Last day in Durban

This will just be a quick update because I have a lot of packing to do to be ready for our early departure tomorrow.  We spent the day in the Durban area.  Our first stop was the Hillcrest AIDS Centre, a really cool organization that has an AIDS clinic, offers testing, provides respite inpatient care, and has a store to raise money for these efforts.  We didn't have time to see much of their facility other than the store, but it was nice to buy some souveneirs knowing it would benefit such a good cause.  On the main road in front of the center is this tree, decorated with knitted pieces to raise awareness about AIDS.  

We then went into Durban to the Victoria Market for some more shopping.  We stopped by the World Cup stadium which is a really neat structure that was built for the 2010 event.  Apparently it was quite controversial and expensive at the time, but it has some cool features like a roof that collects dew and rainwater to be used in the stadium.

We then continued on to the beach, where there is a big shopping center and several restaurants.  After a long lunch we had time to put our feet in the Indian Ocean.  Apparently the tide was coming in, as we got a bit more than our feet wet by the waves.

We enjoyed our last dinner as a group before the rest of the team heads back to the states and the Gehring/Kostrivas contingent continues on to Cape Town.  Pastor Twala joined us and told us more about the church, the creche (preschool) and other ministries like the sewing classes and soccer team.  It's been a great group to travel with, we'll miss them the next few days in Cape Town.  Especially Gary, our fearless leader, and our African Exposure crew who made all of this possible.

Thanks for reading!  Take care!

Rachel