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Danielle Bero ’07 (Astoria, N.Y.) wanted to have an experience where she could completely step out of her comfort zone while also helping to make a positive change in the lives of children.
This past spring semester, she lived that experience by taking classes, teaching, and traveling through rural and urban Namibia and portions of South Africa.
Bero was part of a 16-member student group led by the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn. The Lafayette-approved semester abroad program has sent more than 1,300 students from over 250 different colleges and universities on service learning experiences to Mexico, Central America, and Southern Africa.
“I chose Namibia because I wanted to go to a developing country; somewhere that was nothing like the United States,” says Bero, who created a major that combines creative mediums and social justice. “I wanted a completely unique experience. I also really wanted to work with and help children.”
A portion of her trip was paid for through a scholarship provided by the Office of Intercultural Development. The one-time award was developed for a student engaged in a service learning project in a country not usually visited, and was established in honor of Aaron O. Hoff, Lafayette’s first African American student.
The semester abroad program is based in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Being a thoroughly modern city, it contains over 200,000 people and is located roughly in the center of the country.
“Windhoek is a city just like any you would find in the United States,” says Bero. “They have hotels, casinos, clubs, all different ethnic restaurants and taxis.”
For a large portion of the three and a half month trip, students stayed in a large house in Windhoek and took classes. Bero took courses on the development process of Southern Africa, political and social change in Namibia, and the country’s struggles against colonialism and apartheid.
She explains that Namibia, like many other African countries, is divided by a caste system based on race, politics, and money, but it is also comprised of people who are extremely family-oriented.
“Namibia is a young country, gaining independence only 16 years ago,” says Bero. “They have much of the same history as South Africa, but almost none of the fame. They were under German colonial rule and under the apartheid regime. The people are still significantly divided, with the minority of the population being the whites who hold most of the economic power.”
Bero served an internship at the Bright Hill Preschool located within an informal settlement west of Windhoek. She taught basic academic concepts and English to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), many of whom were HIV positive. Bero said that in a nation of about 1.5 million people, 1 in 5 have HIV.
“Driving to work was an experience all of its own,” says Bero. “We drove out of Windhoek right into the heart of the settlement of Babilon, where corrugated metal pieces were renamed houses. The children wore sweaters and ski caps in the 90 degree weather and had flies as permanent fixtures on their faces.”
Regardless of the sickness and conditions, she greatly enjoyed her work. She had a class of eight 2-4-year-olds and taught them greetings, colors, numbers, animals, and shapes.
“I instantly fell in love and would upload videos of them singing and playing to show people back home,” she says.
Travel was also a large part of the study abroad. Bero had a rural home stay in Ozondati, Namibia and an urban home stay in Soweto, South Africa. She also explored a bit of the Namib Desert, saw Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, and spent two weeks in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.
Most of Namibia north of Windhoek is comprised of rural farming communities. Ozondati was a cattle farm, and Bero saw firsthand what life is like for poor Namibian farmers. While on the farm, which had no running water or electricity, she helped gut a goat, went to a goat auction, milked cows and herded animals.
Her host family renamed her “Khandjumuni,” which means “child of my own” in Otjiherero, one of Namibia’s numerous indigenous languages. Although English is actually the nation’s official language, virtually none of her host family members spoke it.
Bero also had a great deal of the settlement’s staple food, which is essentially rotten milk. She explains that during the Herero and Namaka Genocide from 1904-07, Germans had poisoned the native peoples’ water supply in hopes of eliminating the possible threat to German occupation.
Instead of drinking the water, the people milked their cows and saved the excess milk to drink later. Even though the milk eventually went bad, it still contained fat and vitamins and was very cheap to produce. It is a process that still continues today.
“For my home stay, since I had one of the poorer families, I drank a lot of it. We put sugar in it in the morning and pasta in it at night,” says Bero.
Now that she has returned home, her experiences in Namibia have changed the way she looks at the world.
“I thought I knew the extent of my growth and knowledge when I was still over there,” Bero says. “But coming home really made me understand how much I’ve changed and learned. Everyday life in the United States becomes a lot more complex and difficult. From things as simple as recycling and not letting the water run, to wanting to work with kids, and not being able to work a summer job purely for the money.”
Bero believes that study abroad is one of the most important aspects of college and the education process. This trip has been so important to her that she is considering making a career out of it.
“I really am interested in doing as much as I can,” she says. “I’m thinking of [my future career] along the lines of education to some capacity and incorporating the arts into traditional learning. I also want to start up and [non-governmental organization] in Namibia and continue what I started working on there.”
She will present a brown bag lecture focusing on her experiences in Namibia on campus in October.
Bero has served on the executive board for NIA and the Association of Black Collegians (ABC), and is an active member of Students for Social Justice (SSJ) and Questioning Established Sexual Taboos (QuEST). She has served two years as a resident advisor and currently works as a student assistant at the Landis Community Outreach Center.
She is also a founding member of Writing Organization Reaching Dynamic Students (W.O.R.D.S.), and has gone on alternative spring break trips to South Carolina through Habitat for Humanity and Chicago working with an after-school youth program.