Poly GIP South Africa

March 26, 2026

Human Rights Day with South African Students- what a celebration!!! Day 3 (March 25)

This morning we were given the opportunity to participate in the Leap High School’s celebration of their Human Rights day. Their celebrations consisted of music, creativity, and collaboration from all grades in the school. This reflected the passion they had for the history of South Africa and we were honored to be a part of it. Our favorite part was the choir. Although we don’t speak their language, we all were amazed by their talent and passion for their music, ability to harmonize, and how they turned the music into a way to express the freedom they fought for over several decades. We were asked to share about a similar celebration that we have in the US and we decided on Martin Luther King day as well as his legacy as a prominent figure in the US. We highlighted the civil rights movement as well as his impact on the present day. We ended the festive event by rapping:. (Imagine this with Hayden Beatboxing behind)

AB’s rap:

We are Polytechnic High School

Now we going to how you why we’re cool

Today’s about Martin Luther King, Junior,

Ye you know cuz he had a dream

In our history we had to fight

To give everyone their human rights

So thank you everyone for letting us see

What we as a community have come to be.

So for lunch we went to a pretty popular mall and ate at the restaurant “Bootleggers”. We gained a glimpse at the difference between South African malls compared to the malls in the US. Nothing in the mall especially stood out to me but the lunch was pretty delicious. We did actually visit one grocery store and did a taste testing survey of SA snacks. It was really fun exploring all the different snacks. We bought beef flavored chips and will keep you posted. We also bought lots of snacks for our families, so look forward to that.

After lunch, we walked to a park that surrounded the Slave lodge. We talked a little and were told there were albino squirrels which unfortunately we didn't get to see. We found ways to communicate with the squirrels and they really liked us, maybe because they liked our accents:-)

From Company Park (founded by a Dutch company), we trekked to the Slave Lodge, where we learned that 63,000 total slaves lived in Cape Town and about 9,000 passed through the slave lodge. This lodge is also the oldest building in Cape Town. In the Museum, there were hundreds of placards hung on a wall that labeled each of the slaves names, appearance, and when and how they died. It was really impactful because it explained in detail the unjust ways in which many of them were killed by authorities and also faced a variety of unjust acts of violence.

After visiting the museum, we walked back to the hotel. For dinner, we ate some really good pizza and then returned to the hotel to debrief the full range of experiences (and emotions) on this very revealing day.

Sofia and Kate