Hi guys! Sorry there has been such a lack of blogging, I’d like to use study or travel as some kind of an excuse, but there really hasn’t been enough of either of those to justify it!
I wanted to write about Durban & KwaNyusa, but it’s such a long time ago now, so we’ll have to see how that goes. The past few weeks have been rather monotonous really, I have had the odd assignment due and a few dinners & drinks out, but nothing to write home about (literally!!). I don’t want to whinge too much, because I am having a fabulous time here, but all of us Aussies have really got to a point where we’ve had enough of the substandard education we’re getting here. Not to rain on Monash’s parade, but the quality of teaching here is very disappointing by Monash standards, and is probably not so good for the uni’s rep anywhere. As I’ve told a few people in the past weeks, I pine for Monash Clayton! And that’s saying something!! Anyhoo, we are making plans to see a few people about it, because I don’t think anyone with authority really knows how terrible the classes, organisation, marking and general academia are. I could rant for hours, but that’s not the most important thing! Psh.. who needs uni! I’m in Africa!!
After we got back from Cape Town (very early Saturday morning) I had a dreadful cold, and spent a few hours (read DAYS) moping around bed, watching Gossip Girl and such. But, Elsa and I had bigger plans! Never mind the cold, we decided to take an impromptu trip to Durban!! Elsa hired out a car and by Tuesday we were off again! The weather was rather shite, and I didn’t sound the best, but it was a rather enjoyable 7 hours to the coast. That night, we stayed at Tekweni Backpackers, known to be the party hostel of Durban, but the only one that seemed semi-ok and had space for us. It turned out to be a pretty great place, especially when I ignored my state of unwellness! We played a bit of pool (Elsa kicked some very arrogant guys’ arses!) and I got an early night to rest up for the big days ahead...
Wednesday we went to uShaka Marine World, to the aquarium! It was actually a really cool aquarium, the people who worked there walked around with us and told us things about the fishes and the ‘dangerous animals’.. and we saw a dolphin show! I would normally have been so opposed to the idea of making dolphins do crazy flips and things, but I just have so much more respect for them now!! I hope it’s not that bad to drop my morals on them being in captivity but they are just such amazing creatures and it was fascinating! That afternoon we went for a bit of a wander down the beachfront, had fish and chips by the Quiksilver Pro surf comp (never mind they were also at lunch :p ) and then went to meet Katie. Trying to cut a very long story very short, Katie is an Australian friend of a friend of Elsa’s who is volunteering in KwaNyuswa, which is 45 mins from Durban. By chance, Elsa became pretty involved in what Katie is doing, ‘Vuk Africa Tours’, so we had to meet her for coffee and a bit of business.
The South African elections were on this day, and the massive hype about them had made us a bit worried about what state the country would be in because of it. There were lots of people with banners on the streets and voting booths spotted around, but nothing that interfered with our day. It was more just interesting to see how politically ‘aware’ the people here are. I use ‘’ because I’ve learnt that people care A LOT about politics here, but that does not mean they really know all that much about what really goes on. KwaZulu-Natal, where Durban is the capital, the people are predominantly ANC voters, and not to get too much into very shifty politics, it is the history that the ANC play on that keeps them so popular. They have been here since South Africa broke free from Apartheid, and for this reason in particular, they have almost total support among the KZN voters. Never mind that their leader was up for corruption charges before the election, and has much worse things next to his name. The ANC won the election by almost 2/3 votes, and Zuma was sworn in last weekend with all three wives by his side. I hold my tongue!
Day three we left Tekweni with the hope of going to the Victoria Street Markets before meeting Katie again but got massively lost and decided to just find her instead. It wasn’t a dangerous kind of getting lost (parental watchdogs!), just stupid and we saw a fair bit of Durban freeway. Today we were doing a Vuk Africa Tour (I shall explain the story behind Vuk another time). It started at Light Providers, a community centre in KwaNyuswa, where we met our fantastic tour guide Siyanda. The tours are really informal, and so we just had a bit of a chat about the place and wandered down to the local butchers for lunch. It was funny, we bought the meat inside the butcher and they just have a braai (bbq) going outside that we just put out meat straight on. We were a bit iffy about eating off the chopping board that had previously had the raw meat on it but in the name of African experience we went for it. And my tummy was ok! Now, I don’t want to sound any ‘–ist’ in what I say next, but I really have to share the most fascinating thing I learnt on this day. There are albinos.. like, black albinos. Forgive me if this is a well-known fact but Elsa and I were shocked and amazed, it’s just something we had never even known exists. In this community of only very black Zulu people.. a little girl was born very, very white. She had white hair, but fuzzy like the rest of her family, and her features were more like a Zulu than like ours. Katie told us there are quite a few of them in the community, absolutely fascinating! There are just so many questions I could ask about that, but this post is getting massive and I’ve hardly even started! If only essays were this easy to write! 1000 words and counting! The next part of our day was quite entertaining too- we went to get a chicken for dinner. Not just any old chicken though, a LIVE one! We went to an old lady’s house and got to choose the juiciest looking chicken for us to eat for tea. We carried it back to Life Providers in the kombi, IN A PLASTIC BAG, squirming and all! We left Chicky at the centre and visited the orpahanage next door. It was so sad, the ‘mother’ of the place was really sick, and they hadn’t rationed their month’s food properly, so the kids hadn’t eaten all day. Siyanda told us that Vuk Africa supports them when they get in situations like that, but it wasn’t right for us to be there as observers like that so we left soon after. We watched choir practice at Life Providers, man they have amazing voices! The kids were playing soccer in the courtyard (naturals!), some hanging through the windows and standing outside just to listen and it was just fantastic, being in that environment, such life and warmth emanating from the place!
That night we got to spend the night in a Zulu family household. Our granny’s name was Sibongile, and her granddaughter was Amahle (said Ar-marsh-lee), and they lived in a relatively small but homely hut. Amahle goes to an English school in Hillcrest, so her English was pretty much spot on, and we played and sat watching a (godawful American trash) movie with her before and after dinner. Granny made a delicious coleslaw, beans, steam-bread and CHICKEN! Yes, the chicken we had carried a few hours earlier alive. Siyanda wanted it to be part of our experience to kill the chicken ourselves, but I didn’t think I’d be all that proud to say ‘Hey guess what everyone? I killed a chicken and ate it!’, as Jamie’s-Kitchen-respect-your-food it might be. Elsa was off chicken for a bit after actually watching Siyanda do the deed, but I stand by Jamie telling me on the TV last year that it should just encourage me to buy free range (especially instead of the disgusting bagged chicken you can buy here!). Dinner was delicious though, and I really want to learn to make steam bread, it was so good!! Elsa and I had such a nice and welcoming stay with Sibongile and Amahle, we had a comfortable bed to sleep in and it was actually a lot more than we expected. To be honest, this family was probably a lot better off than many in the community, and I would have survived on the floor, but it was really nice.
Ok, I think I have to stop writing this blog immediately, and finish another time; otherwise you will be over it very quickly! There are still two more days to go!! The next instalment will come soon....
