A tale from Africa

It has been a while since I've updated my blog, and even longer since I've written a proper entry. I can only suppose that, in the meantime, those few who once checked my blog have stopped entirely. My interest in writing has resurfaced recently however, and henceforth I expect that I shall update slightly more frequently.
Although I have not mentioned it, for most of may, as well as the beginning of june, I was in Africa with my family, having the time of my life. On the flight from London to Cape Town I watched the movie Tsotsi. For those who have not seen this movie, and I doubt many have, it is a South African film, filmed in the township of Soweto. It is not the best thing to watch prior to your first visit to South Africa. Unless you want to spend a lot of time looking over your shoulder. What I realized over the first few days there however, was that most people, in fact everyone we met, could not have been more different than those in the movie. It would be like watching City of Gods before going on vacation in Mexico City. Believe it or not, most mexicans are not gangsters.
What I experienced in South Africa, however, went far beyond this. Not only were people not unhappy or criminal, but they were often genuinely in very high spirits. I had expected, given the incredible poverty some of them face, that there would be a great deal more desperation than there was. To the contrary, they seemed, on average, just as happy as Canadians are, despite living in conditions far below the canadian poverty line. ...(Insert more preachy stuff here)... Anyway, let's make a long story short: Once upon a time there was Apartheid, then it ended, and now everyone is trying to live happily ever after. The morale? After years of oppression, the black population, despite continued poverty, has hope for a better life. And you know what? In some sense that has already been accomplished, because a life with hope is a better life.