A lot of people back home have been asking me what it’s like to be in South Africa in the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death. The truth is twofold: 1.) I don’t really have a lot of perspective on that and 2.) it’s not as exciting as you would think. Enough of my friends have asked what it’s like here that I’ve realized that for most of my friends I am their only direct tether to South Africa. So, with the caveat that I am a temporary resident, not fully integrated into South African life and with limited experience, I’ll share my experience and some thoughts.

Julia and I were out partying at a club on Thursday night. In the middle of the evening the DJ paused the music and requested that the room give a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela. That was how we found out. The club didn’t exactly go quiet, but what could you expect? It was a busy night and people were there to dance. I checked my phone to confirm what we were hearing and saw a message from my father: “My condolences to South Africa on the passing of Nelson Mandela.”

Most of what I’ve seen though has been business as usual, which was a bit of a surprise to me. There wasn’t much going on that evening when we left the club and we didn’t see much while wandering around Cape Town the next morning either. There were banners draped in the park with photos of Mandela and flags were flying at half mast. We stopped in and chatted a bit about Mandela with our friend Lucy, who runs slavery history tours in Cape Town. It looked like there was some sort of gathering starting downtown in the evening, but we had to catch the train home to Muizenberg before dark. Muizenberg, our peaceful beachy suburb, has been quiet as ever.

I imagine there’s more going on in the townships, in Mandela’s hometown Mthatha, and in Johannesburg, but it’s not the dramatic whole-country-taking-to-the-streets event that I might have naïvely expected. I think, to a lot of people, this feels more like an exhalation than a shock. Mandela has been hospitalized for so long and there has been so much drama and so many rumors… A lot of people thought that he was already dead. And perhaps also the simple truth is that it takes more than that to bring a country’s day-to-day workings to a halt.

I don’t have many unique reflections on Mandela’s life that haven’t already been said better by people more articulate and with more interesting perspectives than my own. I guess if there’s one thing I think about primarily when I think about his life, it’s this: For decades Nelson Mandela was considered a criminal and terrorist. Today he is almost universally celebrated for that work. For the past few days, probably the most celebrated person in the world. That seems like worthwhile food for thought when we think today about who we consider good or bad.