3:15 p.m., March 2, 2010----Margaret Quigley, a senior hotel, restaurant and institutional management major at the University of Delaware from Marblehead, Mass., spent most of January studying in South Africa, where she first traveled at the age of 16 and developed an enduring friendship with a young South African woman who grew up an orphan.

THIS STORY

E-mail

Print

Twitter

Last January, Quigley concluded her undergraduate studies at UD with a study abroad trip to Pretoria, South Africa, her third visit to the country she considers her second home.

Quigley said that although she did not meet her friend, Sinethemba Shelembe, who is studying geography and environmental management at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, a six-hour drive from Pretoria, during the latest visit, her bond with the country grew stronger as she made new friends with the children at Diana, Princess of Wales Mohau Children's Care Centre in Attridgeville, just outside Pretoria, where she worked as a volunteer in addition to taking a 3-credit course.

"Getting to interact with the children really opened my eyes to the reality of AIDS for the first time," Quigley said. "For one whole month, we spent two days a week playing with and attempting to teach them as much as we could through art, sports and reading to them."

The trip was part of a course, Cross-cultural Etiquette, for students majoring in hotel, restaurant and institutional management in the Lerner College of Business and Economics, which is designed to make business students aware of the various ethnic cultures in the workplace and develop sensitivity to people with different backgrounds, said Francis Kwansa, associate professor and associate chairperson of the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management.

"More so than on typical study abroad, this is a life-changing experience that you see in the students when they come back," said Robert Nelson, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management. "We are developing leaders not only in business but leaders in the community. Our business is connected to communities more than any other major; as go our communities, so go our restaurants, so go our hotels."

Quigley said the ease with which she has embraced South Africa was mostly due to her friendship with Shelembe, who is nicknamed Sne. Both young women were featured in a documentary, "A Tale of Two Teens," by Susan Walker and Geoffrey Poister, which compared the life of an average American teenage girl with that of an orphaned South African girl.

Quigley's interest in South Africa developed as she watched children singing in a video of a visit to KwaZulu-Natal Province by members of Old North Church (ONC) in Marblehead on invitation by a South African church minister, the Rev. Gideon Khabela. Quigley immediately volunteered to go on the next trip.

"For two weeks, we presented a total of 20 duffle bags full of clothing donated by ONC members, brought school supplies to the nurseries, played soccer at the high school, rode horses and went paragliding over the Drakensburg mountains, and even went on safari," Quigley said.

"We attended Zulu church services and a chief's ceremonies, where we sang and danced in the aisles with the local parishioners," Quigley said. "At every single ceremony, we were sung to by the most angelic voices I have ever heard.

"I think that's what really sent me to South Africa, now that I think about it. Having sung and played piano for nine years, I have a passion and appreciation for any type of music that comes from the heart," Quigley said.

One afternoon during the first week of the visit, Quigley was scheduled to meet Sne, who had lost both of her parents to AIDS at a young age and was living with her grandfather in Pietermaritzburg.

"The film crew set up and I stood there in the dust, waiting, sweating, in my long skirt, sneakers and North Face jacket," Quigley said. "The camera crew said, 'Okay! Get ready!' I stood at attention. Sne came around the corner, just as timid as I was. But then, she let out a huge smile that broke the ice. I didn't really know what to do except shake her hand and say, 'Hi! I'm Margaret.' She quietly replied, 'Yisss. I am Sne.'"

Thus began the lasting friendship that grew with regular correspondence over the years, a second visit by Quigley in 2006 and a transition to communication via e-mail.

"I recently found Sne on Facebook and I have been able to keep in touch with her very well!" Quigley said. "Now, I can write to her and expect a response within a few days or even hours! I see her pictures and what her friends are like. It's really fun to be able to see her and for her to see me.

"Because we share the same story, I plan to keep in touch with Sne no matter what," Quigley said. "I will always treat her as a sister and keep South Africa in my heart. Someday, I will bring my family back..... And I always find myself saying, 'I am going back,' as if it were my home to begin with...."

Article by Martin A Mbugua
Photo by Vanessa Delmerico