After the first week outside Durban, we traveled three hours north to Hluhluwe, a rural part of KwaZulu-Natal known for its game parks and pineapples.
Our work began at Inkosi S.H. Guemede Primary School, where we handed over 20 computers and taught computer skills to 35 students in 7th grade. Out in the countryside, computer literacy is lower, and many of the students were not even used to smartphones. Despite this, their eagerness to learn was inspiring. Over the course of three days, the students became familiar with the touchpad and keyboard through practice in Word, and they even got the chance to explore an offline version of Wikipedia that we had installed. The final two days of the week were spent maintaining computers at schools that had previously received donations from CESA. At Nibela Primary School, Majidni Primary School, Gilonki Secondary School, and Nompondo Primary. We managed to repair and bring back into use the majority of the laptops we encountered.
It was fantastic to see how actively the donated computers were being used—some of them dating back as far as 2008! The week in Hluhluwe was both challenging and rewarding. Seeing the impact of the donated computers firsthand, and the enthusiasm of the students as they learned to use them, was the perfect ending to this meaningful trip.
A heartfelt thank you to Star for Life, all the coaches and to our sponsors Opera, Sigma and of course the Software engineering program at Chalmers، for making this possible. A very special thank you to Phakamani, who for two weeks was not only our coordinator, but also our friend and made the experience much more special.
We are back in Sweden now, but the memories we formed, the lessons we learned, and the friends we made will last a lifetime.
