Cape Town, South Africa

March 1994

I was in Cape Town, South Africa in the early spring of 1994, just a few weeks before the election to end apartheid. There was lots of optimisms and tension in the air. We went to one of the township housing settlements for the blacks. Hundreds of people lived together in very confined areas. Living conditions were deplorable. here is hope that the election of Mandela will bring an end to these deplorable conditions.

As I was standing on the dirt road, a group of kids were playing around me. They were having fun and kicking up dirt. An old man came up to them and yelled at them. He waved his cane at them. They immediately stopped and ran away. 

My guide, a young black woman, asks me, “Do you know what he said to them?” I had no idea. I shook my head no. “He told them to stop kicking up all this dust around you. He said they should be more respectful towards you because you are a white person.”

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