A Deeper Sharing of Life

During my trip to South Africa, I had another revelation, actually not about South Africa, but about the opportunity to travel halfway around the globe with colleagues I've worked with for up to twenty years. It's sad how you can work with people and have a professional relationship with them and still not know them. Not really share much with them beyond professional concerns. On this trip, I had an opportunity to bond with my colleagues in a way that cannot happen at home where our time and our interaction is too fragmented to really allow a deeper sharing of life. I left here with colleagues and came back with friends and family. And that is a precious revelation, too.

We all came back with revelations that ultimately served our teaching during the last half of the semester. Our students eagerly awaited our report on our travels in South Africa and word about their South African student partners. We came back so much more informed and better able to teach about South Africa, its land, its people, and its cultures. I came back with a much better understanding of exactly what I had gotten myself into when I signed on with the Sharing Cultures Project.