Maikutlo Aka - My Views
One Year Away, One Year More
Posted May 18, 2008
It's been almost a year since I left South Africa, and due to some strange... let's say "twists of fate" rather than "incompetent people"... it'll probably be another year before I get back again. Read this entry
The Ups and Downs of PhD Semester 1!
Posted November 25, 2007
Wow. Somehow in the whirls of life in Worcester, I lost track of this blog. So here's a brief update of life in New England. Read this entry (2 comments)
The Ups and Downs of PhD Week 1
Posted August 29, 2007
As with any new situation, my life Worcester is full of ups and downs. Two roommates moved out, my classes are going really well, I'm starting to feel oriented but am socially exhausted and generally overwhelmed! Read this entry
55 Hollywood
Posted August 19, 2007
One Angolan, one Chinese, one Peruvian and one American in a house in Worcester, Massachusetts. Kind of sounds like the plot for the next Big Brother or an anthropological study, but no -- this is my new home as I start my next big step, a PhD in geography at Clark University. Read this entry
The End of Zulu Class
Posted August 14, 2007
In the end, I made it through the Zulu class and kept my sanity. But just barely. Read this entry
Ikhaya Iphupho Lami: My Dream House
Posted July 27, 2007
For homework this week, we had to write (in Zulu) about our dream house. What seemed like a simple exercise turned into contemplation of what I want in the future! Read this entry
Race in Class - When I Grow Up, I Want to Be...
Posted July 16, 2007
We've all answered the question as elementary school students. It's an easy topic for writing small sentences -- so we were asked to write about this question in class yesterday: What do you want to do when you finish school? When the class laughed at a student for saying doctor, lawyer, teacher, it got me thinking about what options are open and acceptable to different people with different backgrounds. Read this entry
More Reflections on Race in Class
Posted July 16, 2007
Years of thinking about race in the African context has definitely colored my perspective on race relations here at home-home. If nothing else, I think it's made me hyper-sensitive to looking at a situation through racial lenses. That said, there's definitely something amiss in my class as I was writing about the other day. After two more weeks of thinking, I'm not going to take back any of what I said before, but simply build on it. Read this entry
The Three Hardest Things to Get Used To
Posted July 10, 2007
Since I've been back, there are three things, which I'm still struggling to get used to: the side of the road to walk/drive/pass on, the coins and asking questions with the right tone. Read this entry
Only White in the Classroom
Posted July 3, 2007
For the first time ever in my life, as of yesterday I'm the only white person in my class. Read this entry
Mary Lawhon of Topeka is in her third year at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Mary is a graduate of Hayden High School and the University of Kansas and is the daughter of Joe and LuAnn Lawhon. She is currently teaching and studying at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She has been in South Africa for a total of two and a half years. There, she has come to understand the South African culture. She has explored the country and found herself. These are her views on what its like to be an American in South Africa.
