Durban - On the water

Having spent three weeks travelling over 1,700km from Cape Town to Durban we arrived to stay with my Uncle John (my Mum's brother), Auntie Carrol and my cousin Byron who live in Pinetown, a town about 20km inland from the main city of Durban. It was so nice to be able to fully unpack our bags and have a place to stay put for a while and of course it was lovely to be back with family again.

The first thing you should know is that my Uncle and Auntie are extremely fit and active so inevitably we were kept active and busy during our time with them. They are both experienced (and very good) canoeists. They are members of a club in Durban on the Umgeni River which flows into the sea a few kilometres north of the city. During our two weeks with them we went paddling three times which was a great way to keep fit, even if it did take a bit of getting used to. The club is home to an actual world champion canoeist, a guy named Hank McGregor, who regularly wins medals for South Africa, so we felt very out of our depth!!

Melissa and I were in a K2 which is a two person boat. When I came to South Africa 5 years ago I went to their old canoe club in Johannesburg where I was in a single boat and could not sit in it without capsizing, so it was nice this time to actually be able to get more than a metre away from the shoreline.

The only problem for us came when I was put in the front and therefore in charge of steering. Melissa, being one who likes to be in control of things, was not best pleased with my zig-zag approach to paddling upstream, but in all fairness it is quite difficult when you are trying to concentrate on a number of things ranging from paddling, steering, avoiding fishing lines, spotting wild and exotic birds and just enjoying the scenery, plus the most important thing of trying not to fall out of the boat!

In this photo Melissa is in the front, having her go at steering...

Still canoeing themed, we actually 'seconded' for my Uncle and Aunty as they competed in a race called the Ozzy Gladwin. This basically meant we would drive from the start to the finish so that we were there for them at the end of the race and could help them pack away afterwards. This was a really fun experience and, with the help of Ernie who is a veteran of their canoe club, we were able to stop off at various parts of the route and cheer them on and take pictures. They did extremely well, especially considering the heat! Melissa and I were exhausted just from watching.

Uncle John front and Aunty Carrol back

One of the issues with the race was whether their would be enough water in the river for it to run properly. This sounds silly, it's a river, of course it will have water in it?! but in the area of South Africa we are now in, called KwaZulu-Natal they are experiencing a severe drought. The problems are so bad in some areas that many homes are on water restrictions and may only get water for an hour per day. Turning on the taps is something we just take for granted at home, but for so many here it has become a huge issue. It is something we have been asked to pray for.

Anyway, back to our stay in Durban, I found a flyer at my Uncle's house for a men's conference happening in a local church the coming Saturday. It was amazing for me to see that the guest speaker was Tich Smith. For those of you that don't know about Tich, the video below gives a little more info or you could head to our 'Charity Spotlight' page. In short, Tich and his wife Joan have built a village for orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa and it is an incredible story of what Jesus has done in their lives.

Source: LIV Village - YouTube

Melissa and I first encountered Tich & Joan when they spoke at Soul Survivor and Momentum (huge Christian festivals) in August in the UK. When we heard their story and realised how close the village was to my Uncle and Auntie we were really encouraged about how we could get involved and set about trying to make LIV a part of our trip. We are still in the process of doing so, but to find out that Tich was going to be at a conference I could go to that weekend was really amazing.

After attending the conference with Byron I spoke with Tich which led to Melissa, my Uncle and I visiting for a tour the village a few days later. It was an awesome morning where we could see how Tich's vision has taken shape and the work God has done in that area. We left feeling encouraged and blessed to have seen this. Watch this space for how we want to get involved with LIV in 2016.

The LIV village as seen from the main road

Of course we spent plenty of time relaxing and enjoying being with family during our stay. We even managed to complete a 1,500 piece puzzle (which I lost hope in fairly quickly) but my Auntie Carrol amazingly put together piece by piece - note to self work on self-discipline. We were constantly being purred at or licked by one of their five cats and two dogs, and went for runs along the beach with them. It was so enjoyable to just fit into day to day life again.

Puzzle in progress - with help from 'Favourite' the cat who loves boxes.

Puzzle complete

One on of our days we went on a walking tour of Durban with Jonny, one of the BazBus drivers. Our tour took us through the local markets ranging from meat and fish, fruit and veg, to traditional Zulu medicines and remedies. Durban has the largest population of Indians outside of India anywhere in the world and so there are huge Indian influences all over the city. We saw lots of spice markets and traditional Indian culture which included me trying the local cuisine of 'Bunny Chow', a dish that is no more than curry in a hollowed out bread loaf (Melissa wants me to tell you that I had to put on a brave face and disguise my sweating as I tried to convince our tour guide that it wasn't too spicy - it was).

Meat doesn't come much fresher than this! (Sorry all vegetarians!)

Still chewing cows head about 10 minutes later!

Checking out the various Zulu 'medicines'...

And later trying to sell them.

