I am finding it quite a challenge to pen down my thoughts and experiences of SAWIP, because I am overwhelmed. But since writing is close to my heart and is often the only means I have to convey the depth of what is going on inside of me, I will write. This is what I have to personally say about SAWIP, as my fellow SAWIPers are kind enough to have written about some of our events already:

It was such a relief when SAWIP clearly stated in their forms as well as the interview that one must be himself, because there is no right criterion. O how profound that was, and how glad I am about that criterion: Be yourself. It allowed me the freedom to be myself, and stop polishing a “Musa” that will more likely make it. It freed me in such a way that by the time I went to the interview, I had made up my mind that if I am meant to be in SAWIP, I will be in it, and SAWIP will appreciate me for who I am. I was surprised at myself, as I spoke about myself in the interview in such an honest way, and it felt liberating.

Ok, here it comes: SAWIP is an engine of liberation! I am saying this because all that it is about has the result of liberating people. I don’t know if we all realise that. By investing in the leadership of this beautiful country South Africa, it is investing on the very people who will be playing key roles in relieving people of all the problems that we have, such as poverty, lack of education, and unemployment, to name but a few. It’s colourful fabric (the diversity), warms us into a generation of love, acceptance, and tolerance. We are free to be who we are, and I believe that that will be our South Africa going forward, realising this liberation that we have fought for, because it did not end in Mr. Nelson Mandela’s release, nor in 1994, but we grow better and better at it every day, and that is why South Africa has so much to look forward to.

I guess the point of this blog is that I had a moment, during the first camp, when I saw SAWIP as a foretaste of a South Africa we are growing into.