Life Worth Living

So I have the flu again. Can you believe it? I have been sick since Tuesday and not too happy about it. I've made it through most of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books (by Andrew McCall Smith) and highly recommend them. The story is set in Botswana and there's quite a bit of cultural info woven in.

Here's a Q&A question from Adam, received via email: "from the perennial beer geek - what are you drinking? and along similarly important cultural issues lines - what kind of music have you found? more about entertainment, friendships and sleeping-in - you know, those things that really make life worth living for Anne."

Great questions!

Beer
I have two new favorite beers. Number one on the list is Windhoek (which I pronounced "Wind-hook" and received a confused look - apparently it's "Vindhock", who knew). It's brewed in Namibia and made from all natural ingredients. My second favorite is Castle, the most popular South African beer, from what I can tell. It comes in many varieties and some are bad - but I think it's the basic one, Castle Lager, that I like. Black Label, Peroni, Amstel, and Heineken are all generally available. And when I'm feeling homesick, there's MGD (never thought I would be grateful for that). The sad part of the story is that I haven't yet found an establishment that has beer on tap and I'm not sure why. Maybe it has to do with the humidity? Or lack of turnover? Or distribution expenses? Adam may be better apt to answer that one. He was, after all, on the first wave of the home brewing revolution.

Music
South Africa produces an awesome version of hip-hop - I guess I would classify it as - called kwaito. It tends to have more political/positive messages than talk of bling, hos, and grillz. (Although, a lot of the songs are not in English so I can't understand everything they're saying). The artists I can think of off the top of my head are Tkzee, Mandoza, and Bongo Maffin - all are well worth a listen. Also, this is a great article - Kwaito: much more than music.

Entertainment/Friendships/Sleeping In
These are the categories where life here does not compare to my life in Minneapolis - well, except sleeping in. I've managed to do a fair amount of that even though the sun rises at 5am and they're constructing the Grand Prix race track right outside my window (more on that soon).

Durban has a respectable number of restaurants, bars, and theatres. The problem is that it's generally unsafe to travel alone at night. So I've been able to do a fair amount of tagging along with my roommates but they're both quite busy. The group I work with at the Y is great but they mostly speak Zulu amongst each other (though they have been kind in trying to include me). Planning outings is difficult because of the discrepancy in disposable income. I have seen quite a few movies here and one play. I have found a couple of restaurants/bars that I love - Zack's (on the harbour) and The Beach Cafe (on the beach, go figure).

My primary means of entertaining myself has been the beach and beachfront. I love walking along the shoreline with bare feet, laying in the sand - watching surfers, kite surfers, families by the water, kids playing soccer in the sand, skateboarders at the skate park, sand sculptors, fishermen, beach volleyball matches, and all kinds of vendors - crafts, ice cream carts, fruit stands. The beach brings everyone together. At restaurants I see lots of white people, in the streets - lots of black people, at shopping malls - lots of Indians. But everyone comes to the beach - young/old, wealthy/poor, black/white. And the waves don't seem to know the difference.

The ocean will no doubt be the hardest part of Durban to leave - the seemingly abundant flu viruses, not so hard to leave.