Durban
Goodbye suburbia
I’ve lived my whole life in the suburbs of Durban - Kloof, Bothas Hill, Gillits and Westville are the places that I’ve called home. And now we’ve bought a flat in Durban. It isn’t right in the city centre, but I can walk to restaurants, the grocery store, the bike shop, and cycle to university and the Botanical Gardens. The beach is just a short car ride away. And I could catch a taxi or a Mynah bus if I dared to, or if I knew where the heck they were going to.
There is character everywhere. It feels old, but it feels full of life. I loved just walking around, snapping away. The people, the architecture, the typography, the trees and how concrete and nature blend together.
The hum of the city never stops. There’s noises from the flat above us. Their bed even squeaks and their kids have marbles, and their floor is probably tiled. The guy across from us has some caged bird that hasn’t been shot or had its voice box removed yet. Their are millions of Indian Mynahs just down the road - so many that I could hardly hear my wife shout how noisy she thought they were. And then there’s cars that have purposefully been made louder - I’m not sure why that’s desirable. And motorbikes. We’re getting used to the noise - it’s becoming normal, familiar, nice even. The rain makes a different noise in the city - and it seems to wash some of the dirt away.
The people are colourful, loud, old, black, white, Asian, Indian, young, small, grumpy, quiet, peaceful, rich, stinky, large, old, sweet-smelling, poor. There is a lot of people and they’re so different. It’s like living in colour, in noise, in diversity.
We’ve been reprimanded for drilling on a Sunday, we’ve sworn that that big shining light on Musgrave mall was the moon, we’ve found a running route (with no suburban dogs wanting to eat my guts). We’ve bought veggies from the market down the road on a Saturday, I’ve walked to meetings and I’m getting to know the streets, the shops, the quirks, the shortcuts, the times not to be caught in your car and the best times to go shopping.
Durban has an unreplicable soul. The suburbs feel neither here nor there. The city is here and the berg is there. Live in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of somewhere - the city or the country. And for us, for now, we’ve chosen the city. I can now say that I’m a Durbanite - I live in Durban. For real. It’s a dot on the map. It’s one of the best cities in South Africa. Heck, it’s one of the biggest African cities. The suburbs have nothing on that. Durban is home of the Muti market, the early morning market, Warwick Junction, Moses Mabida Stadium, the legendary warm surf as well as many other momentarily forgotten facets.
Durban has welcomed me, and I feel welcome. I love Durban. I feel like it has ignited a bit of my soul. I feel like it’s a place that I can give to.
