From Transkei ; 15.2.83

From Transkei

15.2.83

Dear Mum,

                Thank you for the newspapers etc. They tell me there is to be an election over there.

                Biltong is definitely 100% Afrikaans. You see pictures from the Boer War of Boers with strips of biltong hanging up in the background.

                Classic Afrikaans cooking is sugar in the vegetables (esp. pumpkin and carrot) and then boiled to a pulp. Large helpings of rice @ potatoes or the national food mealies. 

                You can say that there is no African food in the book but if there was I’m sure you wouldn’t eat it. A long time ago they were saying that the 6 hostages in Zimbabwe were starving because they refused to eat the local food.  Nowadays they say that they are dead. Along with a lot of local blacks @ a few whites.

                                                                                Regards Alan

PS           Anything you read in  Australian newspapers about SA sport reminds me of a high school debate which has gone off the rails and people are starting to take it seriously even though they know one-side of nothing.

                That reminds me Alan Paton was quoted in the local newspaper (owned by R Murdock) saying that SA can be compared to a small dark smoke-filled room full of people. The door opens and into the haze comes a person who says, “It’s stuffy in here.”

                The people present say, “How would you know? You have only just arrived.”