"We had found a country where people treated one another well, with respect, and where there were values other than grab, grab, grab, which prevails back home. I felt humbled, in a way. Everything about my own country seemed so shoddy and superficial when held up against what I saw in Africa."

"People suffered here, and many of them had very little, but they had this wonderful feeling for others. When I first heard African people calling others - complete strangers - their brother or their sister, it sounded odd to my ears. But after a while I knew exactly what it meant and I started to think the same way.... I wish I could have called my friends 'my sisters' but it would have sounded contrived. But that is how I felt. I was learning lessons. I had come to Africa and I was learning lessons."

Alexander McCall Smith, Tears of the Giraffe