This morning I woke up at about 6:30, got ready, and headed down to breakfast in the lobby. Even though this hotel district is a popular vacation destination for foreigners, there weren’t many Americans so I was definitely being stared at. After breakfast I went back up to my room but on the way out of the lobby I glanced over my left shoulder and there, through a glass wall, was a picturesque view of the sea. It was magnificent! I stopped and gawked at the countless ships that dipped in and out of the fog. Eventually I made my way back to my room, used my free internet quota, packed up my things, and took a nap. I was woken by a phone call at about 11:10. Thys Nell, the General Secretary/CEO of the Pietermaritzburg YMCA, had arrived early to pick me up. So, I quickly finished packing and rushed downstairs. After waiting in the lobby for about 15 minutes, I was approached by a young man named Reinhardt, or Bruce, Thys’s son. He welcomed me and helped me bring my bags to Thys’s car.
It was about an hour’s drive from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. Thys asked me about myself and if I knew anyone in the Pietermaritzburg area. I told him I do not know anyone on the continent except for him and Reinhardt. They laughed and assured me that they would show me around. The landscape is breathtaking and I was just soaking it up. The terrain is very mountainous and there are homes everywhere, packed in very close together. I will never forget the sight of the first township I had ever seen. Staring out the left side of the car, amidst the hills there was one hill in the middle that rose up, full of shacks made of scrap metal and other trash. It is hard to imagine that people are living in such poverty in the middle of an industrialized city. We passed by many more townships after that, though they are never less striking. There were also barefoot people walking along the highway with garbage bags full of their belongings, some hitchhiking, and some just sitting there. There were women hiking up small trails in the sides of mountains that seemed to lead nowhere, carrying heavy bags. Thys eventually turned the radio on and it was the one and only “Moves Like Jagger” song.
When we got to the YMCA, it was hard to tell where it began/ended because there is a gas station nestled right up to it on one side and a gym (not owned by the YMCA due to lack of funding) on the other side. Thys drove us around the Y so that I could see it from the outside, as both Thys and Reinhardt made it clear that it is not safe for me to go outside the YMCA grounds without a security guard. Thys and Reinhardt gave me a quick tour of the office, introduced me to a few people, and led me through the courtyard to my room. The accomodations have everything I need and there is a security guard on duty at all times, 24 hours a day.
My room.
My bathroom sink
View from my window - the gas station is on the other side of the barbed wire.
I have spent the rest of the day napping and reading about the SA YMCA as a whole.
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