In early 2019, I moved to Cape Town. After years of traveling in different cities, islands, countries and continents, South Africa seemed the place I was meant to root for a while, so it had seemed. From the start, I volunteered at a great NGO called U-Turn, which does amazing work for the homeless of Cape Town.

Besides the beautiful beaches, the sunshine, and the gorgeous mountains spreading throughout the cities, it wasn't easy to spot the cracks between the beauty. A big discrepancy between the poor and rich as to be seen at most traffic lights, on corners of streets in cities where people started living in their home-built shacks, and where many 'whites' would move in their big fancy cars, in despair to ignore the situation on the streets, otherwise life would get pretty tough for both.

At least, this is how I saw it. I'm from The Netherlands myself, and time upon time I kept being surprised not only about the big gap between poor and rich, but also about the great strength, perseverance and boldness the locals had. 

And some stories were just too much, too wild, too unreal to not capture. Having so little, but being so positive and warm was greatly empowering to me. I started a documentary series called Capetonian Characters. I filmed 3, but unfortunately, only two came to release.

May you too be strenghtened by their stories, and make you feel grateful even more for the life you live.