Beautiful Brick House
Now I've got something to smile about. I've got a beautiful brick house. I asked God for a brick house, but in my heart of hearts I feared I would die in a shack. So when the People's Housing Process came to tell me I would have to pull down my shack to build a house on this plot, I was so delighted. Moving in here was like a dream. It's very hard to live in a shack. When it's windy, you don't sleep because you think the shack is going to blow away.
And in Cape Town it's windy for weeks on end. One of my sons used to wake up at night and hold on to the poles, so they didn't blow away. You don't have a good sleep when you have to hold your shack down at night. When the rain came, we had to put a bucket on our bed or the water would soak through the blankets, and when it's cold outside it is freezing in a shack.
There are also lots of fleas, because of all the sand on the Cape Flats. When we lived in Site C, the first thing we did when we walked in the door was to bend down and start scratching our legs. We used to say, 'The first thing that greets you when you get home is the fleas.' Once, when I was in Site C, my shack burnt down and we had nothing left.
That happens to so many people. So now, having a proper home, I feel very good and proud of myself. I just feel sorry for the people who died before this time and didn't get to see these things happening.
Main Breadwinner
One of my daughters has died. I now live with my other daughter and son, and my two grandchildren. My son used to be an alcoholic, but now he's got a good job working for the government, cleaning drains and toilets and even going down the sewers.
He was trained to do it and he's happy to get the work, because for three years he didn't have a job. But he owes some people a lot of money and they take it from his salary. My daughter sometimes has work, but she is only paid a few hundred rand a month, and she spends all of it on train fare to get there.
I think it is wrong. Anyway, it is me who is the main supporter in my family now. I have my pension and at Gapa I knit jerseys and dolls and do some crocheting. People buy the things I make and we get a little more money.
We often don't have enough to eat and it's hard to support an entire family. But life is not as bad as it was, all those years ago. I'm trying to put my burdens from the past behind me now, and to walk forward.
By Jo-Anne Smetherham