<p>My daughter went to Ghana with a high school class last spring.
Her experience was different than an individual going to volunteer because
a- as a child from blue collar lowish income parents, she is hardly from the richest sector of the US.
She went with a focus- her class had worked all year to learn to take apart and build computers in order to be able to install 30+ computers at a school in Ghana and teach the students and adults how to keep them in repair.
The program has been in operation for over 10 years and while they travel to other countries this was the 6th time they ( the program not my daughter) had been to Ghana.
Additionally a high school counselor who accompanied them on their journey is a Ghanian chief of a small village where they were welcomed and were able to meet the paramount chief as well which was a great honor.</p>
<p>She loved her time there, the people were friendly to Americans and she enjoyed getting to know other young people.
As soon as she arrived home she was recieving phone calls and cards from her new friends.
( she wants to go back soon, but is hoping to stay much longer than three weeks.)</p>
<p>My oldest daughter went to a junior year in South Africa with a British agency called InterStudy. Her college gave Hannah a years leave of absence, so we saved a considerable amount of money by having her go overseas.</p>
<p>Her first semester was at Durban U. and her second at Fort Hare. Fort Hare is a small, traditional black college, she was one of three white students in a 6000 student body.
Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and other anti-apartheid leaders went to FH. She became friends with students from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Lesotho, as well as SA. She learnt Xhosa, marimba and compassion. </p>
<p>Hannah worked in a program for AIDS orphans in the local township. The year program inspired her and she did human rights work in rural Guatemala after she graduated. This past year she applied to grad school in Public Health and based on her life experiences received a fully paid education at a major public health school. </p>
<p>She would not trade her year for anything and I strongly encourage students to step outside their comfort zone. Mom and I were worried alot, but with cellphones and skype it is easier to stay in touch.</p>
<p>A friend of my D’s was part of a study abroad in Ghana this past spring. When D saw her on campus a few weeks after the semester started, she was surprised. Turned out the friend had been there 3 weeks when she and some other friends were coming out of a movie theater and the kids were attacked and robbed by a machete wielding group. Know some others on CC have had kids go without incident, but just am putting the info out that it isn’t necessarily all that safe.</p>
<p>“First time, had an armed hijacking of the airport limo”</p>
<p>Maybe you’re just using limo to mean shuttle… but if not. WHY IN THE WORLD WERE YOU RIDING AROUND IN A LIMO??? If that doesn’t shout “Please rob me!!!” I’m not sure what does.</p>
<p>An airport limo is not a stretch cadillac or anything like that, necessarily.</p>
<p>It was a decent newish car with a prearranged driver who waits at the airport with a little sign with your name on it. There are many such cars on the roads in South Africa, it is not such a poor country.</p>
<p>I don’t think there was any targetting of me, the objective was to steal the car.</p>
<p>Some posters have suggested that such crimes happen in the US as well, but that’s a ridiculous claim. The incidence of violent crime in South Africa is vastly higher.</p>
<p>Certainly your easiest transition into Africa will be Cape Town, and if you plan to study at university, the University of Cape Town(UCT) is considered to be among the top 200 universities world wide. </p>
<p>Personally I feel that you will enjoy Cape Town most if you come not to help the poor, but rather to enjoy yourself and have fun. </p>
<p>Part of the reason why students studying abroad here have had crime problems is often that they come with an ultra liberal attitude, and do not realise the dangerous situation they expose themselves to by going against the advice of locals.</p>
<p>As for the University of Cape Town, it is very cosmopolitan, with a wide range of students, around 40% white, 20% black, 20% coloured and 20% other and international.</p>
<p>If they really cared about helping Africa, surely they’d visit countries like the Congo and Somalia. They need much more assistance than South Africa!</p>
<p>Our son spent a semester in Senegal and it was a transformative experience. He may very well have initially been a stereotypical rich (well, upper middle class, perhaps) kid wanting to ‘do good’ in the world, but he came back with a complex understanding of the role the U.S. plays in providing world aid. He now knows that ‘we’ sometimes try to help but end up doing more harm than good. He is now writing a senior thesis on the long-term effects of student overseas programs in 3rd-world countries.</p>
<p>Yes, Congo and Somalia need more help than South Africa, but I assume those suggestions were tongue-in-cheek, considering how dangerous such places are. I know the original poster was asking about sub-Sahara Africa, but I think that Senegal is a great place for a college student to visit and study. It has a stable democratic government and is reasonably safe. To be sure, there are a lot of thefts, but violent crime is rare. If you get out of Dakar, you quickly find yourself in subsistence-economy villages where you can learn about cultures radically different from ours. Many colleges run programs in Senegal, in addition to in-country programs.</p>
<p>My parents have been to South Africa 6 times since the early 90s, and the last two times they took me and a couple of my kids. We LOVED it!! I would go back in a heartbeat. We went to Kruger National Park (saw 18 lions this past trip, in November), Jo’burg, and Cape Town. We traveled with a friend of my dad (an engineering professor). We never had any problems. UCT looks like a wonderful school.</p>
<p>After being assured it was safe, I ran 10 miles by myself on a path right next to the ocean in Cape Town (I’m a middle-aged woman.). Everyone was friendly. The taxi driver who drove me to the trail was so friendly and helpful that we hired him for the next three days to drive us all over the Cape.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t hesitate to send my kids there to study, as long as they had some good contacts. My friend’s daughter went to Cape Town to volunteer in an orphanage a couple of years ago, and also had a wonderful experience.</p>
<p>South Africa is an amazing place to go for study abroad. I’d recommend it to foreigners simply because its like ‘Africa for Beginners’ and yet you still get exposed to the real Africa. Honestly, its become so westernized. People who have been victims of crime in SA often have put targets on themselves. You can’t go wandering around townships by yourself and be surprised when you’re robbed. If you’re careful, and don’t put yourself in silly situations you’ll be fine. The universities here are also wonderful. I’d highly recommend UCT and Stellenbosch. Both great schools with beautiful locations!</p>