I was born in the northeastern part of South Africa near the Lebombo Mountains which forms the boundary with Mozambique. We lived in a Gold Mining town in the Drakensberg Mountains called Pilgrims Rest where my father was the District Surgeon. There was a steep pass down the precipitous edge of the gorge which led from a town called Graskop to the Bushvelt below which stretched out as far as the eye can see. That is the country that will always live in my soul. Among his black patients my father was known as "siksikane," the man with a knife. I came to North America as a young engineer with ex...