Durban

Durban
During my winter break, I also had the opportunity to go to Durban, South Africa, with my entire Social Work department, to the International Association of Schools of Social Work Annual Congress. We had an excellent time. For most of my colleagues, this was their first international social work conference, so we all got a lot out of it. I had an enjoyable time wearing a nametag with the country “Namibia” written under my name, and seeing how people reacted to me differently than if I had USA under my name. Well over half of the conference were delegates from South Africa, and many others came from other African countries. It made for a very interesting conference for me. We were economizing at this conference, so we stayed at the hotel at the bus station that was the South African version of a Motel 6. I was a little nervous at the location at first, because Durban has a really bad reputation for violent crimes – carjackings, armed robberies, etc., and because my shuttle driver didn’t want to drop me off there! But, I think we were actually safer in our location because the crime is targeted in the wealthier locations. Anyway, Durban is beautiful, right on the Indian Ocean. The highlight of the conference was a big party the last night that was held on the sandy beach, and my colleagues and I danced all night to an excellent band.