Over Winter Break, two Maggie Walker Students, Winston Crane (‘25) and Milind Murthy (‘24) traveled to South Africa and Lesotho with Ms. Robinette Cross over the break, as part of Ms. Cross’s mission to expand “experiential learning” for students and to “travel beyond borders.” It was both students’ first time in Africa, where the group of three visited South Africa and the Kingdom of Lesotho.

After a 14.5-hour flight followed by a 16-hour flight, their first stop was South Africa, specifically Johannesburg. Murthy comments, “It was clear from the moment we entered the city just how many battles the people of South Africa have to fight, and how quickly they have learned to adapt to their surroundings.” He recalls the evident struggle of Johannesburg, stating that “the city once renowned for its lucrative gold and diamond mines seems a shell of its former glory.” Much of the private business and banking had been moved out of Johannesburg and relocated to a nearby city called Sandton. Lacking a thriving economy, Murthy learned that the city is constantly under the process of “load-shedding,” where the government-run power companies shut off power to the entire city for hours per day, forcing Johannesburg’s drivers to learn how to navigate traffic without traffic lights. In Johannesburg, the group also visited Constitutional Hill, a former prison for wrongly incarcerated human rights activists such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Ms. Cross comments on the history of the prison, as it represents “deliberate attempts at dehumanizing black conscious leaders.” The experience is “not something you can get through a book.” Murthy shares that the group was guided by a volunteer from a local university who “provided great insight into the horrible conditions of the prison and the unequal treatment that African and Asian prisoners received in comparison to their white counterparts.” The most “poetic and powerful” sight for Murthy, however, was the Constitutional Court the government built right next to the former prison, showing how far the country has come in progressing towards equality and justice. 

After Johannesburg, they visited the township of Soweto, where Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived on the same street. They saw the “bullets in Mandela’s home,” witnessing first-hand where Winnie Mandela had to build a wall to protect her children when the apartheid administration was firing on the family, says Ms. Cross. “Murthy describes witnessing the apparent class divisions in the township. The “working class,” or those who had steady and well-paying jobs and could afford to live in “the Beverly Hills of Johannesburg,” lived across the street from the “middle class,” who often lived in old hospitals or government housing. The socioeconomic divide was made even more clear when they visited the slums of Soweto, where the people lived in “corrugated metal shacks with little access to running water or electricity.” Interestingly, Murthy describes the slums as feeling more “lively” and safe. Ms. Cross responded to Murthy’s observations, as “sometimes, a different sense of humanity exists in lower socioeconomic communities than in wealthier communities,” making individuals and visitors feel more welcome; they have “a different sense of sharing.” Witnessing the mindset of lower socioeconomic populations helped the group reflect on what can be given in the world. “There's always room. There's always enough. There's always more that can be given. There's always more that can be made or created or consumed.”

Not only was the group able to see the divides between communities in South Africa, Crane’s experience also exposed him to some of the “negatives of multiculturalism” in society. The “notable divide between the Bantu, a blanket term for indigenous groups in South Africa, and the Afrikaners” seen in their vast race-based and wealth inequality was truly “astounding.” To him, this cultural and socioeconomic divide was one of the “clearest examples of how different cultures create a divided state.” Both students feel “incredibly thankful” to Ms. Cross for “showing [them] both sides of a country suffering from great inequalities.”

Via a car ride “hip-to-hip in a Honda Fit,” the group traveled to the landlocked independent kingdom nation of Lesotho within South Africa. Murthy describes “Winston, myself, our 40-year-old mate Tsepo, and his 8-year-old niece” all crammed into the back row of the Fit for a combined 20 hours of driving. They rode up and down the sides of mountains, through cities and the countryside, and “over every type of road surface imaginable; from smooth highways to boulder-ridden country roads, Swiss-cheese streets littered with potholes, and just dirt.” They even took turns sitting on the “hump” seat in the middle. Finally, they reached Lesotho after a 10-hour stretch of driving. Despite the economic strains of the nation, seen in the country’s reliance on importation for most things, Murthy describes the citizens living in “quaint and picturesque” farming villages. In one such village, the group stayed in a three-and-a-half-room cabin built by one of Ms. Cross’s old classmates at the University of Cape Town. In addition, Crane comments on how his stay in Lesotho gave him a new insight into “rural living and poverty that [he] was unaccustomed to.” Staying in a traditional Lesotho farmhouse in a rural environment was unlike anything Crane had experienced before. 

In addition, in Lesotho, Ms. Cross plans on starting a school, as part of her initiative with the Cross Global Academy of Excellence. She was invited by the Ministry of Education to begin the school, and her objective is “to eliminate barriers and to make learning accessible to as many people as possible.”

One fun fact Murthy recalls about Lesotho is that the nation had to close all of its KFC restaurants because there was not enough chicken. Although the group did not eat at a KFC, Murthy describes driving through “jaw-dropping” mountain roads to find “massive” waterfalls and catch an “unrivaled sunset.”

Lastly, the group visited Cape Town via a 14-hour bus ride on the “Buggy-Bus” or “Budgetliner'' from Bloemfontein to Cape Town, listening to “blaring Zulu gospel music at full volume.” Murthy describes the city as having “no shortage of wealth” and recounts bike rides along the waterfront, a safari ride where they were able to see all but one of the “Big 5: Lions, Rhinos, Zebra, Hippos, and Leopards.” The group also enjoyed “tours of the coastline, which included penguins, baboons, mountains, and beaches, and a hike up the Cape of Good Hope with ostriches.” On the Cape of Good Hope, Crane describes being “surrounded by 300 degrees of expansive ocean,” which was an “amazing” experience. Crane’s most memorable experience was in Cape Town, where he and Murthy biked along the Cape Town waterfront, which “showcased the city’s gorgeous landscape, innovative architecture, expansive urban park system, and most importantly, its resident seals.” However, not all parts of Cape Town and the neighboring localities were always brimming with wealth. Once they were outside the city, Murthy describes seeing the effects of vast income inequalities, learning that in some cases, whole “villages had to share just one bathroom.” As Ms. Cross stated, “experiential learning is one of the core components of learning. Going beyond the book, going beyond the border” is crucial to becoming a fully aware and knowledgeable citizen. Overall, for Murthy, the trip was “the perfect blend of experiential and observational learning paired with breathtaking views and unforgettable adventures.”