Life on the Indian Sub-Sub-Continent

The largest contingent of Indians outside the subcontinent which itself contains 1.3 billion humans, is Durban, South Africa. Yep, the single highest concentration of Indians lives, of all places, on a coastal Indian Ocean town. Another claim to fame is that Durban also has one of the highest infection rates of tuberculosis in the world. That good news leads us back to South Africa after a brief excursion into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.

Lost And Found Please

Over the last eight months, we have been pretty darn good at not losing items. That’s until recently. Now an all out chaos has struck. It started when I lost a homemade bookmark made by my good friend Rene in Peru. Unfortunately it floats where the wind and tide decides in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. Then, I lost my French Bible from Hermano Domingo, also gifted to me in Peru. Hopefully there aren’t other items originating from Peru on my being.

Well,then there’s China. I lost my sunglasses playing basketball in Yangshuo. Wait a minute, those may have been with me in Peru five years ago. Uh oh, there’s the pattern. Then there was a non-Peruvian items. Somewhere along the way, my beat up blue Nalgene water bottle went missing. This isn’t easily replaceable either. An unlimited supply of duct tape surrounded around its’ body.

I’m not the only one either. After our return boat trip from Macau, Nadine mistakenly left her knife in an empty bag of food. That surely hadn’t lived or traveled in Peru. Finally, we lost a simple travel towel. Not sure what it is, but I am beginning to lose things. If I come back without Nadine, it’s because she has been to Peru three times.

A Little Lunchtime Background

Now imagine this scenario, two little girls attend the same kindergarten for a year and a half. They become best friends and go to birthday parties arm in arm. Then one of them moves to a land far, far away. Sad, but this short story must go on.

Fast forward nine years later to a different school. It’s a high school and a new lunch table in a new city and state. One of the two adolescent girls looks at the other and asks, “did you go to Annunciation Elementary School back in Minneapolis?”

The other responds, “yeah, what’s it to ya?” (to a little drama).

Then the realization they were best friends back in Minnesota, where mosquitoes are larger than the average New Mexican high school graduating class. From this point on, these two girls maintained a friendship. Who are these two girls? It’s Nadine, my wife, and Melissa, not my wife. We do have a history though during our travels back in the summer of 2001 around Europe. Results were mixed. But now we are more mature and back again here in South Africa running along the Indian Ocean coast.

Change Of Plans In Durban

Before our first flight ever left San Antonio, India was originally the next stop after Asia. Yet due to the fact Melissa would complete a medical rotation in Durban, the route changed to include time with Melissa, that friend same friend from Minnesota. Since Durban does house the largest Indian population in the world outside of India, the chances of finding curry is great. I just have to remember not to eat too much though, as I never completely learned that my belly bloats like a jellyfish stuck on the seashore.

Ushaka, An Ideal Durban Movie Set

We finally met up with Melissa at uShaka. If Sea World and any water park had a love child, it would be uShaka. What followed was moviesque. Melissa and Nadine ran across hundreds of concrete steps, in your mind, replace this with a wheat field, for a big fat hug. From that point, you would have thought I was a mute. Far from reality, but any passerby might have thought so. They walked and chat, chat, chatted about everything possible. I faithfully walked along side them.

uShaka itself was a great place to visit. It would have been even better if we’d arrived early enough for a free ticket. The first half of the day was spent in the aquarium watching penguins. They predictably wobbled to any caretaker with a bucket full of whole sardines. The highlight was the tank with massive, eat-you-in-one-bite great white sharks swimming in the circular water tank. You can only feel sorry for that really ugly fish that looks just like a grumpy old man. Like every old man in the world, the most distinguishable features were an extra large nose and droopy lips. Didn’t notice if there were large hairs sticking out of its’ ears.

The second half of the day, and definitely the most fun, less educational part of the day, was the water park. Unlike the water parks back home in the United States, lines at every single slide were truncated. The abbreviated wait in each line was twelve seconds on average. This provided ample time to ride each ride several hundred times, for those with enough stamina. My strategy, hit each slide at least a dozen times. The girl’s strategy, talk and talk and talk as they floated in the lazy river. Rookies.

Don’t Fall In The Gorge!

Anywhere in South Africa, there are enthralling sights to see. Melissa was free for 24 hours. In that time, we headed south of Durban to Port Shepstone. From there, the road led northwest to Oribi Gorge. This gorge is home to a 300 foot long rope swing. For posturing sake, our group roamed the rim of the deep gorge posing for dangerous looking photos that would make most mothers cringe. Try to stifle your ooohhh’s and aaahhh’s looking at these dangerous moments in time.

After a day in Port Shepstone and the Oribi Gorge, we were back in Durban lazing at the hostel. I worked on my surfing skills in a swimming pool, far from the great white shark infested waters off the South African coast. We relaxed as Melissa finished her last days at her medical rotation.

Life is good and we hope all are well.

JW