Baptism & the Indian Ocean

Walking on Durban, South African beach one morning I came across a baptism being performed in the ocean.

Descent from Lesotho to South Africa - Sani Pass

This video depicts the beginning of the descent from the The Kingdom of Lesotho border station down into South Africa.

World Cup - Cricket

No storm tonight, first night without a storm in 4 days. The conference is over. I took a walk today. I finally had a chance to get a lay of the land. I’m down the road from the busy beach; the honky-tonk, the promenade, the surfers, and the stalls of junk, and you know I didn’t see any muggings, no mayhem - I lived.

It was a good walk; I watched the surfers; that was the first time that I had ever seen real surfing. I had seen surfing on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, but never with the real waves; the waves that rode the surfer 50 yards. I watched them crowd into the sweet spot next to the pier. A few didn’t brother to swim; they just jumped in with there board from the pier.

After I got back I made soup, I wasn’t up to the restaurant or room service. When I travel I rarely eat in restaurants; it’s depressing to eat alone in public. I always fine a super market of some sort and stock up with some fruit and dry soup, anything that I can prepare in the room. Fortunately, I’m not very discriminating. After the soup I had a cognac and waited for the storm on the balcony, it never came, I decided to go for a bottle of wine, to venture I into the dead of the night – I think it was six blocks and seven-thirty, not exactly the witching hour.

After I bough the wine I stopped for a drink at the Portuguese restaurant/bar in the little strip mall. It was Friday night, crowded with the World Cup – Cricket on the TV.

Durban, South Africa

I did spend some time editing the photographs yesterday. I’ve interspersed a few with the texts and started a new yahoo album. For the time being I have two London albums – the new ones are in London 07. I have not started a Durban album yet – not enough photographs.

I spent about four hours at the refractive meeting yesterday. It was much better than I anticipated. I would have stayed longer, but jetlag got the better of me – my entire system is out of joint. I went back to the Hotel, planned on returning for the Mayor’s reception but never made it. I went back to the room, planned on resting and reading, could not read, watched a movie – terrible movie, but my energy would not allow anything else.

So far, I’ve only had a glimpse of Durban. Between the jetlag, work, and crime problem I haven’t seen much. Nevertheless I do have a few impressions. Durban is a mixed bag. It is the largest port in Africa; you can see the ships lined up waiting to unload from the beach. It is a tourist destination. It has miles of beautiful beaches; I’ve been told that it is a favorite of Brits. Yet there is the crime problem; my driver said that it is driven by unemployment. I would think that it would kill tourism, but apparently not. Maybe the problem is exaggerated. I’ve been told the beach is safe during the day, and in the morning I see joggers on the road. The beach seems remarkable empty. It is summer here, a couple of weeks ago Durban hosted a Formula A race (Formula A is a step down from Formula 1). In fact, the route passed in front of the Hotel – the temporary circle is still in place.

Meeting Day

Today is the first day of the meeting on refractive error at which I am presenting a paper. At eight is a meeting of all the presenters. I will probably be at the meeting all day.

Yesterday’s meeting was long but better than I expected. I am starting to get a better feel for the international development community. I am not sure that is a good thing. On the one hand, I need to know the lay of the land; on the other, part of what I bring to development is my perspective. I do not want to lose the outsider view. I guess that it is inevitable, but I would like to delay it as much as possible.

I was lucky in London, much as I had been for my visit last year; the weather was perfect, a beautiful early spring day. I had an eight hour layover. As I said earlier after I dealt with customs, money exchange, and ‘left luggage’ I headed into London on the ‘tube.’ Heathrow is the western end of the Piccadilly Line. It’s about a 40 minute ride into London center.

I needed to walk, explore, and move my legs after the cramped flight from Newark. It couldn’t have been a better day to tramp around London. The Eye was crowded, the embankment jammed; everyone was taking advantage of the weather. The Tubes were under construction; the circle line was completely closed, I wanted to see an interesting neighborhood. I decided to abandon the trip to the Tower Bridge and head to Notting Hill.

I liked the look of the neighborhood from the movie – that romantic comedy with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The neighborhood was pretty much as expected, but time was running out, on to High Street. I was not sure what to expect, I had heard of the name but didn’t associate it with anything, even after seeing it I’m not sure what of make of it. I enjoyed walking the neighborhood, but I can’t say anything about it.

Writing does not seem to be clicking today, maybe it would be more productive to edit the photographs and get a posting out.

Blue Water Hotel, Durban, South Africa

It’s early, about 6:30 am. I’m on the seventh floor of the Blue Water Hotel. My balcony faces the Indian Ocean. I just watched the sunrise – from the west according to my watch. I wonder if crossing the equator has affected my watch. It was working properly in London. I guess it could be the change in polarity. I wonder if I program the correct longitude and latitude if it would read correctly.

I feel good; I must be jetlagged, but at the moment I’m fine. The trip was tiring – about thirty hours in all. I couldn’t sleep on the plane, and I was too tired to read. I watched movies. Five in all, Babel, Casino Royale, The Departed , The King of Scotland, and The Black Book. I missed the end to Casino Royale. I did spend a few hours writing on the flight from London to Johannesburg.

I slept about 4 hours yesterday after I arrived. Last night I went to bed around midnight with the intention of getting up around three. It didn’t turn out that way; despite the alarm clock I didn’t drag myself out of bed until about 5:30.

The sunrise was quiet, the sound of the ocean soothing. I had orange tea and waited for the sun and listened to the waves. I turned the air conditioner off, but within minutes the humidity and heat forced me to reconsider. It’ was only 6:30. I was planning on taking a dip in the ocean; I am not sure that I can. Lonely Plant advises you to only swim on protected beaches; they have the shark nets. Battery Beach opposite the Hotel has a beach house but I’m not sure if it is protected. I was surprised that I didn’t see anyone in the water yesterday – actually I didn’t see anyone, the beach was empty.