Durban Days

Durban, South Africa is more like Houston than it is like Uganda. I don’t know about rural South Africa. We are in the city – the big city. The metropolitan area of Durban includes as many people as Harris and the surrounding counties. It is located as far south of the Equator as Houston is north of it, and it is on the coast. The weather the past few days has been the equivalent of a normal Houston December. Refineries and ships make Durban the largest port in the southern hemisphere.

Unlike Houston, Durban is hilly, right up to the beach. This is a beautiful and lush place. The water system is one of the purest in the world, so we do not have to rely on the bottled stuff as we did in Uganda and Mexico. And unlike Houston, they don’t drink much coffee here. If you ask for coffee you are likely to be given instant Nescafe as if that were the same thing. British influence. I suppose the Brits would think nothing of asking for tea and being given Nestea. Right. I’ll be leaving here on the Fourth of July, the day we celebrate our Independence from King George and his tea. Serves them right.

The people we have met here have mostly been like the men and women you might meet in Clear Lake. They live fairly affluent lifestyles. They are business men and women, professionals. Some of them know Jesus and love him deeply. Others are seeking. Gary and Cheryl Price work with this people group.

On Monday evening we attended a dinner for business men and women at a beautiful country club. The dinner was delicious – roasted lamb, curried chicken, various vegetables. Patrick Forrester was one of two featured speakers that evening. He did an awesome job of sharing his work and his faith with the crowd of about two hundred. Approximately a third of those attending came as guests of their Christian friends and were not themselves believers. Patrick talked about the importance of finding balance and priority in one’s life and not letting work become your god.

Melinda was seated next to Errol, a colored man (That means not black and not white, sort of. Officially it is not a category any longer, since apartheid, but people still use those terms.). I only mention that he was “colored” because Errol was the first colored civil engineering student to graduate from the university here and he was in charge of building a major highway that allows large trucks access to the port. She asked him, “What do you love to do?” That’s a penetrating question. It gets to one’s heart. He replied honestly, “I guess I love to work. That’s what I do most of the time. Work. I don’t have time for much else.”

The other speaker was Brian Stocks, a very successful businessman here who has a rich testimony of coming to Christ and rearranging priorities in his own life. The two presentations complemented each other well. After the dinner, tea and biscuits (they are really cookies) were served and people were invited to stay to talk. Many stayed for more than an hour. Gary and his organization (Priority Associates, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ) will be following up with those who attended.

On Tuesday our team took a tour of the city of Durban with Gary and Noel, one of the elders in his church. We visited the Indian market and the large Indian section of town, where more than 250,000 Indians live. Wednesday Melinda, Diana, and Pamm went to lunch with some Zulu women, all of them teachers. The depth of the women's spirituality was impressive. Melinda came home wearing a colorful Zulu neckband they gave her. In the afternoon, we all visited the Durban beach for an hour or so. International surfing competition begins here on Friday. More than 100,000 people will be on the beach. Patrick spent the day speaking in four or five venues in the business community. We all enjoyed supper with our host families. Melinda and I played with Allison (age 3) and Lauren (age 10), practicing up on our grandparenting skills.

Today the team will drive to a game park about 2 hours north of Durban. We're supposed to see the "big five" (lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, and leopards, [oh, my]). The Forresters head home on Saturday. Pamm may be heading out on Tuesday. On Monday I take off for Thailand and Melinda and Jenna will be staying on in Durban for another week.

I'll write about my experience with a Mango fly later.

rrc