African Attraction

Pictures: 1) Tarrah MacDonald on Safari 2) Tarrah in Malawi. The man proudly displaying his tongue is Happy Coconut (truth- that is his real name). Happy Coconut fell in love with Tarrah and sent her a love letter once she had returned to South Africa.

African Attraction

By Lauren Roodt

As the engines begin to warm up and the big body taxis down the tarmac Tarrah’s mind is more focussed on the weird sensation in her stomach than on the gum she is chewing to prevent her ears from getting blocked. She swallows hard as the lump of gum slips down her throat but continues to stare out the window. She pops back into reality as Emma pokes her and gives a little squeal of excitement. The assortment of feelings that Tarrah is experiencing is a delicious blend of excitement, anxiety and courage. “The media fills our heads with so much crap that I didn’t really know what to expect,” says Tarrah about South Africa. “My mom told me to eat as much as possible while in Canada because South African’s can only afford rice and pap,” says Tarrah, “That’s the type of stuff they tell us.”

Tarrah chose South Africa because it was the furthest place from home. Her first sight of Africa was while running through Johannesburg airport rushing to catch her next flight. “I didn’t even have time to think about all the advice people had given us like not to talk to strangers and not to put our bags down for a second” says Tarrah with a quizzical look on her face as if to say “stupid foreigners”. After a year in South Africa this leggy blonde is one of us. While driving along Port Elizabeth’s coast all that Tarrah could verbalise was “Whoa! This is Africa!” The only knowledge of Rhodes University that Tarrah had was of the community service programs which she wanted to get involved in. Everything else was a surprise.

Tarrah has involved herself in the Amasango Career Centre for street children where she spends two to three hours per week teaching the children basic skills. She find it difficult to pass one of her students on the street while she is out at night and not give him money, but she knows that it is better for them to go to the shelter where they are looked after. Tarrah has gained skills which will be invaluable to her education degree. “Teaching is just something I have always wanted to do, ey,” she says. She wishes people would embrace teaching because she has realised how diverse it is. “Teaching gives you the chance to work with children from all age groups and subjects and provides endless travel opportunities,” she boasts.

Tarrah has a hard time staying in one place and has travelled all of Southern Africa over the past year. She has not had time to be home sick for long. “I imagine it is the same for all first years. In those beginning weeks while you are still making friends it is very hard,” she says. Tarrah copes with her home sickness by having a night to her-self and getting a good night’s sleep but her true secret is to spend as much time at the bar as possible. “The more you drink, the more you socialise, the more friends you make, the better your experience of varsity will be. It all flows,” she says, adding the infamous ‘ey’ which infiltrates all of her sentences. This seems to be the way to go because Tarrah is a carefree social butterfly who can always be tempted by a draught of Black Label to leave her school work and go to the bar. Despite this she still achieves firsts in most of her subjects, including isiXhosa.

“One way or another there is a whole spectrum of opportunities in South Africa,” she says. She believes that Africa is full of exciting resources which most citizens take for granted. “The dynamic society is struck with an incredible passion,” she says, “people are willing to come out and say things, argue and oppose ideas without being afraid.” This was a welcome refresher from her life at home where people are over cautious about what they say. Tarrah’s biggest challenge in South Africa was how to cope with issues in a sensitive manner. It is something she has not experienced and she does not want to say too much because she feels as though she has not lived here long enough to fully understand our mind set.

“If there is one thing that I have learned about Africa it is that you cannot sum it up in one word,” Tarrah says. Her adventures through Malawi, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia have not only given her a golden tan but have made it impossible to pinpoint one moment as the best out of ten months. Tarrah is taking everything home with her. “I will somehow fit my hundreds of wooden giraffe, my Malawi board game and the grass broom that a small boy made for me in Lesotho into my bags,” she says unconsciously swirling the plaited bracket from Botswana around her wrist.