A Terrible Blow
In May 2001, my shack burnt down, with all my belongings in it. The fire started at the front door and we would have been trapped inside and died if a Good Samaritan had not seen the flames and opened the door from the outside with a crowbar.
Fire is a terrible threat when you live in a shack. We don't have electricity and if a paraffin stove or a candle falls over, it can set the shack alight. Everything burns to the ground in only a few minutes. There is no time for a fire engine to arrive and no time to get out. Our greatest fear is waking up to a burning shack and not being able to unlock the front door in time.
This has happened to many others and it almost happened to me. I lost everything, from my ID book to my clothes, in that fire. It was a terrible, terrible blow. But it was also a turning point, lighting a great ambition inside me.
Burning Passion
The Good Samaritan had given me a truck full of planks so that my children could make another shack for me and my heart was warmed by this generosity, but from then on a shack would never be enough. 'I absolutely have to get a brick house,' I told Anthony and Phyllis. 'I don't want to die in a shack.'
This is still my burning passion. I spend so much of my energy trying to get my house right before I die. It would mean having a place where I am safe and can keep my dignity. I don't want to die a poor woman, in a poor woman's house.
In fact, the best thing would be to die when I am 90-something, because I want to finish this house and then stay in it for a couple more years. Please, God, let me live until I'm in my 90s, so I can make all of this happen!
By Jo-Anne Smetherham