Rains in Africa. . .Durban

So, clearly I have been having difficulties maintaining a blog.

I am leaving Durban on Friday (rewind 6 hours, Canada!) for Jo`burg before a 4-day Safari. Already! You might be asking: Hey, Kate, what have you been doing for the last two weeks. Oh, wouldn`t I love to tell you. Frankly, I have been bombarded by schoolwork and hilarious indian ladies and scraped knees and waves and geckos and hearwrenching refugees and bouncy land rovers and tasty bread and nausea (unrelated to the tasty bread), but I just want to be able to tell people about my present´and future travels rather than dwelling on the past.

SO, perhaps I will tell a long, detailed story of everything I have experienced thus far in a later blog, but from now on, it`s only the current in my South African travels. Yebo!

On another note, The air after the storms here always tastes so nice. I know it seems a bit silly, but I am honestly so happy with the weather we have gotten. When it is sunny, there is always a perfect breeze of wind. When it`s raining, it is short, violent, and followed by that tasty, calm air. I really love it. It`s tasty now.

I did want to briefly mention my trip into the Warwick Junction area of town on Monday. I conducted some interviews with congolese refugees working as informal hairdressers in the area. I wanted to know about how they thought their livelihoods might be affected by the 2010 World Cup preparations. They`re displacing close to 2,000 people who work in one of the main markets in that area to build a mall for rich tourists. It`s a testament to what our teacher and activist Dennis Brutus says is a completely screwy sense of priorities on the part of the government. No surprise, I suppose, but it`s a weird environment to be in. In any case, it was a very shocking kind of morning. I saw my questions turn people from friendly to self-reflective and a bit depressed, which definitely didn`t make me feel like I had helped anybody. But I think the research was really interesting and I did try to make some doable commitments to help in some way.

That`s an awkward note to end on, but I have to run now! Take care, miss you all!
xx