Colors

We've been waiting for the painters to start painting our house and the walls. They'll paint them white. The door will be 'heritage green' and the windows will be green, surrounded by white. That's the old custom with houses like ours. We've waited now for several weeks. The painters should start tomorrow, but I don't have high hopes of that as something always stops them from coming.

South African people are divided into races: whites, blacks, colored, asian. You need to tell your race in all sorts of papers, and when you talk about someone you frequently mention the race. I grew up to believe that you don't mention the color of the skin, nor the person's ethnic group. Mentioning someone's skin color might indicate that you're racist, and what's the point discussing colors anyway. There was a police case some years back in Finland. Someone robbed a taxi and they didn't catch the guy as - for the fear of being labeled racists - no-one mentioned the suspect was colored. With this crucial bit of information missing, everyone searched for a white man.

Matias and India's classes have children and teachers from all races, from all over the world. Looking at the class reminds me of the Unicef posters I saw as a child - children of all races.

India has blond hair. She's a princess and always wants to wear pink. The school uniform is light blue and khaki but she's allowed pink Crocks. I put some pink highlights in her hair just now. She loved getting pink hair. She then thought about it for a bit, and asked for dark hair. "Mum, I'd like to be like my friend Gianna. I'd like to have colored hair."