I fully acknowledge that I am not a morning person, but there is something refreshing and self-fulfilling about being awake when the day begins. Today was my second attempt at rowing in the Bay of Natal. First of all, I am not a “sport person”. Rather, the competitiveness that was alive in me as a child slowly began to recede with age, and while it comes back everyone now and again, for the most part it remains dormant. Second of all, this is a sport that requires coordination and strength, both of which I often struggle with. Either way, I did not result in the boat capsizing and was able to maintain an even stroke for the majority of the time.
Really, the whole experience, from the moment we get picked up at 4:45am to the time we get back home around 7:30, is worth mentioning. Barry, a fellow student at UKZN, has offered to give the six of us Americans that it takes to complete and eight person boat (that’s right, they would basically be down a female team if it were not for us Michigan State Spartans). The only problem is that Barry drives a truck, so one lucky person gets shotgun and the rest get to ride in the bed of the truck through the streets of Durban. Going there isn’t that bad, except for maybe the wind when his speed gets up to 50 mph, but by the time we head home, everyone is on their way to work, school, or whatever else it is people here do, and it’s just a little unsettling being the center of other driver’s attention. However, when else will I get to ride in the back of a truck through a large metropolitan city and not worry about getting reprimanded by the police?
The bay that we row in is the antithesis of cleanliness. The first morning I knew I was in for a treat when a jet-black (as if it was consumed by disease and foreign substances) fish was washed up on the bank where we put the boat in. The water leaves a brown, frothy substance on my calves after one minute that I’m pretty sure is the cause of my skin feeling as if it is bubbling. But, by far the most pleasant thing to observe are the pools of oil/gasoline/chemicals that pool on the surface of the water all throughout the bay. And, to top it all off, Barry informed us that it isn’t uncommon for sharks to venture into the bay so it would be advisable that we keep the boat afloat at all times.
Overall though, it’s not that bad. They host a ton of social activities that might be fun, and I feel like I’m being physically active for once in my life. I’m not so sure how I feel about the whole competing thing, but maybe I’ll just pull out the “international card” and turn it into more of a game and a serious event. One thing though, once you go to one sporting practice at this university, it is just assumed that you are the new member of the team. They suck you in so fast that you have no way to get out, so even if I wanted to back out of rowing now, I’m pretty sure I would be condemned by all of UKZN. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
We are celebrating the first of five birthday’s this coming weekend. Kate from Montana is turning 22 and a there was talk of getting a group together to go white water rafting, but that is sounding a little iffy now, at least for this weekend. In either case, she has requested that she wants to go to the revolving restaurant in the harbor for dinner. From what I’ve heard and read, this is a restaurant atop a building that rotates 360 degrees while you eat dinner so that you can have a view of the entire city of Durban.

Realization from the weekend: I am not, as much as I sometimes try to be, the “out doors-y” type. With that being said, I’m still glad that I went on the trip, if nothing more than to see that part of the country and spend time with other international students. We started our trip Friday afternoon on campus, where in typical South African fashion, our bus arrived about an hour late. Luckily, we had a decent tour bus to accommodate all 40+ of us, but it did have its unique charms. Most notably, it rattled incessantly, to the point where I thought that it was probable that the engine was about to fall off into the road. We arrived to a place called Veyane Cultural Village about three hours after we left, near the city of St. Lucia. This place has made a living of off showcasing traditional Zulu culture to guests, so we were housed in around twenty different hut-type buildings. That evening, we were dressed in Zulu attire and treated to a performance by the males who work and live there. They then encouraged all of us to join in, much to my enjoyment. Riiiight. Luckily, by the time they reached me, they were running out of time and pulled us in to the circle in groups rather than individually.

Afterwards, we were served traditional Zulu food, which consisted of basically carbs and meat, with a few veggies. It was decent, but definitely not something I would want to live off of. Finally, we ended the night by watching a movie called “The Native who Caused all the Trouble”.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early (4:30am to be exact) and headed out to Hluhluwe game reserve, where we drove through the park in our tour bus and stuck out heads and cameras out of the window. Not to sound ungrateful, but I had basically already experienced a game reserve drive so this was not the most exciting time of my life. However, we did see a few lions which I did not see the first time around. After the Hluhluwe (pronounced sha-shlu-ie) adventure, we headed back to town and made a quick stop at the orphanage we were going to be spending the afternoon at, only to be told to come back in an hour when more children would be there. So instead, we journeyed over to the Saturday market that was going on and wandered around there. I’m sure everyone was just as interested to see 40 wide-eyed white tourists as we were to see them. Fortunately, we broke into smaller groups rather than travel as one large mob. In my group, we walked up and down the market aisles where they were mainly selling trinkets and food, so nothing of great interest to me. We went into a sport shop because one of the people I was with was looking for a cheap knock-off soccer jersey. The store owner started talking to me, asking me where we were from and why we were here. As I turned to leave, he informed me to keep my bag close because “they like to take them here”. I wasn’t sure how to feel about this, but the store owner was of Middle Eastern descent and all of the business patrons and basically everyone else is black. Not that I think he was encouraging the idea that black South Africans are not trustworthy, but it is these little things that I have been noticing between the race groups that have made me wonder. For most of my life, I have only witnessed prejudices between whites and blacks, but in this country, and especially this area with the presence of the large Indian population, I have often found myself wondering what their relationship with each other is like. This is partly related to the visible class difference between the Indian population and the black population. I realize that this is partly related to the percentage of each group in the total population, but the Indian population is very well off here, at least in comparison to the black population, so I wonder if there are any feelings being harbored surrounding this.