I wasn't smiling like this afterwards!

Any of you had any need for this before?!

Jonny, Melissa (dressed for a science experiment) and me in the Mosque

Riding on a minbus taxi

During our route through the markets we did not see a single other white person. Our guide Jonny explained quite simply that "the white people don't come here". Whilst this seemed a shame, in all honesty we did feel a bit cautious, but rightly so as Jonny was explaining, there are dangerous places and you do have to keep you wits about you. That said however, we weren't put under any pressure to buy, looked at in strange ways or made to feel uneasy. In fact, all of the people we spoke to were very welcoming and friendly, including a bunch of guys who kindly shared some meat from the cow's head they were eating(!). Although it was a bit chewy, it wasn't actually too bad - again Melissa would like to interject that it was pretty gross and fairly off putting to eat whilst some guy is hacking a cows head next to you.

It seemed a shame that there did seem to be this black/white divide mostly because the markets were a hive of activity and had so much fresh produce at ridiculously low prices. I don't have an answer to why this divide still exists in Durban, but it did get me thinking how easy it is in today's world, regardless of race or religion, for people to physically to live close to each other and yet culturally live miles apart.

Our tour also took us to the Moses Mabhida stadium, used in the 2010 World Cup, included a hugely educational tour of the city Mosque and we then walked along the beach and through the uShaka Marine World. We also whizzed about the city in the local white minibus taxis which, to the untrained user look a complete nightmare, but when you're with someone who knows how they operate are a cheap and efficient way of getting around town.

Amongst a host of other things we also made time to visit a wild and exotic bird park near the Umgeni River where we took time to consider how much of a creative genius God is. To believe that this stunning variety of colourful birds does not have a designer just doesn't make sense to us! Auntie Carrol and Byron also took us hiking in a place called Paradise Valley and went to visit my Auntie Carrol's mum and take her out for tea. Our two weeks flew by so quickly, but as they say 'time flies when you're having fun' so we weren't complaining!

Walking through Paradise Valley

Two amazingly colourful parrots

We spotted these birds that look a bit like our M&B logo,
 not sure who our friend is though...

I'm doing my best impression of whatever this bird is

Stunning Toucan

We have now moved about two hours north of Durban to Mtubatuba which is where my cousin Kristy lives with her husband Dylan and their two children, Jonathan (5) and Abigail who turns 3 next week and who's Frozen themed birthday party we have been invited to this weekend - I can't wait!
We spent this last weekend in the bush for Dylan's birthday which was absolutely unreal, we could probably write a single blog-post about it on it's own, in fact maybe we will, we'll see. It is ALWAYS hot here and really humid also. Thankfully we haven't reached the 52 degrees of last Christmas where they had bats literally dropping dead out of trees!!

Sneak peek of Jono, Dylan, Kristy, Abi, Melissa & me from our bush weekend

We're looking forward to a huge family Christmas together, and welcoming my brother Tim and his wife Cristyn along with 4 month old baby Oliver when they come to join us!

In the meantime we have so much going on to keep us busy, I am playing in a charity golf tournament next Wednesday. I played a practice round yesterday and my second shot of the day went out of bounds through the electric fence so I'm not holding out too much hope. Melissa has been offered two weeks work experience at a PR agency in Johannesburg which she has worked really hard to get (along with the fantastic support of Heather - thank you!) so we are planning for that possibility. Mainly though we are just being family and getting on with life and taking what opportunities God sends our way. We're busy entertaining Jono and Abi and I'm trying to play as much FIFA as Melissa will let me.

We'll write again, possibly before Christmas depending on how hectic things get, but definitely shortly after if not.

Thanks for reading!

Prayer requests:

• Please pray for rain! It seems so crazy that we are seeing the news of the floods at home where people are desperate not to see anymore water, and yet we are here in a land crying out for it. So many local farmers and villages depend on it and lives are at stake!
• We are thankful for our safety, especially during our walking tour, on all the driving journeys we have been on, and the safe family homes we are welcomed in to. 
• We ask that we are continuously blessed by the welcome, the generosity and the love of family. We are already being abundantly blessed by Dylan and Kristy and are so grateful for that and pray we can be a blessing to them also.
• We particularly pray for the opportunity to extend our stay in South Africa. Currently our visa expires on 7 Jan 2016 but we are hoping to stay 2-3 weeks longer. We are praying that God will open doors for us in this area, particularly to enable Melissa to complete a work experience placement.
• We continue to pray for guidance in the next year, as we make longer term plans for our trip during 2016.
• We pray for the safe arrival of Tim, Cristyn and baby Oliver and we pray for a huge blessing over our family Christmas. We particularly think of our families at home who won't be with us at this special time of year.
• We also pray for the usual stresses and strains of this busy period that they wouldn't detract from what Christmas is truly about.
• We continue to thank friends and family for all the prayers, love and support we receive on an almost daily basis.