There are so many things that I can say about my study abroad in South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa is one of the top beautiful places that I have seen. The mountains leading right to the beach. Hikes to lighthouses that overlook the blue water. These are some of the amazing things that I got to experience while on my study abroad in South Africa. However, the most important thing that I learned about while on this study abroad was how they conducted business and every single person that I talked to on the trip that was from South Africa showed us the utmost respect and engaged with us to help us learn more.
It is eye-opening to look back now and reflect on all of the companies we visited, from Puma Group South Africa to PepsiCo and saw some of the problems they are facing and how they deal with them. One of the biggest problems facing South African companies right now is Load Shedding. Load Shedding was difficult for me to deal with while just being on the trip and the power shutting off during different intervals. However, for these businesses, it is an even bigger problem. While talking to PepsiCo we really got to see this. How they described the time load shedding happens and there is nothing for their employees to do for 2-ish hours and they still have to pay them. How the machines in the factory turn off and it takes around 45 minutes for them to start up again. All while knowing how much they are losing because of it and thinking about the next steps for them and how they are going to find a solution.
Just with that example, you can see some of the different hardships companies have to go through in South Africa. Every person or group that we talked to showed a sense of community/showed Ubuntu.
We heard the word Ubuntu at multiple of the companies that we visited and them saying it was something that they followed. Ubuntu is saying that everyone is a human and some things are just human nature. They look out for each other in their communities/workplaces.
Inspiring to see how many changes have happened in South Africa and also seeing how many more need to be dealt with for the country, like making the education system better. However, they all stand by each other and help each, teach each other, and welcome each other.
South Africa is an amazing place that I can NOT wait to visit again.
