Expatriates Converge To Share Excitement

Johann Abrahams drove eight hours from Lawrence, Kansas, toChicago on Tuesday to do something that many people here won't evenbother crossing the street to do.

"I'm 35 years old, and this is the first time I'm voting,"exulted Abrahams, a South African citizen studying at the Universityof Kansas.

The South African Consulate, 200 S. Michigan, was one of 21sites in the United States where South Africans could cast ballots inthat country's first all-race election. Voters came from the entireMidwest - from Minnesota to Michigan - to take part in the historicelection.

"Wonderful! Exciting! The future, I saw it in my hands," saidMelikaya Ntshingwa, 20, holding …