The itinerary has unfolded thus far as such- A detroit flight took 15 people to Paris, where the 12 hour layover gave us time to take a bus to Notre Dame. After some very French crepes and pear cider, we caught an organ recital at the cathedral, an homage to Rameau, and some Lied by G-someone. You could have sat on the keyboard and it still would have sounded gorgeous there. After listening to some street musicians by the river, I was inspired to join the accordion player on our train back to the airport in some French oom-pa-pa tunes (my mandolin is rarely out of arms reach, in fact, rarely out of my arms).
The next flight landed us in Joberg, where we met with another 8 of our team, including Maxwell and Sudiso, (sp?), our current van/bus drivers. Once we were all collected, we immediately got onto Mango airlines and hopped the hour over to Durban, where we are spending our first week. Our flats on the ocean are the nicest travel accomodations I beleive i've ever experienced, with a fully-equipped kitched, swank furniture and a view of the water that is quite breathtaking. Our group will travel into the city to The University of Kwazulu-Natal/Durban for the first week, beginning tomorrow.
There really are 13 different languages here, and while you can get around and probably live only speaking English, you are just not as cool as the people around you (like our drivers), who grew up speaking Zulu, picked up Xhosa and Sotho on the way, and still speak English better than I do half the time. I do however, have about 13 adapters, none of which fit the prongs in the wall, which are apparently used in SA and "older parts of Ireland".
Now Ashiq, Mike, Maxwell and Sudiso are about to retire to Marginella, our complex, listening to the ocean and sounds of monkeys trying to get into our food in the kitchen.
I love it.
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