Blaming Things on the Past...

Gerry McCulloch

'Can I get a hug, please?' she asked, smiling, striding confidently towards me. She was black, she was beautiful, she was about 14 years of age. And I'd only just stepped into the classroom. She was one of around 85 pupils, boys and girls...in the same classroom. All black, all beautiful, all young teenagers. Many with the aids virus. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

...The trip had started most inauspiciously. Fully 3 hours waiting in a sweaty Heathrow zig-zag queue on St.Valentine's Day-evening only to be told eventually that South African Airways Flight 229 had been cancelled, that we'd be put up in a near-by hotel and that we'd finally leave for Durban at 9 o'clock the next morning. That would turn out to be only our first delay! ... (continues)