MOVING. In March of that year, my family shifted from Queenstown to the city of Umtata, about two hours' drive away. Umtata was the capital of what was then a nominally independent country called The Democratic Republic Of Transkei (where our former Pres. Nelson Mandela comes from). In fact, our first house there was in a road called Stanley NELSON Drive. The Transkei is on the whole a very attractive part of the country, though it's quite under-developed and scrappy in terms of the urban areas, but the countryside is still quite traditional and worth a visit, especially for its awesome coastline. The place was under a 10pm curfew and martial law at that time (not just the house - the WHOLE COUNTRY!) and we experienced a couple of military coups there too, but life was not too hectic - at least the soldiers made it more interesting. Umtata was one of the few truly multi-racial cities in Southern Africa, and the 'independent country' of Transkei had its own army, laws, courts, everything, all set up by the then-(White) government of South Africa to lend credibility to what was essentially just a dormitory state for non-white workers who weren't at that time allowed to live permanently in South Africa itself.