Christmas in Durban

So happy to see water and the beach.

I spent Christmas weekend at the beach in Durban, South Africa.  We drove to Joburg and then flew the 1 hr from Joburg to Durban.  Flying outside the United States is so much less painful!  You can bring liquids, leave your shoes on, they deboard the planes through the front and the back doors, etc!  Our first day in Durban was cloudy and misty so we toured the city.  Being that it was Christmas, none of the museums were open.  But we did manage to find a statue of Ghandi.....

Then it was off to the beach.  There were several people who had created amazing sand sculptures.  They said on average they spend 6 hours or more making the sculptures.  They leave them over night but they are often distroyed by the next day and need to be recreated.  Interesting way to make a living.

We got really into the jump shots....  

After several hours of exploring we were ready to head back to our hotel in a suburb of Durban.  We took two adventurous combi rides.  Combis are the public transportation system here; they are minivans that travel around the city on specified routes.  The first one was in a supped up combi complete with even a TV blaring a cartoon.  The second was not as nice and quite cramped but got us where we needed to go.

The second combi ride was more cramped than the first...

The following day was gorgeous, a perfect beach day. We went to the beach in Umhlanga, the suburb where we were staying.  It was a totally different beach experience from the beach in Durban.  The after effects of apartheid are still very present.  On the beach in Durban there were very few white people, no umbrellas to rent, less shops, more garbage and no pretty pier.  Umhlanga was the opposite.  It was a stark reminder that only 19 years is not enough time to overcome years of oppression.

Gelane and me on the pier on the beach at Umlhanga

Right on the edge

The next day we made our way back to Joburg.  Since we arrived in the morning we figured we would make a trip to the Apartheid Museum.

It is an incredibly well done museum that should be part of everyone's visit to South Africa!  No pictures are allowed to be taken inside, so you will just have to take my word for it.  The museum starts with each person being handed a ticket that says either "White" or "Non-White" and then you have to enter through the entrance that corresponds to what is written on your card.  As you make your way through the entrance you see replicas of the passcards which everyone was forced to carry.  While both whites and blacks were supposed to carry the cards, only blacks were ever sent to jail for not carrying them (even if they were only going to the corner store for a minute).  The museum led me through a history of South Africa, then the creation and abolition of apartheid.  There was also a special exhibit on Nelson Mandela.  So much to read and see that I spent almost 4 hours in the museum and easily could have spent more.  It made me appreciate just how far South Africa has come in the 19 years since the end of apartheid, even though there is still a LONG way to go.

"To be free is not merely to cast of one's chains,

but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" - Nelson Mandela

This quote is on the entry wall of the museum.  A statement that was truly exemplified by Nelson Mandela who easily could have tried to retaliate against those who had imprisoned him for much of his life; but instead he worked towards creating a country where everyone was equal.
It gives us all something to strive for as we approach the new year...