A Tisket a Tasket, a WeekEND and Some Baskets!

The weekend kicked-off with a Friday night movie at home with our host family.  They wanted us to see Sarafina! which is a musical film adapted from a theater production about student-led resistance to Apartheid.  It was a great movie and even better to have watched it with our Zulu family.

On Saturday we woke to grey skies, and as we were waiting for the bus downtown, the clouds broke and we got poured on with rain!  As it showed no signs of stopping, we resorted to Plan B: exploring "the Pavillion", a giant (indoor) shopping center. I think it's safe to say we covered every corner of the complex, including the movie theater where we caught a showing of the new Robin Hood with Russell Crowe.

Fortunately, Durban weather pattern is predictably tropical; so although it rained all day Saturday, sunshine and hot temperatures resumed the next morning.  We fulfilled our original weekend plan by taking a minibus taxi downtown to Victoria Street Market, and then settling on the beachfront to soak up some sun.  The purpose in going to the market was to bargain for some Zulu baskets, which are both traditional and beautiful. With baskets in tow, we navigated our way back to the suburbs on the minibus taxi.  As our host brother MakaB says, riding the minibus taxis is traveling "African style!"  The taxis are basically 15 seat vans (full to capacity+), and using a series of hand signals and names of stops you can take them downtown and practically everywhere else for a fraction of the cost of other transportation.  Our round trip adventure cost us 12 ZAR per person or about $1.50 USD.   Weekend is over, but mission accomplished!

Our newly acquired collection of Zulu baskets!