Durban, South Africa

Everything is so different. I struggled the first night here. As I lied there with everything foreign and nothing familiar surrounding me, I got overwhelmed in my exhaustion and sobbed. I wanted everything that was across the world from me, that I couldn’t have for a whole ten weeks. In the larger scheme of things, that isn’t a long time at all, but in my moment of sorrow, it felt like a time that would never come. Longing for something unreachable is the worst feeling ever. And it had nothing to do with my family; they were the most welcoming and accepting people I could have met. It was just adjusting to being out of my familiar conform zone in every way and wanting so badly to run right back to it. Because I don’t have that option, I know this is going to be an absolutely amazing growing experience for me, and I will cherish the change and knowledge it brings me for the rest of my life. At the time, however, I wanted nothing more than to wake up from this dream and find myself safely in my own bed at home. I woke up to the noise outside; it sounded like a jungle! It was so loud with every animal sound you can imagine. It was kind of neat; I would have to say that definitely isn’t a regular occurrence in the city I’m used to. I’m still pretty exhausted, but I’m expecting it to take a while before I’m rid of that. My host family’s home is so foreign, yet there’s something oddly comfortable about the houses in South Africa. They are so different, but I seem to be adjusting fairly quickly even though it is somewhat of a struggle. I am usually quite hesitant when placed in such a situation, but am really trying to put myself out of that.
Today Maureen picked Miles and I up to take a tour of the city. I don’t even have the capacity to verbalize how vastly different Durban is from anything I have ever seen in my life. I think I am still in semi-shock trying to grasp everything that I witnessed today. We drove through townships, one in particular that houses nearly two million people (astounding!), Umlazi , is where we will be working in a orphanage for two days, as well as a little clinic called the Malakazi Clinic ran by our medical director Dr. Kahn situated in the township for the same length of time. The Orphanage is a special place, started by a couple that had nothing more than anyone else in the township. Because the death toll most commonly created by AIDS is so high, especially for those with very limited health care, many children lose both parents and are too young to care for themselves. This creates a huge problem, because most people in the area don’t even have enough to sustain a reasonable life for themselves, let alone added children. But, this sweet couple wanted to create a place for these poor children to come. They provide for them everything that they have, and have sustained community and outer-community support which allows them to survive. The orphanage houses somewhere around 50 children of both genders and all ages, and for two days we will get the difficult yet rewarding opportunity to step in and help. We were allowed to stop by and see the ‘facility’, which looks like a slightly larger house in the township, and meet some of the children that stay there. The couple that started and still run the orphanage were attending a funeral, so we weren’t able to meet them yet. We were also allowed to stop and visit the Malakazi clinic. It has merely three consulting and treating rooms, two nurses, and very limited care, yet sees somewhere around 70,000 patients a year. We stopped on our tour to be introduced to a very interesting man who lives in the Umlazi township. In 1976 he created a park around his home, which he named “How Long? Park”. Its purpose was to bring some change and happiness to the conditions of the townships, and he has gained national attention for creating a beautiful park, as well as for his efforts in bettering the community and environment. It is located very close to the orphanage that we will be working in. I was amazed at the stunningly beautiful park and garden he created from absolutely nothing, on top of being in the midst of the gloomy and hopeless outlooks that stagnate the township. He truly did an incredible thing for his people, and it was incredible to meet the man who made it possible. I was astounded by the living conditions that have become such common place in these townships; as mentioned above, Umlazi houses nearly two million people. And I’m not talking about a large area of land; these people are all in a small densely populated area. The conditions of the housing are devastating. Looking around, you can see shacks, mud huts, and storage bins literally as far as your eyes can see in each direction! Each family lives in one of the three arrangements listed above, and they are extremely small quarters to share with so many people. The houses are packed tightly together, leaving barely any land in between, have no electricity, only dirt for flooring, no toilets (there are shacks with holes in the ground that substitute), and pipes that release water for drinking, bathing, and washing that serve hundreds of houses each. The townships were originally build by the government to house people for a maximum of six months, but clearly, these people have been well established at their dwellings with no outlook of ever leaving them.
We were also brought to see what South Africans refer to as “locations”. These are very large brick buildings where black men were forced to live during the Apartheid. The men had to leave their families behind at farms or wherever their homes were, and come to work on the railways. Each tiny room housed four men and the large buildings had no electricity or running water in them. After a work day, the men were forced to come straight back to their allocated ‘location’ for the night. Today, they are extremely run down yet still house some men. Luckily no longer by force, but rather for some men, out of habit and close proximity to work, because it is a very cheap way to live, or because they have nowhere else to go any longer. Some new locations are being built right now where men will be allowed to bring their families to live with them that will hopefully provide better living conditions as well. Seeing these types of conditions all morning really helped to understand how well off both of our host families really were in Durban. They have all necessities for sustainable living, plus full electricity, a TV with something similar to DirecTV, computers, cell phones, running water, a washer, and more. Although the housing conditions are very different than what you would see in the United States, I can most certainly see how well off they are in this country. I cannot imagine the shock somebody from a township like Umlazi would experience coming to the United States and seeing let alone the population we consider poor (literally nothing compared to what they have here on the townships), not to mention the wealthy population.
Maureen and her husband told us that there is no other country in the world where you can go from seeing third world conditions to first world conditions driving down one single road. And we most definitely experienced that, driving from Umlazi to a different part of Durban housing a giant shopping mall called the Pavilion, with expensive shopping and eating options with full air conditioning and parking garages. Maureen was taking us to lunch at a nice restaurant inside, and that was the strangest experience for me. I had a hard time grasping that level of normalcy; seeing such poverty yet continuing down the road to do your shopping at the expensive mall. You could see the townships upon the hills just outside the window of our restaurant. I didn’t even understand it yet, because I was still in shock from the brick wall that was suddenly inches before my nose. It is going to take a while to digest and process the amount that is before me for my five week stay in Durban.