the blue collar bustle

In hindsight, I may say that it was a great opportunity to experience Durban, to flow through the heart of our city during rush hour, and to be part of the hum. But today, taking a taxi was as ordinary as a day's work.

No taxis go directly from Glennwood to the uMhlanga Rank (below DUT), in fact, they all go in the exact opposite direction. It makes perfect economic sense for them to do this because generally they're taking the working class to work and back home again. It has made me rethink the title of my blog. The adventures of this little mlungu should be rephrased to the "blue collar bustle".

Today the blue collar bustle took me 20 min to walk from my front door to the rank. Then a brief wait for the taxi to fill up and a direct ride to La Lucia - 30 min, and then another walk to my office - 15 min. And that's how we ordinary workers get to work.

weather permitting

Rain! Rain! Go away, come back another day!

I thought to myself a few weeks back that I was fortunate to begin this adventure in autumn/winter because it would not be pleasant walking in the heat of summer to a from the taxi ranks. As it was, I could work up a sweat. But it never occurred to me that I would be guarding against the rain in May. As you know, Durban is renowned for its wonderful dry and warm winters... there is something to be said for climate variation when all the mamma's on the taxis are shocked to be having to battle with rain in our winter. Fortunately a friend from Cape Town is visiting and kindly brought me a few things that I had left there, namely my raincoat!