Magnanimity

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How to report on such a gracious people? The day left us both laughing and crying. We began at a township where we were ever so warmly welcomed—first by a dance performance by children 5 to 9 years of age. Then in a church service full of joy, worship and warm hugs where the young gave their seats up to the elders, and all to the visitors. 

Then we were followed through the sand covered streets like pied pipers from Vermont. Young children clung to us two or three to a person—eating marbles, kicking soccer balls, playing with our hair. Children were all over the place—like bees in a garden. Mothers were as young as 14 by the looks of it. The women were bent over basins doing laundry by hand in the street while others, mainly men sat drinking beer and inviting us to join them early in the morning.

This was followed by a tour of Robben's Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in a single cell, doing hard labor, for 17 years. Our tour guide was a former prisoner of 7 years who referred to us all as "comrades". He told us of his worse moments in detention for 6 months with only his captors, his torturers, to speak to. His female comrades, he said, faired far worse,  tortured in ways he called unspeakable. Many of them never healing from their imprisonment.

All our guides explained the current attitude of "reconciliation" basically an "all is forgiven" attitude that they attribute to Mandela himself. We were left wondering about the magnanimity of such a people.

But enough of words, I leave you pictures.