Funerals. Why are there so many funeral homes in the townships? From what I could tell, the funeral business is right up there with the convenience store business as the South African cottage industry. It made me wonder. Is there so much death here?

 

While we were making our rounds in the townships, we found out that a local child had died of some unknown illness. The doctor had no answers. The girl had suddenly sickened and died in the course of a few days. We told the story to the woman in charge of the orphan program. She sighed softly and nodded. "Sometimes they die," she said.