Yesterday I went to the store to get a headset for my computer for Skype. I’d been to the same store last week and remembered that it was “Moslem”, closed on Friday for prayers from 1 to 3. The Moslem population in Potchefstroom lives in the Indian district of the city where Hindu is also practiced on a smaller scale. The Indians came several hundred years ago to work on the sugar plantations.

At the store, an Afrikaans sales person (not Moslem) helped me find what I needed and said, “Ben Laden can check you out” pointing to a young middle eastern cashier with a modest head cover. A lot of South Africans migrate to Australia, the U.K., and Dubi to make more money than they can make here—this guy looked like he might have been from Dubai. I got into a conversation with “Ben Laden” and mentioned something about his name. He didn’t want to talk about that saying his full name was something, something, something. He wanted to know where I was from and when I told him he put his head down and said, “everyone in America hates us.” “It’s not true” I said telling him that the average Americans live without the preoccupation of anger toward Moslems just has average Arabs simply want to live in peace. He didn't buy it and said that 9-11 changed the way America thinks and it think unkindly about Arabs. I responded, “on behalf of America I want to apologize.” He didn’t say a thing. Only after I walked out did I realize (because someone told me) that the Africans guy was teasing Ben Laden by calling him that name after the famous terrorist.

Many of the people I’ve met (Arabs, Indians, Afrikaans, black South Afrikaans, etc.) have had little exposure to personal relationships with Americans. (Many Africaans think I'm British.) Interesting to see how they view it: some in a good light, some not, but always informed.