First impressions

Note: this flight was written on 31 July 2004.

I did not feel like I could write about my first impressions of South Africa for my first three days here because I did not feel like I had experienced the real South Africa. Today, I think I did.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about campus. It is on the top of one of the taller hills in Durban. From the library and tower buildings, we have beautiful views of the harbor, beaches, and downtown skyline. What you don't see from campus is the black township located directly down the back slope of the hill.

Campus is surrounded by tall fences topped with barbed wire, and you need an access card to move between buildings and around campus. Security is pretty tight, and all vehicles must register at the front gate. It's like a fortress/prison. I live in Block A of the Tower building, which feels even more like a prison complex. There are 5 blocks, each with six floors of 12 rooms. Everything is steel and concrete, and all the doors lock from the inside and out.

Today was the first time that we really ventured off campus. We had left a few times to go shopping, but never very far. Today, we took an all-day bus tour around Durban. Our first stop was the black township near campus. I cannot even begin to describe what it did to my soul to see how some of these people live. No words could explain it, and no pictures could capture it. Small shacks piled on top of one another with makeshift tin roofs.

The worst part for me was wondering how they felt watching a bus full of mostly white students wheel through their neighborhood snapping pictures safely out the windows.

We drove into colored and white neighborhoods, learning the importance of "buffer zones" during apartheid. The thing is, apartheid may have ended ten years ago now, but it is difficult to see how things will ever really change. The white people will remain rich and the rest will not. It does something to property value with an oil refinery literally in your backyard.

In stark contrast to the start of our tour, we were taken to a bluff overlooking the city. On one side of the bluff, you had a pristine view of the Indian Ocean. On the other side you could see the three refineries and paper mill that make Durban valley the most polluted area in the southern hemisphere.

Next, we were taken to the beautifully warm Indian Ocean where I stripped to my underwear and jumped in. I had sand in every crevice, and it was a wonderful.

Our tour wrapped up in Umlazi Township, which is the largest black township in KwaZulu-Natal. It has 26 sections, A through Z, and each one houses about 90,000 people.

At night, we saw the opposite of the black townships. We went to "one of the nicest clubs in Durban," which apparently meant "whitest." The cover was a "meager" 25 Rand, but high for Durban standards. Once inside, I was immediately shocked. The only black people were behind the coat check and bussing dishes. We didn't stay very long before our discomfort forced us out the door.

I now feel like I have arrived in Durban, and I'm beginning to understand some if the difficult interactions and emotions I will experience while I am here.

Flown by mariposa at 11:17 PM on August 13, 2004