Anyways, we returned back to the orphanage and were treated to a song and dance performance by the 25 or so children living there. The significance of this orphanage is that it is home to all AIDS children, either directly or indirectly affected by the disease. Here, we socialized with the children and then had lunch. Once again, I’ve already had a similar experience like this before, but this one differed slightly because there was a larger proportion of older children and the fact that it is situated in the province of the country with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate, with at least 40% of the population infected, compared to around 20% of the general South African population. I always leave places like this, especially orphanages (I say always like this is a weekly occurrence, when in reality this in only my third trip to an orphanage in South Africa, and one of them I was only there for about a half hour) with feelings on uneasiness. I haven’t pinpointed exactly why this is, but I do know that I have extreme turmoil over the photographing of the children leaving at these places as if they were a sight to see and not true human beings. Of course the kids enjoy having their picture taken once they realize what’s going on and they automatically want to use your camera, and to my disagreement, many people on the trip handed the cameras right over to the kids and had them take picture. I have just as big of problem with this, even though I know it probably isn’t that big of a deal. I guess I just have an ethical issue with it, that they only way to get these kids excited and to like you is to flash your $200 digital camera, rather than just playing with them and giving them old-fashioned attention. I understand its cute to have photos of them to show all your friends back home, but seriously, take a step back and realize what’s going on here. These kids will never see concentrated wealth like a digital camera represents so is that really the best way to spend an afternoon with them???

Moving on. We left the orphanage after lunch at headed closer to the city of St. Lucia where we went on a boat ride at the Smangaliso Wetlands park and saw hippos and crocodiles while cruising down a river that empties in the Indian Ocean about 3 miles down the way. We then finally made our way back to Veyane for the night and a Braii.

On Sunday, we had breakfast and then packed up and made our way back to Durban, with a detour to the Richards Bay area. After a 30 minute intense bus ride down a gravel road (bags were falling off of the storage above the seats left and right and I think it would have been possible to get shaken baby syndrome if there were any infants on board), we came to a community leaving between logging fields and the sand dunes that sit on the coast. This community, the Sabokwe community to be exact, is a small group of people that has been moved around numerous times in the past decade, almost always because of Apartheid laws. They now reside on land that is not very fertile and the water pump that they government gave them three years ago has yet to be connected because no one there knows how to and the government has not given them any support as to how to do it. We took a walking tour of their neighborhood, where I made a new friend who kept following me around and finally got up the courage to grab my hand which she did not let go of for the next hour. The high point of this visit were the soccer games that our group played against the local kids. We had a girl team and a boy team (don’t worry, I didn’t play) and for the first time in seven years, we had a winning team. The girls defeated the first group (mind you, they were mainly 6 to 14 year olds vs. college students), but they boys were defeated in an intense game. Once again, we were served lunch (traditional Zulu culture always provides guests with food and drink) and then boarded the bus for the trip back home, hot, sweaty, sun burnt, and dehydrated.

Monday, I woke up nice and early and walked up to campus. I was supposed to have my anthropology course, but it recently came to my attention that I have yet another course conflict with my gender studies course which I don’t want to drop. So, instead, I spent the morning navigating congested hallways, angry students, and confusing procedures, but was successful and now (fingers crossed) I am finished with schedule changes. The course I’m taking in place of anthropology is luckily a course that has been of interest from the beginning. It is called Intercultural Communication, and we met today for about 10 minutes and the prof. just explained a few aspects of the course and then we were dismissed. Class was cancelled for Tuesday and I don’t have any class on Wednesday ever, so I’m free until Thursday now. That means one thing: laundry in our washer which takes an hour to wash and then using this great new invention called the wind dryer. Figure that one out.

On Tuesday, I got word from Ashley that the students were protesting on campus because housing was over-booked by 300 students. I didn’t have class so I wasn’t on campus to witness all of this, but it sounds like quite the event. Not that I’m complaining about not having class, but honestly, I’m very anxious for classes to actually begin so I can have a routine and meet other students.

So I have a very long post typed and ready to post, but of course the computer won't read my flash drive right now, so that idea is out the window. However, I fully intend to use fast wireless tomorrow morning at the cafe around the corner from my flat, and even better, if you have breakfast it's free for the first hour! Couldn't get much better than that. Also, I'm finally going to post pictures on both here and facebook.

