Weekend of Learning
Whew! That’s my sigh of relief that I can finally slow down for a few moments. This weekend was a cultural immersion, taking a trip to Durban to visit an Indian community, where everything went wrong and we had no itinerary. On Friday we left around 2:30 on a trip that was supposed to take about an hour and half, until someone forgot their license, and then we had car problems ( our Prof lost 2 cars in one day) and we got lost, stopping at least 7 times. We arrived around 7:30-8, about 6 hours later. While I thrived on the bonding time, some people were extremely irritated and it just started the weekend off to a succession of lateness. We woke at 4:50 to see the beautiful sunrise over the Indian ocean (pictured) along with several tiny crabs. We visited an Indian market where I bought water for a man who called me his sister and felt like an outsider: under dressed, extremely white, and a minority for the first time in my life. At least they speak English here.
We tried to have bunny chow for lunch, but after 2 unsuccessful hours we settled for pb&j so that we could get to the beach. Oh the beach!! I have never set foot in such warm water; it was even warmer than a bath in some parts. We wave jumped for over an hour, enjoying the cooler and warmer currents and observing the surfing lifeguard for signs of a shark. In a sandy soccer game, I shocked my teammates by scoring a point!! So exciting! That night we had a brie (bbq) with our bunny chow (chicken curry inside a bread bowl- Canaan you would love it!) We had 20 Indian guests who answered our cultural questions and played any game we chose. We tricked them into star tripping and watched all of them laugh hysterically as their friend fell to the ground after spinning for 30 seconds. Church on Sunday morning was interesting to say the least. All the people were so hospitable and friendly- they even made us lunch afterward, and we were soon on our way back to AE. The uneventful car ride gave way to exclamations at the site of our newly called home. What a weekend of adventure: discomfort remembered.
Whew! That’s my sigh of relief that I can finally slow down for a few moments. This weekend was a cultural immersion, taking a trip to Durban to visit an Indian community, where everything went wrong and we had no itinerary. On Friday we left around 2:30 on a trip that was supposed to take about an hour and half, until someone forgot their license, and then we had car problems ( our Prof lost 2 cars in one day) and we got lost, stopping at least 7 times. We arrived around 7:30-8, about 6 hours later. While I thrived on the bonding time, some people were extremely irritated and it just started the weekend off to a succession of lateness. We woke at 4:50 to see the beautiful sunrise over the Indian ocean (pictured) along with several tiny crabs. We visited an Indian market where I bought water for a man who called me his sister and felt like an outsider: under dressed, extremely white, and a minority for the first time in my life. At least they speak English here. 
We tried to have bunny chow for lunch, but after 2 unsuccessful hours we settled for pb&j so that we could get to the beach. Oh the beach!! I have never set foot in such warm water; it was even warmer than a bath in some parts. We wave jumped for over an hour, enjoying the cooler and warmer currents and observing the surfing lifeguard for signs of a shark. In a sandy soccer game, I shocked my teammates by scoring a point!! So exciting! That night we had a brie (bbq) with our bunny chow (chicken curry inside a bread bowl- Canaan you would love it!) We had 20 Indian guests who answered our cultural questions and played any game we chose. We tricked them into star tripping and watched all of them laugh hysterically as their friend fell to the ground after spinning for 30 seconds. Church on Sunday morning was interesting to say the least. All the people were so hospitable and friendly- they even made us lunch afterward, and we were soon on our way back to AE. The uneventful car ride gave way to exclamations at the site of our newly called home. What a weekend of adventure: discomfort remembered. 
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