Arrival in Durban

And finally our blog becomes active. More about that later.

So we have now been in Durban for a night and a day. We arrived at lunchtime on Thursday and settled into a lovely b&b. Mary has created a buzz about our arrival by informing everyone we have met (even fleetingly) that 'We've moved to South Africa. Today is our first day' (imagine Mary's impossibly enthusiastic Canadian accent to get full effect).

We were meant to be picked up to go to an AHP (Africa Health Placement - non-profit organisation that have placed Mary) gathering at 1500 on Thursday. 1430 slowly became 1600 as our lift arrived late. This was due to the challenges of finding our address. Road names apparently change all the time in Durban. Sometimes the previous name of the road is left with a red line through it. The changes are to honour newly important people (though it seems rare that any locals have actually heard of either the old or new 'vip').

Once picked up we went to meet the other volunteers. After some mingling we were given a crash course in Zulu for doctors. I found this terrific fun. For those who know nothing about Zulu (not me anymore!) it is a language of clicks. There are three major clicks and many minor ones. We spent the next hour trying to say zulu medical phrases. After much amusement and confusion, all the doctors were pronounced ready to embark on their Zulu medical career. (For any of our readers considering medical treatment in Ingwavuma/Mosvold hospital please rest assured that Mary will have a translator through the year).

After the language course, the doctors were given a 'diy' medical textbook for most of the possible procedures that they are likely to have to perform. Again this was exciting for me. The book isn't too big and condenses most major operations into a step by step two page summary. Having a read of this last night, I am now very confident that I can be qualified by experience as a doctor by the end of our year here.

Our evening culminated in a South African bbq aka a Braai (sp?). These seem to be very regular occurences in South Africa. The responsibility for cooking the meat is huge and usually belongs to the senior South African male. However, there were none present (*). As one of only four males and the one that happened to be standing nearest to the flames, I was nominated as chef. Despite trying to protest (with Mary's support)at the dangers of putting me in charge, my attempts were interpreted as 'false' modesty. With the lives of many doctors in my hands, I decided to play it safe implementing a 'burnt is best' policy. All our new found friends were very complimentary about the results.

(* The braai was hosted by Tracey Hudson. The walls of the home have lots of cricket mementos. It turned out Andrew Hudson opened the batting in South Africa's first test post apartheid. In that test against the West Indies (still with a formidable bowling line up) he scored 150. It was his test debut. He was the first South African to score a century on his debut. He is also one of a select number of players to score a century on debut in first innings and a duck in the second innings. All hugely exciting - Tom Toulson please check wikipedia for more information).


Friday

More boring day. Spent the morning setting up a bank account. Spent the afternoon trying to sort out an internet connection. We will be buying a modem that will allow us a fast connection when in Durban opening up the possibility of e.g. skyping occasionally. For most of the time though we will only be able to email or update our blog. We need to download picasso before we can add any pictures. We will do this asap. In the meantime please continue to follow and add posts with anything interesting. Hope you are all missing us masses.