Never have I had to be so patient.

I thought that I would be away from the computer until next week, but I have had internet access for about the past five days. So much for that. I got to campus with time to spare before we leave for our trip to Zululand so naturally, I ended up in the Superbowl (the graduate student computer lounge that we have access to). I feel like an idiot because I'm hauling around my carry-on suitcase which doesn't seem that small anymore, especially when the majority of the people I'm with just have backpacks. But I'm over it. I just hope there is enough room for me to store it on the bus, or whatever form of transportation we're taking.

In other news, my class schedule seems completely screwed up again. Grrrreat. But, I have next week to figure it out hopefully, as my one class doesn't start until the 19th.

Alright, we're out.

It’s been about a week since I’ve been in Durban by now, and the adjustment period has been fairly smooth overall. I have realized how much I take MSU’s electronic registration process for granted, as I have been running all around the UKZN campus for the past 2 to 3 days obtaining signatures for classes that will hopefully all work out. In fact, technology in general has become such a common thing in the states, or at least where I am, that it’s difficult getting used to not having it.

Over the weekend, I went down to the beach front in Durban for a quick visit on Friday, and then the entire group was driven out to a very nice beach in a place called Umhlanga on Saturday. It is visually obvious that there is a lot more wealth in this area, but while lying on the beach (I was to chicken to get in the water, plus I preferred to not lose my bathing suit to the very powerful waves) I noticed that there was nearly equal proportions of Whites, Blacks, and Indians there that day, which I thought to be interesting. In most other places that I’ve seen thus far, races are distinctly separated, and a lot of that has to do with economic class standing, so it was something noticeable to me to see everyone together in one common location.

While at the beach, I had a conversation with one of the students who is on our trip, but he is studying at the Pietermaritzburg campus, about an hour west of Durban. He is a studio art student, and much older than the majority of our group, probably in his late twenties. He is from a university in Montana and has lived a very interesting life up to this point, but his philosophies towards his time here, or even just his life and future in general, were intriguing. I would be stupid to not follow up and plan a few small trips with him. Not only is it beneficial to have a male accompany you in this country (unfortunately, and something that is difficult for me to deal with because I pride myself on being fearless and independent), but I think that I would enjoy his company, as well as one or two other people that I’m living with right now, on a weekend trip somewhere.

After the beach, we drove back into town and went to dinner, all paid for by MSU via John, which was nice. We ate at this casino complex that has a lot of restaurants, as well as a casino. It was decent, a buffet style venue that played Justin Timberlake’s newest CD on repeat the entire evening, and had a fair amount of local food and curries to eat.

On Sunday, my flat mate Dani and I took a walk around our neighborhood. We walked down the street we are living on, Manning, to the Musgrave shopping center, which is basically like a mall right in the middle of a neighborhood, but with every possible shop you could ever need. There is a fairly inexpensive internet shop there which will be my backup when I can’t get free, albeit archaically slow, internet on campus. Then, we continued down a street called Musgrave, which curves through wealthy neighborhoods overlooking the city skyline and harbor, with estates sitting on hills behind tall brick walls and wooden garage doors. While I know that this is not really an accurate portrayal of the country, it is a reminder of its history and I do find the architecture and scenery beautiful. While we have architectural gems in the states, there is something drastically different here. Perhaps it is just the tropical feel, or the rolling hills, but I have to believe it is also to do with the immense feeling that this place is the collision of drastically different cultures. Anyway, we eventually got to a coffee shop, and to Dani’s disappointment, it did not have wireless, but we still took a break and had something to drink. We did find another coffee shop across the street, but as it was closed, we couldn’t check on the wireless status. We then began to head home, were we walked along a road that borders the Botanical Gardens, but we didn’t go inside.

My goal for tomorrow is to walk back to the Gardens, as it is only about a 25 minute walk away, and explore that place, maybe do some reading that I have been neglecting and get some tea. Plus, I NEED to start taking pictures before I get yelled at by people for not doing so. I’ve really only taken about ten photos in all, partially because I don’t feel the rush to capture everything in a picture since I have four and a half months left. Plus, there is no better indicator that you are a tourist when you take pictures of an ordinary neighborhood to those who live here.

I’m going to try to use this to update people on what I’m up to instead of sending out emails, hopefully with picture accompaniment…but no promises. That might take a hour to accomplish on the computers on Howard Campus!

So leave me comments and I will try getting back to you, or if you want, you know my email and I can answer any personal questions, such as how to take a shower with a hand held “garden hose” that only has two settings: cold or burning hot, but the hot is out of commission recently because the overhead water heater (the “geezer”) has decided not to work properly, but rather overflow at random times, flooding the bathroom. (A little frustration about that…)

But after all, it is Africa.

emily

p.s. I promise pictures within the week