It is good to reflect. I don’t think we take enough time at the end of each day, week, month, year or season to reflect.
As my season in Durban is coming to an end, I feel I need to reflect on the four years I have spent in the glorious province of Kwa-Zulu Natal before I return to my homeland, Cape Town to embark on a new journey and enter a new season in my life.
I remember when I first drove to Durban almost four years ago. I had only been once before, as a child, and couldn’t remember very much at all so it felt like a virgin visit. I remember sitting next to my mother in the car, crying. Crying because I was so scared of what lay ahead, crying because I was leaving so many loved ones behind and just crying because crying is good for you, I guess. Yet as we drove through the surprisingly green countryside I began to be excited about living in a city where I knew the sum total of about 3 people. Strange, but true. One thing that moving to Durban has taught me is that it is ALWAYS good to get out of your comfort zone: let go of what you know and become who you need to be. It’s tough but the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices.
Besides the incredible greenness of the hills and the tropical vegetation that I had only ever seen in Geography textbooks, one of the first things that struck me about Natal was just how hilly it was. I was later to learn that Durbanites do not speak of “hills” as Cape Townians do, but that they call them “hulls” – more about the Durban accent later though. I remember once going to look for the tourist attraction “The Valley of a Thousand Hills” with my brother once, only to realise that although the term did refer to a particular area of touristy things, that it really described the province as a whole.
Other aspects of Durban that were surprising to me included the, what I thought was rather unusual, presence of Vervet monkeys in the suburbs. I’d only ever seen them in the Kruger Park and was most perturbed to awake one Saturday morning to hear a troop running across my roof before they proceeded to rip open my garbage bags and help themselves to breakfast. Another of Durban’s Saturday Sleep-in Destroyers is that fabulously loud bird they call the Hadeda. The suburbs of Durban are full of beautiful trees and red soil that reminds me of Zimbabwe. I happened, however, to live right next to the very tree that I’m sure was the Provincial Hadeda Headquarters. Many an hour of beauty sleep was lost to the “HA HAAAA AHAAA AAAAAAA!” made by these large, rather ugly birds who apparently mate for life. This is endearing characteristic is the only one I could find, in an attempt to muster up some form of affection for this creation sent to test my patience.
I must admit, however, that I really do love the fact that there is still sugar cane growing in some of the suburbs in Durban. I also love that although you can’t find a restaurant open ANYWHERE after 10pm in Durban, that on any given morning at 5am, you will find the beautiful Durban beach front FULL of people loving the outdoors. Durban has taught me that waking up early to go for a surf, a run on the beach or even just a walk by the ocean, is always worth it.
A pic taken with my phone on one of these runs
One of Durban’s wonders that I did not come to love, however, is the humidity of summer. For three months of the year you are never not sweating and you feel like you live in an armpit. Even after 3 and a half summers, my body has still not acclimatised. The perfect winters are wonderful though and I do love the incredible thunderstorms that bring relief after hot summer days. There’s nothing like the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning over the sea to remind you that you are really quite small and when God’s power displayed through lightning literally ‘outshines’ you and your worries – it is a good thing.
For now, my reflection and reminiscing must come to a close as I must be a typical Durbanite and go to sleep before 22:30 but look out for the next few instalments of Natal Nostalgia…
x
champagnethursdays 