3 February 2003

It's 2.00pm. The sun is streaming into the Andile Nhose Community Centre, on Govan Mbeki Rd, in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. The cream-coloured building stands defiantly on its dusty ground, sandwiched between residential houses on one side and a main road on the other. The gate leading into the car park of Andile Nhose is open as are the doors to the centre, both seemingly gestures of welcome, inviting people to enter. But for now everything is strangely quiet. A few people are sitting in a classroom; a small group of people are standing in the courtyard. Talking animatedly in Xhosa. Where is the meeting?

It's 2.15pm the sun is streaming in. It's hot. A person enters, looks around, moves towards a shady spot and sits down on the floor. Conversation ceases, everyone looks up. The person who has entered the Community Centre is clearly not from Mandela Park. After a while, a woman crosses the courtyard to talk to this stranger. She sits down on the floor and extends her hand in greeting. In English she introduces herself as Busi. The two exchange greetings. Busi is warm and friendly, laughter comes easy to her. This does not belie her solid air of determination and energy. In the coming months her laughter and geniality would envelope the school and all who crossed her path. But it is not the time for this … not yet.