buses are so easy to use, shopping and food is really inexpensive if you go to the right places (and there’s dozens of restaurants on each block in Seoul, so at least one of them is good), and there’s just so much to do. Arcades, private karaoke rooms, cat cafes, dog cafes, late-night shopping, amusement parks and old palaces within city limits…I spent five months there and still didn’t do everything. If someone offered me a plane ticket to anywhere in the world right now, I’d use it to go back.

[i]V: Favorite Motley drink?

KE: Apple cider! I also live off of Calypso’s strawberry lemonade when it’s in stock.

[i]V: Funniest faux pas/miscommunication?

KE: Apparently you don’t tip outside of the States, which is awesome, because it saves money, but my first week in Korea I got a really nice waiter and wanted to tip, but they ended up chasing me down the street to give the money back. What’s worse is that every time, for a month or so, that I got a nice waiter, I’d do the same exact thing with the same result.