Blogs from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa - page 12

On Tuesday, I decided it was time I took advantage of the sea and the pool and enjoyed the sunshine. That morning, when I woke up, I put on my swimsuit and headed straight down to the beach for a morning swim. Oh the water was delightful! Warm enough that it’s comfortable, cool enough it’s refreshing. However, my time in the water wasn’t so much spent swimming as it was spent jumping waves. Jody had always complained that the Caribbean waters were so still and along the coast, I’ve understood why he’s missed the surf. But the waves today were real waves - not much swimming was possible. The only thing like it I’ve experienced before has been wave pools, except there’s no break or predictability to the size of the waves. So I jumped waves ... read more

We spent a week in Durban visiting friends and family and eating and drinking non-stop. We started by making a surprise visit to a baby shower for someone we hadn’t seen for about 10 years. A lunch for 14 had been arranged at Budd’s on the Bay, a casual restaurant with a great atmosphere that overlooks the small boats in the bay. We spent our time working our way around the table making sure we got to speak to all of our camping club friends and catch up on all their news. A supper at Waxy’s for old times sake - how come wherever you travel there is an Irish pub. We had a trip to Umhlanga beach to see the sea and had lunch overlooking the Indian ocean on a lovely sunny day. Another day ... read more

A business trip brought me to the African continent, to South Africa. . ... read more

“TIA: This Is Africa.” -Danny Archer, Blood Diamond Early Thursday morning I boarded a Greyhound bus and made the day-long trek across the country to Durban on South Africa’s east coast. The little red lines of the Indiana Jones map dotted as we stopped at many small towns and large cities along the coast. We stopped in Port Elizabeth, where they are building another stadium for the 2010 World Cup, and the city of George, where they played the 2003 President’s Cup that resulted in a tie after Ernie Els and Tiger Woods couldn’t finish the playoff due to darkness. The bus was cramped with people, mostly poorer people who carried on with them bags upon bags of clothes and food. I started to feel more like Steve Martin in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” rather than ... read more

As sort of a culmination of our work teaching the baseball and on our final weekend in South Africa, we traveled to Durban to take part in the school youth baseball league. The league, supported and organized by Kwazulu-Natal Baseball Association, begins in July and runs for 8 weeks. It is sort of a pre-season to the Club league that starts up after the completion of the school league—the school league gets kids into baseball, it is less competitive, and then those who wish to continue on (and who are selected by the club teams) can play in the club league. Each team represents a different elementary school from different parts of Durban, and in the school league there are 16 teams in all. What is really unique about this baseball community is its diversity; there ... read more