Today is the first day that we have been able to access some free wifi-we are about a mile from our Homestay at the mall library, which closes at 5pm, so access is limited.

I am staying in a middle class house with my mama Fikile and her two daughters who attend university. I am not quite ready to attempt spelling their names. Thus far, I have been trying to overcome the jet-lag, so I have not seen much of Durban . I have been catching up on my South Africa culture via television- there are many U.S. programs showing and then some unique to the country, such as the choir show that is run like American Idol and the other called V-entertainment, much like E! Entertainment in the U.S.

Yesterday was introduction to our program. After some logistics, we were able to go on a tour with a man named Steven. He took us though the townships, which was eye opening. We saw the poor conditions that people were living in; garbage everywhere, dead animals in the streets, volunteer groups parceling out food to the hungry children. In Durban the majority population is the Zulu, and their families have been decimated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. At one township there was no running water, and when Steven asked a woman what time she had to wake to get water for her laundry, she said 5am so that she could be third in line. While Steven talked, we stood and watched the children watch us. From afar there was only one other adult to be seen, hidden away in her shanty house staring back at us though the darkness. Who knows where the other kids’ parents were, who knows if they were even a live. A little boy, maybe 2 years old, stood there with no diaper on, exposed to the world, as if having no shoes on was the worst it could get.

Midway though the day we got out of the car and walked up the hill to an orphanage. About 33 children live at the orphanage, almost all of them HIV positive. Their parents have either died or could not support them because of their suffering with the disease. I will write more about this experience and the man in How Long? Park the next time that I can write. Overall, my eyes have seen many new things, and I am certain there are so many more to come.