Snesrud tells about South African experiences

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August 8, 2014 - 12:00 AM

Autumn Snesrud is a serious-minded young woman who came away from a nine-week educational mission to South Africa with a much better idea of what life is like outside the freedoms and wealth of the United States.
Snesrud, 21, outlined her work in instructing 4- and 5-year-old students for Iola Rotarians Thursday.
She was one of 15 Kansas State University students who participated in the nine-week International Services project. She was joined by another Iolan, Jasmine Bannister.
Other teams went to Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Preparation for the 2011 Iola High School graduate included a spring semester class at K-State to acquaint her with nuances of being a global citizen and how to have an impact with her assignment.

APARTHEID no longer is the law of the land in South Africa, but many signs of the segregational culture remain, Snesrud said.
Apartheid began in 1948 and separated a disproportionately small number of whites from blacks and all other non-white, referred to coloreds.
Segregation was strict, to the point that only whites could travel freely. Others had to have pass books, similar to passports, but even then could travel from one place to another only with permission.
Both international and internal pressures began to tear at the fabric of the racial misery and degradation in the 1980s.
Apartheid finally was abolished in 1991, but it wasn’t until nonwhites were given the right to vote and Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994 that integration became a fact of life.
Snesrud said there still were ample signs of the old South Africa, including areas where coloreds and blacks predominantly lived, often with fewer accommodations and in housing inferior to that occupied by whites.
She lived with a host family — a woman of 65 and her 36-year-old daughter — in Ocean View. The apartment was compact with a refrigerator no larger than those usually found as adjunct appliances in a college dorm room.

FROM 8 A.M. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday Snesrud taught at a daycare and preschool in Aquila Creche, a short bus ride from Ocean View.
Her first day Snesrud was introduced to 18 youngsters and given teaching reins. When that portion of her day ended, she went to a small library and tutored fourth-graders in math.
Work sheets she developed found immediate favor with the students, whom she said had a keen appetite for learning.
“They all have a special place in their hearts (for education) and they love learning,” she said.
The library was ill-stocked with books, so much so that when a child was given an opportunity to hold one, he or she would marvel at the experience.
That prompted Bob Hawk, Iola Rotary president, to suggest a local project to accumulate children’s books to send to South Africa. That would work well. While many speak one of several local native dialects, they are taught in English and that is the language of the land, which ended it last ties with the United Kingdom In 1931. Then, with passage of the Statute of Westminster, the last power of the British government was abolished.

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