Four a.m. is much too early to get up, but that’s what we had to do in order to catch our plane to Durban Indian Ocean coming in to land, and that made up for everything.
We visited two landfill projects. The Bisasar Landfill is one of the busiest in Africa . It is also Africa ’s first and largest project to convert methane gas to electricity.
The Buffelsdraai Landfill Community Restoration Project is reforesting indigenous trees in a buffer zone around the landfill to offset CO2 emissions resulting from the World Cup last year. They recruit local people to grow the trees, and then they trade in the trees for basic food items, clothes, school fees, or construction materials. Local who grow 250 trees also earn a day trip somewhere, and 500 trees earn an overnight trip. We were told about a 76-year-old woman who earned a trip and cried when she saw a dolphin because it was the first time she had ever seen one. In the process of planting indigenous trees, they are also working to remove the sugar cane fields and eucalyptus trees.
We had a session with a group of facilitators who work with local teachers involved in Toyota Teach. Their goal is to improve the effectiveness of the teachers and teaching methods to increase student achievement.
We ended our last full day in Durban
We had an early departure on Sunday, but I managed to sneak down to the beach before we left and get my feet wet in the Indian Ocean .
