Field Trip: Masters Students 2014

The late writer Mark Twain once wrote that, ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.’ It is perhaps therefore true to say that there is no greater substitute for improving ones understanding of a given situation than to experience it for oneself.

The late writer Mark Twain once wrote that, ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.’
 


It is perhaps therefore true to say that there is no greater substitute for improving ones understanding of a given situation than to experience it for oneself.
 
 

 
In this spirit, Masters students of the School of Built Environment and Development studies travelled to Inanda outside Durban to experience the issues and challenges facing communities in this peri-urban area so close to the city and our seat of study.
 

 
The objective of the trip of course, was to secure a better grasp of development issues.  However, I believe that many of us left with a greater sense of development not as an abstract term underpinned by theory, but with a sense that development is about people.
 


 
In this respect, we were able to talk with people like Ms. Zandile Chamane, librarian of the Umzinyathi library who is dedicated to bringing the written word to her community, Mr. Thulani Mseleku and Ms. Slindile Ndaba of the eThekwini mobile information service and Ms. Zanele Ngidi, Operations Manager at the Siyananda Centenary Clinic. These are the everyday development heroes helping communities to access services, fight HIV, provide vaccinations for babies and treat TB. And yes, we even met Mr. Radebe, a man dedicated to toilets that is, bringing better sanitation to the community through a urine diversion pilot project.
 


 
As students, lost in our textbooks, and as future leaders and development practitioners, we should not forget, while immersed in our endless readings, that development is about real people, and that the choices and decisions we make in our future careers will first and foremost affect mothers, fathers, children, nurses, teachers, and yes perhaps even librarians.
 
 


 
For as yet another great author once wrote, ‘Words without experience are meaningless.’ (Vladimir Nabokov). We would do well to remember that.
 


As students, we would like to acknowledge and thank the School, and in particular, Dr. Mvuselelo Ngcoya, Ms Nompu Nzimande and Ms. Priya Konan for organizing this valuable experience. The trip was part of the Masters student orientation in February, 2014.

(Thanks to Justin Bradfield, Masters student - Development Studies, for writing this report).