Ngxongwane Goes to Durban: Day 2

The educators and I woke up at 4:30am to beat the crowd of children to the shower. The nonfunctional shower in the boy’s bathroom forced us into the girl’s bathroom. I donned my “way way way to thin” sandals and followed the stench to the shower with another male educator. I held my breath and threw off my clothes onto an one inch nail jetting over a neighboring doorway. Two inches of 95% bar soap water and likely 5% urine covered one half of the room due to the slant of the floor but the soap could not cover the stink of urine and the slant sloped towards the doorway. Since my name isn’t Carl Lewis (Olympic gold sprinter and long jumper), I had to gingerly walk through the sewage. My feet tingled while I stood in the puddle. The cold water splattered out of the shower head, causing rebounding water from the puddle and onto my thighs. Only half of my body could withstand the cold. I felt clean in a dirty way by the end of the shower. My first afterthought was I needed to bleach my entire body, scrub my feet with steel wool, and insert an IV line full of a broad spectrum antibiotic.

I stepped downstairs as the female educators were cooking up a flurry of stew and patching together hundreds of baloney sandwiches. The kids and I devoured the stew with loaves of buttered bread. A couple of hours later the bus drove us to the Durban Metro. The educators asked me why I was quiet and I mentioned about my stifling shower experience. They laughed wildly when I showed them the pictures of the toilet, saying that I was naughty. None of the educators enjoyed the process of showering in our so-called hotel since Nongoma is million times cleaner. Oooh back to the train… Amazingly the children sat quietly on the reserved train with unyielding awe.

We sat for 20 minutes enjoying a couple of Durban stops before we headed to the wonderful world of Ushaka Marine World, the fifth largest aquarium captivity in the world. As advertised, the dolphins can flip on a dime. But why do all dolphin trainers have to gleefully speak like an unentertaining robot? I’d rather take a shower in a toxic sewage than listen to the trainer speak, but I got both. Still the dolphins were lovely and wowed the children. Underground aquariums stocked with turtles, sting rays, and weird deep sea creatures, capturing the children’s attention for two hours.

Then we zoomed off to the beach front. As usual the kids rushed out of the bus and lines of vendors miraculously surround the bus. The children have nowhere to escape except into the arms of the slick vendors even with the warnings from the educators to not waste their little money. Coca Cola, cheap radio players with stylish headphones, peculiar spongy thingies, pacifier-shaped lollipops, and batman bathing suits all end up in the hidden pockets of the children. Even I had to take a look into the vendor suitcases. Sometimes the vendors follow us to different locations, knowing that the kids are an easy sell.

The kids went beach bathing for a couple hours while I went to help get some meat for a night of braai (South African grilling) at the Lagoon Beach. Loads of cut beef and sausage packed the back of the bus. But unfortunately no extra plastic cups. We reach the Lagoon Beach with the sun already down. Mostly Indians and some blacks covered the entire front to do some braai. A few other schools shared the same braai experience. The educators allowed the kids set up the entire grill, heat the charcoal, and cook the meat to let them learn from experience. I walked around the parking lot with Jabu and Sbo to check out the vendors and the Indian foods. By the time we returned, flames up to 5 inches high burst out of the grill and smoke covered 30 foot radius. But the kids continued to cook with enthusiasm. Fortunately the adults took over for our own food.

On a side note, a bus load of school children from another school also parked behind us on the road. Like us, the kids are from rural KwaZulu-Natal Province. Unfortunately a speeding vehicle on the extremely busy road hit one of their children and then the driver ran. It’s uncertain whether anyone got the license. One of the educators called me over to see if I can examine the child. I jogged over to the site. On the ground laid the 5 year old covered in a blanket, moving his head and feet. I did not notice any blood on the ground. Since the police surrounded the child, I knew that the ambulance would approach soon. With the child looking stable, I decided to not interfere (and reality I could not do much) and let the officials do their work.

So after finishing the braai, we landed back into our homely hotel. The owner gave the boys a bigger room, which relieved some of the heat and tight space compared to the last night. After one shot of whiskey to entertain one of the male educators, I found a lovely spot on the concrete floor without children near the top of my head and I thought the night would go smoothly. Instead gospel music echoed from the first floor. I plunged ear plugs deep into my ear canals. And the music never ended…