Back from Vacation

Hey all,

More training came and went. Then vacation in Durban has come and gone and tonight I have to get back on the taxi for 2.5 hours then mark (grade) 120 exams for tomorrow. But, let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about draught beer on the beach, red curry on the deck and a tuna rainbow roll on the upstairs veranda.

Durban was wonderful. Our backpackers was amazing, with a giant shower with hot water that I didn’t have to boil, tap water without e-coli (Maseru had an outbreak), TV, a light switch that worked, and it was actually very beautiful, clean and quaint all for 10 USD a night. In fact, Durban was very inexpensive all around. A big Italian dinner with bountiful wine was $12. An ice cream cone was 60 cents. A pint on the beach was $1.30. So, we ate. A lot.

We also spent a lot of time walking around because we don’t speak Zulu, we’re too cheap for a private taxi, and Durban is too big for all the taxi drivers to know where everything is. Unfortunately downtown Durban is not particularly beautiful. There is a hodgepodge of 60s and 70s derelict architecture mixed with New Orleansesque building fronts. And it is fairly dirty.

Also, we went to the mall. It was great, except they don’t buy jeans in all sizes. Instead they buy jeans in lengths from 32” to 40” and expect us short people to just have them hemmed. It was frustrating. But the chocolate cake I got was delicious and the process the guy went through was akin to the Mr. Bean scene in Love Actually. There were 2-3 utensils to cut and plate the cake. Then came some sort of special cherry, which was placed with utmost care on top of the cake. Cocoa powder was delicately sprinkled on top. Then fudge sauce was drizzled artistically across the cake. He shut the lid of the container, but then he remembered he wanted to make sure I approved of the cake before handing it to me. He opened the lid, and his artistry had become a Rorschach test on the lid of the container. I looked at the cake, then up at the artisan, and I nodded my solemn approval. Then I ate it. The giant piece of cake cost me $2.30. It was delicious.

So, all in all, vacation was great. I’ll have to post pictures next time as I am running out of time now. It will be another week and a half or so before I’m back at the internet, but in the mean time, feel free to leave posts. They make me happy. Oh, and if somebody could explain to mean how to set up an “RSS Feed”, that would be great.

Other than that, I have been helping to work on a grant to get power for my school. It’s due at the end of the month and people from NGC (especially Tad) has been incredibly helpful. So, thank you. I’m also going to start to help organize our school library and maybe work with the African Library Project to get more books. If you’re interested in helping with that in the future, please take a look at their website. It’s a really great organization.

If there is anything people would like to know about my time here, or the people, or teaching or whatever, feel free to leave a post here, message me on Facebook or email me.

Cheers, and until next time, sala hantle (remain well).