South Coast.

On Saturday, I woke up at 6 to get ready to go to South Coast which is a two hour drive south from Durban. I was tired from the long day in the sun and the night watching rugby. The drive was beautiful along the coast, but I saw lots of shacks, and thought, “if this is the “nice” part of Africa, what do the “bad” parts look like?”

We arrived and got ready for a tour. The tour was awesome, along the beach, and walking up a valley which I can only explain through pictures. The tour was also interesting because the movie Blood Diamond was filmed there and the guide had a small cameo. So we would here, “this is a cave which has fossilized shark tooths in it, and over there is where Leonardo (Dicaprio) died.”

After hiking along the beach, we walked up to a rural area where we were fed traditional food and sat on the ground devouring the great meal.(traditional food generally consists of Cole Slaw. Not sure where that came from but I like it.) After the meal, we went into a different tent where we saw Sangomas perform a dance in which they were taken over by the ancestors. After the powerful dance, John called me over to the cliff to show me something. “Look,” he said peering over the cliff at the boats and nice houses below, “we’re in the third world overlooking the 1^st.” It really felt like we were standing between two completely different worlds. I liked the one behind me.

That night we had a bri with the group and drank some brews. We stayed up at our backpackers playing cards and enjoying the time apart from our families. I love my family, but sometimes it does feel like I am in high school and don’t want to disappoint them. I just learned my home stay father is a pastor so I gotta be on my best behavior.

The next morning we held a discussion about what we learned in the week and had a discussion about how the group was feeling about each other. The meeting started out fine, but then turned into a disaster as racial tensions took over the conversation. I thought that the black students would have an easier time than the white students in South Africa but so far the opposite has been true. Social norms in America are different in Africa, and certain things that are said by white and black Africans might be unacceptable in America.

That afternoon, went to the beach, swam, ran and had a great time. Man you gotta see this. Must get photos. Its February and I am swimming in the Indian Ocean.