Reflection piece

When I first got the brief for this assignment I didn’t like it at all because to me refugee stories have been done to death. I had no idea on where to start which angle to take and who would be my subject

The first step I took was going to the refugee center and to find someone who was willing to talk to me. The guy I found was willing to talk but his story didn’t connect and it also didn’t make since. It was evident to me that this guy was lying to me. I didn’t mind him lying about his identity but when he was lying about his upbringing and his stay here in South African I knew that he was wasting my time and this made me despise the topic even more.

One afternoon while walking in town I ran into an old high school friend from Rwanda and I instantly knew that this was my guy. He was willing to tell me his story and also introduce me to other refugees that were his friends, the only problem was that they did not want to be filmed nor photographed.

This did not bother me much because now I had more than one stories to choose from and to write about. Everybody was willing to tell the truth and they were very comfortable when we spoke without any equipment as they were unsure about my intentions of this interview.

I was happy that finally my assignment was taking a certain direction but my only one problem now was the video clip and the audio clip that I did not have and I also couldn’t find people who were willing to be recorded.

One day on a trip to Umlazi as we were waiting for transportation at Botha Gardens we came across a group of refugees who were protesting against the way that they were being traded here in South Africa and also in their own countries. To my luck they were more than happy to be recorded but the only problem was that they all wanted to talk and be heard at the same time.  

This did not bother me at all as I was very delighted that I had found someone.

Overall from this assignment I have learnt that all refugees have a different story and that they are all not the same. At times I would get very angry to see them everywhere in our country and I did not understand their reason of being here. After seeing the little children join the protest and saying that they miss their country of birth even though some of them can hardly remember anything about it, I knew that anything is better than the conditions that they live under here in south Africa and also of the ones that they left back home.

To think that us South Africans that our country and our government for granted is scary because I can never imagine our country with the government turning against us.

I can now easily say that the saying one man’s trash is one man’s garbage, as we see south Africa in another way, other people see it as heaven on earth where peace prevails, where no own people do not trade your well being for power and money.