Amid Stage 6 load-shedding, we are set to accomplish our summer’s goals. We are scrambling to charge laptops and camera equipment, we have been confined to the smaller dining area as other groups have taken over the business center, and we have had to accommodate different modes of communication as we strive to set the foundation of our projects. Throughout this, we remain steadfast and excited because what we have set out to do is to tell stories of resilience and resistance, to educate ourselves not only on how to tell a story, but how to portray the contents of the story as the very real, very impactful reality that exists for many people every day.
When I began my journey to South Africa, I knew health as what comes about when one listens to one’s doctor. As we’ve jumped into what health means and how it is measured across the globe, I am astounded. Health doesn’t belong in the hands of doctors. Instead, the responsibility for health lies on the individual and the systems that the individual uses. Many times, the failure to attain good health doesn’t reflect a personal failure of the individual or the malpractice of the doctor. This failure comes from a systemic failure, where resources are not appropriately allocated or information is improperly relayed. This can have devastating impacts on the way we view the world and our place in it.
I still have a great many things to learn about what it means to have health, and to secure people’s rights to the same. Instead of a distant pipe dream, the idea of health is tangible. We’ve learned how water safety, sanitation, and hygiene practices are important, how having knowledge of disease transmission can help prevent the spread of disease, and how government policies designed to achieve large health goals are often aimed at individual people.
I continually revise my concept of the role that I am playing here. I am working with an amazing group of people to tell an amazing story, but I am also learning so much about the world, about myself. So as we continue the arduous tasks that see us working ourselves ragged, we are also taking time to celebrate one another: how far we’ve come as people and as group members, and where we are going in our lives. With the gentle guidance of our professors, we’re given space to fail, learn, and produce something that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. If there ever was a place to learn about what health truly is, I think this is an appropriate one.
