‘Sawubona, boy! You so beautiful, boy.’ Yesterday, a young black woman greeted the child I sat with on the beach, Moses Mabhida Stadium directly behind, under an umbrella made out of thin wooden logs almost of identical size.

I told her his name. Her eyes dropped down to the camera that dangled from my neck. ‘Are the photos instant? Can you take one of me with boy? How much?’

‘I will not charge you. Do you have an email address?’

My ear felt deafened after she screeched with excitement. ‘I don’t have email but my friend does.’

Next thing I was taking photos of 3 people, many poses.

About 4 groups of black people approached at different times soon after my friend joined us.

‘How you get black baby?’ A black man asked me while my friend went for a dip.

I explained Hope House and their great cause.

He grins, thanks me and then runs off.