*A quick note on a change of procedure- after looking at the last post and realizing it a bit long for easy internet reading, I think I will try to break this overview of the project into much smaller pieces. I think this will facilitate both my speed at writing it all out, plus keep it fresh in your imagination. We'll see how it goes, so bear with me while I mess around with it...
Even though our entry into the country had been a whirlwind of frayed nerves, exotic characters, minimal sleep and off-color jokes, our exit from Johannesburg went as smoothly as any other once we passed through security. Taking seats at our gate we all looked out across the tarmac and tried to peer past the horizon to Durban, the last jet-bound destination we were scheduled to arrive in until it was time to return stateside. I cannot speak for everyone, but the uncertainty that the previous 16 hours had started to spread in my mind was quickly stamped out and replaced with images of a city full of possibility: pristine waves to surf, pretty girls kissed by sunlight, a city just coming off of the World Cup high that ended 2 days prior. The antithesis to what we had seen so far. "What Africa ought to be", we thought. Hopefully we could sneak in and catch some of the afterglow.
In line with the spirit of the Project, our itinerary effectively ceased to be bound by hours and minutes the moment we were to land in Durban. Everything after that was to be taken on faith, an unwritten exploration built upon correspondences with people we had never met. We had goals, we had ideas on how to best accomplish them, but the intoxicating uncertainty about 4 guys from California taking off to conquer ancient obstacles in a foreign land was not lost on us. It was exhilarating and all that we could think about while cruising southeastward at 30,000 ft. with the burnt, high altitude landscape of sugarcane rolling out below us. Durban was supposed to be the buffer between 1st and 3rd, where we could brace ourselves for what lie ahead mentally and physically. We looked forward to it.
Once the charred cane gave way to rolling green fields outside of our windows, we craned our necks to see that the land was mutating into something more traditionally familiar, relieved that it wasn't all cold smoke and dry grass. Soon enough the green ran out, followed by pinstriped lines of black rock and white sand. Beyond this last contrast lay the Indian ocean, brilliant and immense with it's tales of big fish and terrible storms. We all stared silently outward with our faces smashed against the the glass when our ears popped, the plane banked right and we began our final approach into King Shaka Int'l airport. I am certain that as the captain lit up the seatbelt signs and we turned away from the windows, each of us had a smile on our face. Uncertainty lay ahead, but so did the will to help utter strangers and the commitment to whatever adventures that followed, be they good or bad. We each were at simliar points in life, in the awkward phase between books and grades and salaries with full dental, but the task ahead was an altogether different challenge, one in which we were all anxiously seeing how we measured against. But first, Durban...
To Be Continued
Words: Hamrock
