Tutoría universitaria: presente y proyecciones futuras.

When all documentation is processed and ready in Lesotho, students then travel to Stellenbosch to begin their new journey as postgraduate students. Families cover all travelling expenses, because when students move to Stellenbosch, the NMDS stipend has not been paid. Four of the six participants who travelled from Lesotho took the bus from Ladybrand, Bloemfontein and Ficksburg to Paarl, Bellville and Cape Town bus stations. All four of them had done prior research as to what means of transport they should take, where to get off, and how they would arrive in Stellenbosch. Mpho states that while she was applying for funding at the NMDS, she met a student from the University of Cape Town, who explained to her that she would board at Ficksburg, and that she would disembark at Bellville. The woman further explained that she then had to take a metered taxi from Bellville to Stellenbosch.

Mpho described the trip as long and frustrating.

It was a long trip. I did not expect it to be that long. The frustration of moving to a new place is too much, especially a place you don’t know. It was really stressful.

(Mpho, individual interview, 2017)

Mpho notes that on her arrival at Bellville, she was nervous and worried, as she had to take a cab with a stranger for the trip from Bellville to Stellenbosch, and she prayed the whole journey that nothing bad would happen to her. She also described her anxiousness at feeling foreign when she arrived in Stellenbosch, which she said felt “very white” as there seemed to be very few black students on campus.

Mpho explained,

I thought I would find more black people on my arrival. I found out that the place is dominated by white people. (Mpho, individual interview, 2017)

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When Lineo travelled to Stellenbosch to enrol for her Honours degree, it was her first time, having completed all her previous studies at the NUL. Lineo states that she felt overwhelmed with travelling alone from Lesotho to Stellenbosch, but she was also excited, as this was her first long distance trip out of the country.

It was exciting. I never took trips, even in primary and high school. My mom never let us take trips, so it was very exciting for me. (Lineo, individual interview, 2017)

She took a taxi from the Maseru border to Bloemfontein bus station, and took a bus at Bloemfontein bus station to Paarl. She arrived at Paarl at 5:00 am, and she asked a petrol attendant to direct her to the train station, where she took a train at 6:00 am to Stellenbosch. When she arrived at Stellenbosch train station about an hour later, she asked a stranger where the university was. The gentleman walked her to campus, and showed her the Arts and Social Science building. According to the letter she received, she could only check in at the residence at 2:00 pm, so she decided to sit at a restaurant close to the building until 2:00 pm. At 1:30 pm, she walked towards the building, where she met someone else, and asked where the residence she was going to is located. Lineo states that she also had with her a map that was sent as part of her welcome pack, which she used to locate the residence where she would be staying. Siyabonga took a bus from Ladybrand to Bellville bus station. Like Mpho and Lineo, he had not been to Stellenbosch prior to enrolling at SU for his Honours. Siyabonga says his trip from Ladybrand to Bellville was long and tiring. He had initially asked a friend who was studying at Stellenbosch as to how to go about organising his travelling arrangements to Stellenbosch, where he would book his bus ticket, and all the information he needed. He states that the bus he took was very uncomfortable, which made his whole trip awful. Before he left Lesotho, he was able to make arrangements with a cab driver that operates in Stellenbosch, a contact he got from his friend who was studying at Stellenbosch already, to pick him up in Bellville. When he arrived in Bellville the following morning, he had hoped to find the cab waiting for him. He

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says he was frustrated when the cab did not arrive, however, there were other taxis at the station and so he hired one of the metered taxis to take him to Stellenbosch.

On arrival, Siyabonga and the taxi driver were unable to find the address that he had been given for his accommodation. They got lost a couple of times, until they decided to ask strangers they met in the road. When they could not find the residence, he then remembered the map that was sent with his welcome pack, which he used to locate the residence. This process frustrated him because he knew if he had taken the cab that was referred by his friend, he would not have struggled to get to his residence.

Molefi, like the three participants above, came to Stellenbosch for the first time when he came for his Honours in the faculty of Agri-Science. He had a friend who came to Stellenbosch a week before he did, and his friend helped him to book his ticket, and sign up for international office shuttle service. He took a bus from Ficksburg to Cape Town station, where he found the shuttle waiting for him. For Molefi, travelling was interesting, as he met other Lesotho students on the bus, who have since become his friends. The shuttle dropped him off at the international office.

Thabang and Paballo had slightly different experiences concerning their move to Stellenbosch. Thabang, as mentioned earlier, worked in the Western Cape already, and he stayed in a nearby suburb. He knew Stellenbosch and was able to make his own travelling and living arrangements. Paballo moved to Stellenbosch after completing her studies at the University of Johannesburg. She took a flight from Johannesburg, and landed at Cape Town International Airport, where a driver organised by the international office was waiting to pick her up. The driver dropped her off at the flat her supervisor organised for her, where she stayed for the next six months.

All participants in this study are no strangers to travelling, and are therefore familiar with change. Some of them moved away from their family homes to study in other towns, and all of them moved to Roma town when they enrolled for the undergraduate at the NUL. What was

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different though was travelling to a place that is across the border for a permanent stay, and across different cultures. Four of the six participants, who enrolled for their honours study at SU, were unfamiliar with South African universities, and they draw on Yosso’s (2005) navigational capital, which allows them to sail across this different place and culture, that seemed to be unwelcoming to them. As Yosso (2005) states, navigational capital is based on skills that minority groups apply in as they manoeuvre through institutions that are not made for them. As Mpho states, the racial composition at the university proved to her, that SU is not a place for people of her race.