Zulu-land

For the past two days I've been in Durban, a southeastern coastal town on the Indian Ocean. It's a beautiful area with rolling green hills. The city is in the state of KwaZulu-Natal. Zulu and English are most common languages spoken here. Today was one of the funnest days we've had. First we met with teachers, then we met with people working for the Wildlands Foundation. The group encourages forest and wetland restoration in urban and rural areas. In the case we were seeing, they are restoring areas around a landfill to create a buffer zone. For the past 50 or more years, the area has been mostly sugarcane, but is now being turned back into forest. In order to promote change, they get the local Zulu tribal members involved. In exchange for growing seedlings, community members can purchase building materials or education credits. The woman pictured below is a success story. She is growing 1000 trees in exchange for approximately $600. While that may not seem like alot, $600 is nearly 1400 Rand, which goes a long way in South Africa. With that money she will be able to build a large addition onto her house in order to provide more room for her large family.

I also went to my first rugby game today which was awesome. Rugby is a very serious sport down here!

I must go to sleep now--I have a flight in six hours to Cape Town.