Soul in the City: The first days

Well, most of us had a pretty tumultuous journey to Durban. Bad weather in the London area meant that many planes were delayed both coming in and coming out of Heathrow, and the fun of Terminal 5 is that they have too many planes parked so you get to sit on the runway forever waiting for a parking space (deep joy...especially after circling for 15-20 minutes and your plane was already delayed).

When we got on the plane in London we were all ready for take off when all of a sudden the pilot announced we were going to be delayed 1hr 20 mins. Jud was in another cabin (Traveller Plus so she got a bigger seat with more leg room). Rachael and Jason who we'd met in Terminal 5 (after I found Jud who'd somehow managed to exit the airport when she got off her Glasgow flight and got a wee bit lost) were sitting behind me.

We'd met a few familiar SITC faces that we'd previously connected with over Facebook and/or at the training day in March at the gate so everyone flooded to me, Rach and Jason's section of the plane as we were allowed to roam around and the stewards handed out drinks while we waited. We then discovered the 7 people sitting in the row in front of me were a group from Kettering also going to Soul in the City. Of course that started the endless 'where you from?' 'do you know what you're going to be doing' 'which church are you being hosted by' 'are you nervous?' etc etc etc

I felt really sorry for the South African guy sitting next to me who was stuck in the middle of this chaotic gathering of SITCers. We worked out there was probably about 12-20 SITCers on our flight to Jo'burg! But I got barely anything to eat as pretty much every food they gave me had beta-carotene in it. Even a chocolate cake (bizarrely). I was relieved to have brought a few snacks with me to keep me going throughout the night. Especially as the delays had meant there was little time to get food between flights.

We were late getting into to Jo'burg, and we basically had 40 mins after we landed until our next plane was taking off. My bag spotted by most of the Soul in the City delegates in the baggage claim bit was one of the first to come out. Once we got our bags we sprinted to the other terminal and to the check in.

Luckily for us, because we were flying BA all the way, they kept the flight open for us, and we sprinted to the gate.

Handing our boarding passes gasping for breath feeling like we just might die, we somehow made it and collapsed into our seats. The lady at the gate changed my seat to '2F', and when I settled into the plane next to Steve and Leah of the Kettering bunch, I was offered a drink.

In a glass.

'Wow, that's posh...I should fly in South Africa more often I thought'.

It took me about 20 minutes to realise that in fact I'd been upgraded to 'Club Class'.

Ha ha!

Arriving in Durban, we were all just rellieved to finally have made it, knowing that many were left behind in Jo'burg having not missed their connection. We were loaded onto a coach, and we just felt exhausted. And gross in desperate want of a shower. And sleep.

As we drove along the motorway we saw an accident where paramedics were putting a guy on a stretcher, wrapping him in bandages and trying to save his life.

This was the first of several road accidents I would see on the motorways of Durban.

On arrival it was very chaotic. Everyone getting their Soul in the City Durban wristbands, info packs, room keys, discovering that there had been last minute room changes and team changes. My floor was dead when I arrived, and my roommate got stuck in Paris along with 11 others and ended up arriving a day late. Jud, Betsi and Rach were 3 floors above me.

I couldn't help but think in that moment, feeling really lonely all of a sudden...why am I here God?

I felt better after the Soul Survivor leaders took us down to the beachfront area where a bunch of us went to the Deck restaurant where I got some food. (A chicken burger and some iced tea!). After that Rach, Jud and Rach's roommate Rosie sat in my room and Jud's room too sleepy to chat until it was time for dinner and the first evening meeting.

Tired and discovering just how early we were going to have to get up the next morning to go to our different projects we headed to bed.

I ended up sleeping in the spare bed in a girl, Joanna's room (who I mentioned sat next to me on the plane home from Jo'burg to London). Joanna had been in Durban for a couple of weeks already working with Soul Action and also been in Durban the previous year. She also happened to be one of the few fellow Scots at SITC! We chatted for a bit, but soon we were falling asleep on our exceptionally high up pillows, and awoke to my alarm going off at 6.30 a.m.

I quickly showered, got dressed, dumped my overnight stuff in my room and picked up my bag as I headed to meet the rest of my team for the first time....


Jud with the 'pocket etch-a-sketch' some of my fellow smallgroupers had given to me for something to do on plane!

First glimpses of Africa

Sun rising over Africa...