Welcome to Graca Machel, my first home during my travels in South Africa. Named after Nelson Mandela's wife, it was commissioned in 2005 and completed in early 2007. The residence has a fantastic urban design framework. Which basically means it had really complicated hallways, corridors, and courtyards that made no sense. I lived in room 7B3. You may assume that 7 signified the floor level I was on. This may lead you to think: Wowza. That's a long way to carry three 50lb suitcases. Wrong. B signified the floor I lived on. Which was a really backwards way of saying that I was on the second floor. Once, when I walked through the wrong doorway I ended up in a courtyard I had never seen before. Confusing.
