Our Life in South Africa

Having recently been asked about our life here in South Africa, I thought I’d do a post on it.
I was born here, as were my parents and half of my grandparents. My father’s mother was born here of Irish parents, and his father was born in India (when it was a British Colony) also of Irish parents. My mother’s mother was born here of Irish and Dutch parents, and her father was born in England though his father was Irish too. (No Irish jokes, please ;-)) Malcolm’s parents were also born here; his father was Afrikaans, and his mother is of Scottish descent.
Having been born here we know no other life than that of Africa. I’ve only been out of the country as an adult. The heat, the dust, the people and their customs are all common to us. We grew up during the Apartheid era, during the times of political unrest, sanctions, State of Emergency, bombs... As children we heard talk of the ANC (African National Congress) and it was something we feared! Strange to think of that now, since they are the ruling party!! I remember being told one day at school to go home and fill all available containers as well as all the baths and basins with water because the ANC had threatened to bomb the water-towers in town, and we’d be without water for who knew how long. We did as we were told, but nothing ever happened!! (My mother was NOT impressed with the waste of water either!) Whether it was true or just scare-mongering we’ll never know.
I grew up in a small town about 90km east of Pretoria, where I live now. We had one bomb-blast there in 1988, and it was a Big Event because it put our town on TV news that night!! My father was called out to do duty with the Army, standing guard at shops whose windows had been blown out, to prevent looting. I remember being so afraid for his safety.
The year I matriculated was the last year that the government schools were ‘whites only’. I can say though, that many of my peers at school (during high school years) felt that Apartheid was wrong, and had to be done away with. Many of them even voted for the ANC during the First Democratic Elections!!
Being white in Africa was something that we never thought strange until a few years ago when we went to Israel. We were on a church tour, and the hotels would designate tables to the various tour-groups by putting flags or the names of countries on them. One evening Malcolm and I were of the first down to dinner, and we sat down at a table with the South African flag on it. We noticed a waiter giving us funny looks, and he eventually came over to the table, tapped the flag, and asked, “Aren’t you at the wrong table?” When we told him that were from South Africa, his eyes opened wide and he said (with shock),”But you’re not black!!” We were surprised that he didn’t know how many whites actually live here!! It was quite funny!
My thoughts and feelings about life here since the ANC took over is something I’m not sure I should go into. I’ll just say that for millions of people not much has changed! Poverty is still wide-spread, and many promises made to the poor by the present government have not been met. Corruption, crime and lawlessness are the order of the day! People are leaving the country all the time. We’ve lost count of how many families we know that have left. So many of our friends are gone, that our children are actually very lonely!! Many of them were fellow homeschoolers too, leaving an even bigger gap behind them. I suppose people could ask us the question: What are you still doing there?? Aaah, but that’s for another post!!