Sunday, Sep. 30th2007

Tamara is our close friend in the Democracy House, and her daughter Efredah is, no doubt, everybody’s sweetheart!

Tragically, Tamara’s husband Irvin died of AIDS on Sept. 19, 2007.

We went to attend Irvin’s funeral on Sunday morning, in Crossroads, Nyanga. This is a place very different from downtown Cape Town, and to me much more like Africa. The residents are all black people -- women wearing in colorful long dresses and scarves, carrying babies on their backs or pots on their heads. They live in wooden bunkhouses, poor and small. Some buildings do not even stand straight on the ground. Each house is painted in different colors. Food is cooked alongside the road. I could not tell what the gravy was but it smelled very strong.

The funeral was in the front yard of a small home in a big tent. We were invited to sit in the front. People showed us their friendliness and respect. Salla tried to make a video of it, and a potentially award-winning documentary might come out later. The funeral lasted for 3 hours, I was amazed by the beautiful voices of Xhosa people. They are really born great singers. Then the coffin was buried at noon, in a graveyard not far from the tent. It was that moment I first saw Tamara crying since the bad news arrived more than ten days ago.

Life is full of suffering, but I believe Tamara is a strong Xhosa woman. It is sad but also a relief for her. Life will go on and be better, as long as we believe and never give up.

/Siyi