Classes begin!

Made it to Durban! It really is a beautiful city…we are staying in a hostel near the beach and are surrounded by palm trees. And it’s quite a bit warmer than Johannesburg which makes me happy. Today we leave the hostel to move into our homestays in the Cato Manor township. I’m really excited to meet my family. It is just a woman and her 25-year old son, but I think that will be good to not have any crying babies keeping me awake at night. It’s going to be very interesting to see what it is like to live in the township. Apparently many of the mothers lock the doors around 6 pm and do not let their daughters leave the house for safety reasons. I have a feeling I’ll get some quality “me” time while on lockdown.
Today we had a nice little session of Zulu speaking. The clicks aren’t too difficult to say, but it might take me a while to become a little more fluid. Afterwards we experienced what is called a “dropoff”. Basically a partner and I were dropped off in the middle of downtown Durban and had to find our way to a specific site. We were sent to the Durban Botanic Garden which was absolutely gorgeous. We had tea and scones in a tea garden ran by old women for about $2.00. On another random note, some monkeys walked into the kitchen at our classroom house and spread jelly handprints everywhere. Gotta love some African wildlife.