Portfolio images

The editor of Sake, the business section that inserts into all of Media24's Afrikaans newspapers, asked me if I'd expand on a blog item I posted about my struggle to get my head around the dollars-to-Rands conversion I have to do in my head whenever I'm over there. This first-person, personal finance graphic "column" explains that whenever the Rand goes up in value, U.S. tourists are less likely to visit and spend: Their dollars simply don't go as far. I show how much it changed between my two visits, what the exchange rate is and the types of things an American tourist might buy while in South Africa, comparing the prices to a year ago and what that same item might cost in the U.S. I ended the piece with a bilingual pun that actually worked fairly well, I was told. December 2010.