Up in the sky, dark grey clouds were the only thing to be
seen. A fantastic night to go out, it would seem…
But let me begin from the start. It was November (yep, so long ago, and again my apologies)
and almost summer. With “almost summer” I mean that daily temperatures are
26°C, with sometimes 30°C.
As a (well-needed)
break from our project, Jack and I decided to join Jasmine (from the
Durbanville project in Cape Town ) and Anna and
Lauren (from the Clouds of Hope project in Underberg) to spend a long weekend
in Durban .
We arrived on Thursday. Our host, Mr. Jakes Raman, had given
us a lift. Before we stepped out of the car he told us to be very careful,
since Durban
apparently is quite dangerous for white people.
With the warning kept in our mind, we walked towards Tekweni
Backpackers, where we would be staying. It’s a great place to stay. There’s a
pool, snooker table, free wifi and there are nice people. It also has a
code-secured door at the entrance (so at
least inside the backpackers we would be safe). We met up with Lauren, Anna
and Jasmine and started sharing stories.
The thing I like about sharing stories is that it opens your
mind a lot. If you hear stories from others, you can compare loads of things.
For example: the people you work with, experiences, colleagues, the way you
approach your project etc. It gives me a fresh look on my own project, and with
a new way of looking at your project you can see new opportunities and achieve
new things.
After telling about our projects, we started to discover the
area a bit. Tekweni Backpackers is based near Florida Rd , which is supposed to be the
party area in Durban .
(completely coincidental of course achum…)
We found the nearest shop and noticed that there were a lot
of restaurants on Florida Rd ,
but we didn’t see many clubs yet.
That evening we had a braai at the backpackers, underneath
that grey sky I spoke about in the intro, and after that we got ready to go
out. Apparently everybody in the backpackers was going to a club called “Cool
Running’s”. We walked towards Florida
Rd , to find out we needed to get in a taxi. (Fantastic. We are supposed to be in a party
area and still we need to get a taxi)
After a short drive we arrived at a Reggae bar. It was a
disappointment for me. Reggae is not my favorite music at all, let alone party
music. But, since complaining wouldn’t solve much, I went in with the others.
They were walking towards the back and I followed them, to arrive in a
different room at the back of the building.
My disappointment vanished the very second I entered the
room. In the middle of the room were at least 30 people busy drumming on all
sizes of traditional drums. The sound was overwhelming and the vibe was
amazing. It was probably one of the most cultural things I’ve done whilst in South Africa
and I would highly recommend it to everyone.
After a while we went back to the backpackers and I took a
late-night dive in the pool.
The next day we woke up late, had breakfast and were hanging
around in the backpackers. We played some snooker and swam in the pool. At
night we went out again. A taxi (yup,
again) drove us to a club called Tiger Tiger.
We were waiting in the queue when we heard that there was
about an hour waiting time from where we were standing. We made up our minds
quickly and jumped in a taxi, heading once again towards Cool Running’s.
Full of enthusiasm we walked through the Reggae bar, to the
room at the back of the building. My enthusiasm vanished the very second I
entered the room. In the middle of the room were no more than 5 people busy
talking. The only sound came from the radio and the people talking. And the
vibe? Well, it was just not there.
Saturday (already,
hmpf) we spent the day much like Friday. In the evening however we went (BY TAXI) to a club called Origins. It
was fantastic. 3 floors, 4 rooms, 4 types of music, under which my favorite for
a party: house music. It was the best night out I’ve had in South Africa .
Sunday was a quite day, but that was needed though, since
Saturday night was exhausting. After having lunch in one of the restaurants on Florida Rd , it was
time to say goodbye to Lauren and Anna, who were going back to Underberg.
Afterwards I went to the beach (Oh yeah,
got there by taxi). Durban ’s
beachfront is very nice. The waves are good for surfers and the beach itself
looks great.
The rest of the day we spent at the backpackers, hanging
around with people we met during the other days. We played some snooker, swam a
bit more and finished the weekend with another braai.
The next day, after saying goodbye to Jasmine, it was also
time for Jack and me to go home. Weird, how Girls and Boys Town (GBT) Tongaat
already feels like home. The boys were quite enthusiastic to see us again,
which was a very good thing to witness.
However cool the weekend in Durban might’ve been, I’ve settled down in
GBT Tongaat and I wouldn’t want to change projects for all the biltong in the
world.
This blog post wasn’t really about my project, but I hope it
gives a wider view of my gap year. I spend a lot of my time at my project, but
there are also times where I can relax and enjoy the amazing country I’m in.
