1991 in South Africa by Adi Samarias, Israel

I was 6 years old and my father (who was a captain in the Israeli commercial navy) decided to take my mother, my brother, and me to sail with him to South Africa. All the way, the only sight around us was the ocean. 1991 was also the beginning of the end to the apartheid system in our destination. It took us about 2 months to get there and when we arrived to Richard’s Bay port, we decided to leave the ship and visit a nearby shopping center. We arrived to a small shopping center there, people coming and going, and it was the first time I ever saw a black person. I cried and held to my mother, refusing to enter. I really don’t remember how, but one of the “Scary” black people approached us, smiled, and said something to me. I think he looked me in the eyes and I knew it, the way a child knows things – we are all human. And that’s all that matters.