South Africa

Well it took a while, but I am here. I made it, and the ups and downs of being back in Africa are hitting already.

I left last Wednesday morning from my parent’s home in Houston, TX. Then a quick flight to Atlanta, Georgia where I had a few hour layover. I went to campus and had a lovely afternoon swimming in the campus fountain, laying in the sun and having an incredible dinner all in company of some of the most amazing people I know in the world. I was supposed to fly out at 7:45pm, but new lesson learned: don’t leave midtown at 6:30pm to try and catch an international flight at 7:45pm especially when the Vice President is in town and roads are closed and traffic is awful. Needless to say, I missed my flight and got an extra 24 hours in Atlanta. God works in mysterious ways right? Because I was sure glad to have an extra day visiting good friends and preparing for Africa.

I was in the last row of a huge 747 delta plane for my flight over but had the privilege of sitting next to one of the most interesting man I have ever met. Good ol’ Oklahoma boy, no college education, entrepreneur, family man, firm believer in Jesus Christ, newly elected representative for OK,  also created his own NGO working with agriculture and veterinary practices around the world. He told me stories of helicoptering in Ethiopia to find nomadic tribes and teach them new practices to help their survival, of years of extended work in Nicaragua, to working in the villages of Tanzania drilling water wells. As one can assume, we had a great flight sitting next to each other for those 18 hours of air time. And wouldn’t ya know it, God showed me yet again not to worry because while I  have been worrying about making my money stretch for a while this random stranger decided to give me a small money donation because he believed in my cause and in me. Awesome huh?

Don’t worry it get better.

I landed Thursday evening in Johannesburg, South Africa to the sounds of “I’m too sexy” playing on the airport laud speaker and the smells of KFC overpowering the terminal and my only thought about South Africa was that it sure felt a lot like the US. I needed to get to Durban and found that an overnight bus would be the cheapest way. So I made my way to the bus terminal, bought a ticket and sat down to wait the 3 hours till the bus came. And guess what? It took me less than an hour after landing in South Africa before I met a professional rugby player. This beautiful man was heading back to Durban on my same bus and he began to tell me all about life in South Africa. We bonded over talks of rugby and world travels and that 9 hour bus ride went by just as fast as the plane trip had. And even if I did happen to leave my blow up travel pillow at Lara’s apt in Atlanta, this rugby player was a pretty good replacement.

We arrived in Durban at 4:30am Saturday morning, and I had the address of the couch surfer’s house who I would be staying with for the week. The rugby friend helped me get in the right taxi and get the right price figured out and promised me a motorbike tour of the city for the next day. I woke my Couch Surfer up at a horribly early hour for him to let me in and we stayed up for the next hour just chatting. He invited me to join him and a bunch of friends as they were headed up to the midlands, to a farm in the middle of the hills for a friend’s birthday party later that day. So that afternoon I packed up in a car full of locals and drove through some of the most gorgeous South African country side to the middle of no-where for a birthday party. This “farm” was more like a plantation with a huge farm-house-mansion where about 30 people around my age were gathering for a night just away from the city. I met a lot of interesting people, had a great time, and yet again was blown away with how much it reminded me of home and exactly what me and my friends love to do.

Note: the entire time I had been in south Africa it had been raining, and quite cold. This sad pattern would continue my entire time while here. So sad to say the motorbike tour of Durban on Sunday was cut short and we instead ended at a pub with a group of people watching a football match (football being soccer).

Monday morning began the World Fecal Sludge Conference #2 (FSM2) at the International Convention Center in Durban South Africa. It lasted for 3 days and was extremely interesting and jam packed. I got to meet so many of the sanitation greats from around the world, finally got to put faces to so many people of whom I have been in email contact with for 2 years now. I learned a ton, have a bunch more articles to be read in the next few weeks. I got to present to a group of about 100 people about what Sanivation did down in Chile. I had many people interested in our work. And I made a whole bunch of connections and possible projects all over the world. 

Most people are extremely curious about how we did our pathogen testing- apparently everyone knows that it should be done, but very few people in the world know how, and I am somehow one of those few people. Ergo many, many Africans are interested in us teaching how we did our testing and it looks like we are going to need to set up a pathogen testing lab in Naivasha where I can do testing and train others. The entire lab set up would cost us about $3,500 usd and donators will have the privilege of naming the lab and the various components of it. More to come on that later.

I forgot how inefficient so many things are in developing areas, so many processes are completely unnecessary. As I was trying to make the connection to my flight to Kenya tonight, that took 2 ½ hours just to get checked in, a fellow traveler reminded me you can either get frustrated and upset or relax and remember where you are. I am in Africa. And I am so happy to be here.

Many people expressed interest in receiving some shwag from the World Fecal Sludge Conference and have I got a deal for you. As reward for you reading my blog (and making it this far into my ramblings) you have a chance to win a FREE fecal sludge T-shirt or hat! All you have to do is give me your best poo joke/ pun/ or a creative new name for shit – right here below in the comments section and the best will receive their choice of a fecal sludge hat or t-shirt!

I’m not joking, this is serious shit guys. Write your best poo pun right now!