Coffee Bay

Last weekend we made the long journey to the Eastern Cape from Durban. The Eastern Cape is the province next to KwaZulu-Natal. Its considerably less devloped than the reas of South Africa. During apartheid, it was essentially a dumping ground where the government moved and forced black South Africans to live. It certainly feels different as you drive through the country side. Its a much more rural, agrarian South Africa where people really depend on the land to get them by. This type of society, which depends largely on local subsistence farming, obviously has its drawbacks when compared to a more industrialized alternative, as evidenced by recent famine in Malawi. South Africa for the most part, is much more developed than the rest of Africa. Most of its citizens have power, you can drink the tap water, and the government's efforts to improve the quality of life of its people is present on many levels. But a lot of this is lacking in the Eastern Cape. Most all of the traditional Xhosa homes (which are round, one roomed, mud walled huts with a reed thatched roof) do not have electricity. Its the only place in South Africa where its unsafe to drink the water.

But the Eastern Cape (also known as the Transkei) also has some amazing countryside, beautiful secluded beaches, and fascinating culture. And to be honest, when your job is to work among the world's most ill and destitute AIDS patients everyday, sometimes you need to get away and realize that life can be happy and fun and wonderful.

So we hopped on a bus and took the 5 hour ride to Coffee Bay. We stayed at one of the best hostels in South Africa, the Coffee Shack. This is a hostel that attracts a really great crowd. A fine mix of South Africans escaping Johannesburg, a handful American do-gooders (that is where we fit in, I suppose), the requisite crowd of rowdy Dutch guys, and even the odd Spaniard or two. The Coffee Shack was a stone's throw from the water, and a short walk to a protected bay with some nice beach break. It was paradise with lots of cool people to share it with. But the ebst thing abotu the place was the way they really worked to support the local community. They employed a lot of the local villagers and set up a charity to fund one of the schools nearby. Very respectful but fun environment.

Most nights we spent playing pool, poker (we play a lot of Texas Hold'em these days), talking, hanging out at the bar. Nights went late, often until 2 or 3 am. Then we'd crawl out of bed as early as tolerable and head over to the beach to surf. We toted the longboard and wetsuits all the way from Durban, and it was fun to catch the gentle beach break of Coffee Bay. By the afternoon, we usually needed a nap. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking....

This is Coffee Bay. A wide beach with some rocks in the foreground. There was a nice beach break that can be seen here, and a point break that was a little too rocky and shallow for my taste. I actually snapped a fin off at one point on a large floating log that had floated out of the river mouth. Note: surfboards work just fine with two fins (I didnt even know it was gone...)

The very small, but always accomodating bar and pool room.

Here, Kylie plays a hand of Rummy amidst 12 foot tall Amstel bottles.

I had to put this one up of our Durban friends playing card games with the National Library of Medicine cards that were given to all the Fogarty Fellows during our 2 weeks of training at the NIH (previously refered to as "nerd camp"). These are the nerdiest cards imaginable. Yet, they somehow found their way into being licked and applied to the side of this guy's face. I dont think this is what they had in mind when the NIH gave us this deck.