Thoughts and comparisons to home

I completely forgot the Oscars were on Sunday night, and when I got to work on Monday morning, I saw the headlines online about the show and the big winners (good for The Departed). I tend to enjoy the Oscars, and in recent years, I’ve tried to make a point to see most of the Oscar nominated films, so that I have an opinion on most of the categories and the winners. While the show was on Sunday night in the States, I happened to catch a replay of the show on one of our South African stations on our TV last night. So I watched a little… and quite honestly, I rarely see TV here. I’ve maybe turned on our television 5 times since I’ve been here, and not for that long. How quickly I’ve forgotten about some of the celebrities that seem to be on TV all the time at home! From what I watched though, I enjoyed. Nice to get a little culture of home, I found Ellen Degeneres to be amusing… but what is Jack Nicholson doing with the completely shaved head… scary! Hope that’s for a new movie he’ll be in and not his new look.

Interesting conversation on the commute to work this morning. Mike was up early this morning, and turned on the TV to see that SkyNews SA broadcasts about 15 minutes of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. So on the drive, he started talking about how just 15 minutes of watching that CBS news gave him some reminders of home – and some of the major contrasts of life here. Of course there were the reports of the war on Iraq, and also more discussion about Iran’s plans for nuclear warfare and the US plan against that. And a story about some new technology and further medical research to improve a particular disease (not sure which one it was)… but at the end of the report came a clip telling the viewer... “For more information, log on to www.cbs.com/...” And we started talking about how at home, we are so overwhelmed with information that we take it for granted. For example, we are privy to so much medical information in news segments and articles – about new treatments, new medicines, websites to research health conditions. And here we work in a community where people don’t have access to medical information or treatment – and many are suffering from diseases that they may not even know they have, or that they are too afraid to go get diagnosed.

And there’s a website for everything… and posted everywhere you look. Watching the Oscars, after every commercial break “Oscar.com” flashed across the bottom of the screen. Access to this at home is so normal that when we normally see it on TV, we just glance it over… on the SA news I’ve seen on TV, or even sports broadcasts or commercials, I don’t think I’ve noticed a website flashed for anything.

After 6 months here, this is Mike and Cathy’s last week; Mike returns to the U.S. on Saturday – and we were talking about how he anticipates having a bit of a culture shock returning home, maybe more so than that he experienced when he first arrived in South Africa, noticing all these things that we once glanced over, appreciating the constant access and information.

Speaking of Mike, we celebrated his birthday this past weekend in Durban, which is the city on the coast about 150 km north of Port Edward. Other than my original arrival at Durban Intl Airport, and flying out from there a few times since arriving, I had never actually been in the city itself. We stayed at a hotel right on the ocean front – and the piers and ocean boulevard reminded me of any other beach front boulevard at home. We went out for dinner on Saturday night in one of the “trendier” and safer areas of Durban – had a great dinner at a steak restaurant called Butcher Boys - completely packed with people, loud atmosphere, open kitchen that you could see into and watch the chefs cooking, big bar. Picture your typical steakhouse at home. Next we moved onto a bar with a completely mixed crowd of all ages, races, cultures that was pretty full, music blaring, felt like we could have been in the heart of Manhattan. We got around the city in taxis.

Now I realize that it’s only been a few months, but it was so strange to have a night of city life - to take a taxi, eat in a crowded and loud restaurant, go to a pretty trendy bar. I enjoyed myself and the whole group had a fun night… but honestly, I haven’t missed any of that city life at all. In short time, I’ve gotten pretty accustomed to driving everywhere ourselves, quiet Port Edward and Margate restaurants, low key evenings reading a book while hearing the waves crash. I think that’s a positive of this experience though; while I’ve escaped some of the regularities of my life at home, I’m still in a country and a region that if I need a taste or a comfort of home, I can still get it pretty easily.

Except for some of my favorite snacks… we stopped to get gas on the ride home from Durban and I went into the Food Mart at the station. I was completely longing for one of my simple favorites - those packages of 6 small peanut butter crackers… or even just traditional BBQ chips (all the flavored chips here are so different). And I couldn’t find either! So maybe not every comfort of home.