Durban!

Left Jburg early Monday morning and in true Tori fashion my alarm didn’t go off. The only reason I made the bus was because the maid walked in on me and screamed because I frightened her as I turned over in my bed, haha. After a long drive to Durban, we arrived at a conference center in the “Land of a Thousand Hills” and we literally had this view when we opened our doors in the morning. That night we went to a local shack and drank smoothies while watching the sunset behind the hilly landscape. We were given a lecture about the State of the Nation from South Africa’s most prominent political scientist John Daniel, and learned a lot about their political parties, history, and current social issues. The next day all the students were divided up into groups, taken into downtown Durban and dropped off to find our way back to a meeting point. It is funny to walk down the streets and get so much attention. People run up from behind and stop us, or literally run into the middle of traffic to ask where we are from. We say “America!” and after welcoming us with an enthusiastic smile, they make a comment about how lucky we are to be from America or how they want to go back to the states with us. One of the markets reminded me of Chinatown, with all the knock-offs and haggling, but the atmosphere was open and lively as small kids in Bafana Bafana jerseys kicked around an empty water bottle, emulating the players they admire. Later that night the group ventured to SunCoast, which is a casino/resort right on the beach, only a couple blocks from the Durban stadium, and toasted to the program and good times as we ate one last dinner as a big group.
Yesterday we got assignments for our host families, and I am rooming with another girl in the program. Our family is Mama Dolly and Jack Bezuidenhout (they are married, as Dolly has lived in Durban all her life and Jack grew up in the rural country in the Zulu community), with their children Michelle who is 18 and Michael who is 16. They run a school that facilitates learning for people that did not pass or never took the Matric (admissions test for college, similar to our ACT or SAT) and a Bed and Breakfast, and Mama Dolly also caters for both places and community events. Hannah and I are very fortunate to live with such an affluent family, as we have no restriction on our water usage, bathe using a shower (not a cup and a bucket like some of the other students), and get our own room with separate beds (our room is actually in the B&B itself, and a student from Cape Town is staying across from us right now as well).
My misconception about Africa was that the poverty was worse than the inequality, figuring that the end of apartheid dissolved a lot of those problems. But if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that poverty is slowly decreasing but the social inequality is continuously becoming more and more drastic. One minute you are looking at large, luxurious houses on the left with security fences, BMW’s in the driveways, and luscious green yards, and the next minute, or sometimes at the same time, you witness a mile or so of township housing (slums) across the way where the largest structure is 12x12, the roof is a piece of sheet metal, and the shacks have at most 3 feet between each other. It is extremely powerful and disheartening that social classes at both ends of the spectrum can live in such juxtaposition. I love the drive to my house because it has many sights like the one I just described, and it humbles me every time. One of the most humbling things you can do is think of all that you have, all you can lose, and all that you take for granted, and just be thankful.