Shelbourne Lodge Durban

... in Durban is limited. Despite almost constant rain, I've enjoyed walking around the city a bit and visiting several small museums.

Tomorrow I'm heading up into the northern Drakensberg mountains, where I hope the weather will be good enough to hike and ride horseback over the next couple of days.

... flot, men nu var utroligt beskidt. Nok isaer fordi at de lokale stod og smed oelflasker ud over det imens maend og kvinder, der var gamle nok til at vaere mine bedsteforaeldre, stod og klappede og heppede. Det var endnu et indtryk at det nye Sydafrika. Man kunne ogsaa tage en dejlig vandretur ned til bunden af vandfaldet, men af sikkerhedsmaessige aarsager skulle man nu vaere mindst fem maend i en gruppe. Baade Lasse og jeg er saa smaat ved at faa samme ...

... away all your rubbish in the correct bins.

The water rides where not working the day I arrived but with so many other things to see and do it did not matter too much. Anyway with the beach right on the door step, you could always venture off for a swim in the warm Indian ocean and return to the park for more action.



Featured in 15 best places in South Africa

... When the 'wine payment' is cut off and noi help is given it breeds anger, crime and discontent. What to do? Build higher walls with more razor wire and be afraid?! Some progress is being made but as in the process of diamond creation... it is slow. For now I will experience the extremes of this diverse country from the comfort of my tourist coach and 4 star (protected) hotel room. Thisourney, as do they all, will forever change my life.

South Africa is really... white. Durban is dangerous at night and there
is a huge mall. They have blackouts every day for two hours at two in
the afternoon, and even the malls shut down.

... that I had started there earlier in the semester. Before Dr. Gilbert's visit, I was pretty lonely and felt depressed in Africa for the first time ever as I found myself unable to advocate for change or even process my feelings with an empathic other. I've never been surrounded by so much racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression in my life. I see it at work, wherever I go in the community, and in many of the people ...

... closing the big living room and bedroom windows at night and just leaving open the small windows in the kitchen, bathroom, and toilet room, but Thembisa told me is perfectly safe and best to keep them open at night for air. She said that her family even keeps their door open and just locks the gate at night while they're sleeping. I asked about the monkeys, but she said they only come around during the day. I'm not quite ready to sleep with my door ...

... are a lot of South Africans spend their holidays and also the school kids who are here for holiday reason (and to get drunk all night). But I can live with that ;-) By the way: I've bought a new book - Henry Porter "Brandenburg". A book about te last days of the ex-GDR short before the wall fall down. It's funny because I am not sure if I would have bought it at home in Germany. But it's okay to have something to read on the beach :-)

... the sun was about to go down and I was very vulnerable to Durban's muggers, with all my possessions on me. The first taxi I found refused to put his meter on, so I tried for public transport instead. I asked around for a while about which of the many minibuses I should take, but soon abandoned the idea; I was drawing attention to myself and the area felt unsafe. Another taxi had pulled up behind the unhelpful first, and this new driver was willing to use his meter. The first ...

... then insisted on singing for us as a gift. It is one thing to hear the beautiful voices of Xhosan children as they dance for "small change." It is another to have them give their gift of song and dance. For an hour we were blessed with our own personal display of Xhosan dance. As the night crept up, an oil lamp was lit and the children altered their activities between singing, finishing school work and playing. Our mats were laid out on the floor and shortly thereafter the ...