Christina's Two Cents

Surveying the former colony over my cuppa tea
Originally uploaded by axlinafrica.

Hi all! Christina here, coming at you from an absolutely gigantic mall somewhere just north of Durban, SA. For details on what the heck we’ve gotten up to during the first bit of our trip, see the blog entry below…probably a good idea to read first if you’ve got the time. But since this is pretty much the first contact I’ve had with most of you since I left (except for the occasional brief apology for not being sorted out enough yet on the internet front to really communicate), I thought I’d add a little something in my own words.



Although it’s true that the internet access has been expensive and painfully slow, I’d say probably the primary reason we have all been a little delinquent on the contact front is because the last two and a half weeks have been so adventure-packed and crazy that sitting down to try and write about it all has felt increasingly daunting each time I’ve considered doing it. I hope these pictures help a little, but because we have to be so careful in places like downtown Durban where most of the really interesting scenery is, you are unfortunately getting a bit of a rarefied glimpse into what we’ve been surrounded with. Pretty hard to describe that's for sure, except to say that it's very different, hot and humid, colourful, exciting, and mostly beautiful though occassionally really delapidated. As for the safety concerns I heard so much about in the months leading up to the trip, I can honestly say I’ve only felt a little threatened twice: once when we came across some pretty nasty looking political protests in the middle of nowhere in Zululand, and another time when we walked through a kind of weird passage-way through the downtown Victoria Street market called “spice alley”…it was broad daylight, none of us had any valuables, and it was mostly just old women and piles of godknowswhat (Laura claims to have spotted a dried monkey), no one had anything better to do than stare and I’m pretty sure we were the only white people through there that day, if not that month. But mostly it has seemed that people had no interests in making tourists feel uncomfortable and so life goes on around us in all its vibrant and bustling glory.



Of course, true to my mother’s favourite piece of advice J, we’re trying not to be stupid. We leave money and cameras at home, clear everything into the trunk of the car, tip the guy in the uniform to watch it, and take cabs at night. We also ask a local before venturing into any new areas, and check the maps before we go to avoid having to whip them out in the middle of the street. So far so good. And we’ve just discovered that the license plate for the car (Roxie) indicates that it’s from a township out near the airport (which would explain why gas station attendants and security guards always get a good laugh making us explain that no, actually we’re from Canada). So we figure this helps us out at least a little on the car-jacking and break-in front.



But because we’ve been totally transplanted into a very, very different environment, changing all these things about the way we operate hasn’t felt like as much of a hassle as you might think. It’s just another part of a totally new reality, where we drive on the left hand side of the road, you phone taxi drivers directly after you’ve met them through their company, you write the tip on the bill before you give them your credit card, $30 is too much for a skirt, and even the cheapest apartments come with some level of maid service. Also, the language barrier is stronger than I anticipated. Some people just really don’t speak English at all, as the confusing or sometimes downright irrelevant responses to our questions have revealed. But even when your interlocutor speaks English quite well, there’s always a sense that something is just not coming across. For example, I tried to get one of our hostel hostesses to explain to me why no businesses anywhere, except the grocery stores, ever carry enough change for their customers. I tried to ask this question in various ways for about ten solid minutes, and yet to this day I still wonder if she thought I was asking her to go to the bank for me and get me some change. Or, one of Allison and Laura’s favourite stories because they know they lady I was dealing with at the time, there was the example of when I asked the hostess at the Hippo Hide (named Octavia) for directions to the mall. She nodded and replied, “I’ll tell you now”…and then slowly turned her head towards the television and spooned herself another mouthful of the cereal she was eating. I sat there for a while, eventually concluding I must have offended her somehow and removed myself back to my room to think it over. Turns out that ‘now’ doesn’t actually mean now, it means soon. ‘Now now’ means now, and (here’s the kicker) ‘just now’ means later. A bit confusing to say the least.



So perhaps you can begin to see how, when every little thing takes planning, concentration, and drastic changes of plan once the original plans turn out to be based on all sorts of things that just don’t obtain in this corner of the universe, time has flown by. Especially since, if I do say so myself, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of taking care of business, finding our way around and meeting the challenges that have thrown our way, all with distinctive AXL fun-loving flare. As I’m sure you can tell from the pictures, we’ve been have a GREAT time. We’ve managed to see and do quite a lot, and we’ve got high hopes for the months to follow: partying in Cape Town, hiking in the Drackensburg mountains, snorkeling in Mozambique, joining the weekly drum circle at a local arts centre, checking out more of the Durban attractions like marine world or the botanical gardens, and getting involved with the multitudinous sports clubs and student volunteer organizations that we were introduced to at orientation (once this strike business sorts itself out, of course). I can’t hardly wait. Oh yeah, and classes. Those too.;)



Well, this is turning out to be a really long one too. They’ll be much shorter once we get into the regular habit of killing time on the internet at school between classes when they begin. I’d also love to hear from you guys…if you don’t have an MSN login to leave a message, either consider signing up for one or send me an email. Hope you’re all doing great. Until next time!



Love,

Christina

(PS. I know that with the amount I go on about editting there's really no way for me to get away with a bunch of errors and typos. However, I'll just have to let my reputation suffer, because this internet really is crappy and expensive. Sorry to all those grammar and spelling buffs with whom I seem to surround myself :).