I am a lucky person because I have two homes!

Now some of you may know that I was born in Mozambique. My family left sometime during the 70’s to settle in South Africa. Because of the civil war that raged for another twenty or so years, I only returned to Mozambique, on holiday, 20 years after I left. It was a road trip and when I crossed the border into Mozambique I felt a mixed bag of feelings of longing, nostalgia and a sense of coming home. Mozambique is my soul home.

Sometime in the 80’s I became a South African citizen, the country that I feel a deep sense of belonging, the roots deep. In 2001 Che and I travelled to Portugal for my brother-in-law’s wedding. It was February, rainy and cold. Aside from the wedding it was a miserable time due to the weather. Born and bred in Africa where there is sun at least 300 days of the year, this European winter is foreign and doesn’t do it for me.

After two weeks I was glad to be on a plane back to South Africa again. As the plane touched down at OR Tambo airport in Joburg I started to cry because for the first time ever I felt that I was home, really home.

South Africa is my heart home, my real home, the home I will fight for, love and hate, cry and laugh over. It’s a tough home, one that teaches responsibility, that has no room for freeloaders or complainers. It takes real guts to live in South Africa. South Africa is filled with beautiful, tough and courageous people. It’s definitely not a place for sissies.