A Drink for the Springboks
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008Day 237
Jordana and I slept in to about 9am this morning, it feels good to have a day where we don’t have to be up at 6am for a bus or be ready for a tour. We walked over to the Musgrave Centre with John and Hannah for breakfast at Mugg and Bean. Sitting in that restaurant with a familiar breakfast menu made me feel like I could have been in Toronto. Its a feeling we’ve had often here in South Africa, a country with such a striking divide between the 1st and 3rd worlds.
Tomorrow we are headed to the Drakensbeg Mountains, something that promises to be a nice change from Durban. We spent the day doing some planning and reading newspapers. Reading the news in Africa is essential for planning and a sure way to make you depressed. Let’s run through some stories today. As if things weren’t bad enough in neighbouring Zimbabwe now news of a cholera outbreak with potentially 1.4 million people affected. In Congo I still haven’t figure out who is fighting who even though its news here everyday. I do know that its very nasty and it seems nobody in the world really cares what’s going on there. Up the coast in Somalia pirates seem to be seizing ships daily. Arrrr, sorry it had to be said. Here in South Africa the ruling ANC (African National Congress) party has split and there seem to be divisions along ethnic lines. Which is unsettling since it sounds like a dangerous path. Besides that the future president, Jacob Zuma is in court over corruption charges. A few years ago he was acquitted of rape charges, but during the trial it was revealed the woman he had sex with was HIV positive. Zuma said he was safe because as a precaution against HIV he had taken a shower after intercourse. To think I thought Steven Harper was an idiot.
So when the newspapers read like that, and that’s only a small preview, what to do? Go to the pub, get a pint of Hansa and watch rugby. That’s exactly what Jordana and I did. Rugby is huge here and today South Africa is taking on England in England. We found a nice little pub on Florida St in Durban and grabbed a seat, most places we passed were already full. As the match began I tried to explain the rules of the game to Jordana. While she didn’t really get what was going on it was easy to get caught up in the excitement of the game. It also helps that South Africans love to drink and were a happy group as their Spingboks, name of the national rugby side, blew out the English side 44-6. An embarrassing loss at home for England. After the match we walked down the street for dinner and found some decent Thai food. Its always a good day when you can go out and spend a day as a local would, well a white local.
Michael Coroneos