Tag Archives: Poverty

Day 217

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. – Khalil Gibran

It’s 9: 59 PM on day 217 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for breakfast, watch TV, listen to music – I love Keith Urban’s songs because truly we all live in this world and all of us can relate to love, hate, pain and heartbreak 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, continue reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign and read some more.

This morning as soon as our housekeeper came into work I was like an excited toddler I asked were the sandwiches enough to feed everybody (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 215’) and she replied smiling at my enthusiasm yes, they were and they said to tell you thank you and I just stared at her not knowing how to respond to gratitude they told me to take a photo of you because they want to see what you look like she finished as she went off to do house work and in that moment the frustration I felt on Saturday while making the sandwiches seemed insignificant compared to the joy I felt knowing that those sandwiches meant so much to them. Are you generous in spirit?

Day 215

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You cannot be your mother’s confidant – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 9: 36 PM on day 215 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for breakfast, , make sandwiches for the people in our housekeeper’s neighborhood (if you have no idea what I am talking about refer to ‘Day 184’) – it was a nightmare we had to make 6 loafs because 3 wasn’t enough I ended up crying out of frustration which was embarrassing to say the least hopefully it won’t be like this next week:) – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV and watch She’s Out Of My League starring Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, T.J. Miller on DVD – it was about learning to believe that you deserve the best in life and although the storyline was really sweet the raunchiness of it all ruined the movie.

Sitting at the dining table making sandwiches my mom looked at me and said your dad left me in the rain and told me to go into the hospital with someone else – they were meant to go visit this kid who had been in a scooter accident together – he looked at me and said who would go anywhere with you my mother continued wiping her tears with the inside of her palm and in that moment I suppressed the urge to wring my father’s neck and attempted to soothe my mother but after an hour of hearing her whine I was reaching the end of my rope and blurted out either get a divorce or shut up not because I liked or even loved my father but because I didn’t have the strength to carry my pain as well as hers. Do you burden your children with your problems?

Day 208

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It doesn’t matter how old you get what you parents say will always hurt – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 9: 55 PM on day 208 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bun and baked beans for breakfast, make sandwiches for people in my housekeeper’s community (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 184’ ) – everything went off without a hitch I guess it’s true what they say there’s a first time for everything LOL 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, listen to music, watch TV, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and tomato chutney for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck.

Today my mom and I got into an argument and although I don’t remember what it was about I will never forget feeling like a ten-year-old in a twenty-year-olds body when she said all you have to do is lie around. Do you inadvertently hurt your children with your tongue?

Day 202

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You should do what you know is right regardless of what anybody else says – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 3: 10 PM on day 202 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a banana for breakfast, survive a five hour road trip back to my hometown of Lusikisiki (see picture of our journey below) and eat rice and curry for lunch – I let my mother feed me just this once because I didn’t want to make a mess in my aunt’s living room.

Today when I was in the car on our road trip a friend of mine send me a text via my sister’s cell phone and my father overheard me saying to my sister tell her I got the bread and he asked what’s this about bread so I reluctantly told him that my friend and I were approaching bakeries to see if they’d be willing to donate bread to enable me to make more sandwiches for my housekeeper’s community (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to ‘Day 184’) and all he could think to say was I will buy the bread otherwise people will think we are eating the donated bread and in that moment I came to a maddening realization that all my father cared about was his reputation. Are you guided by other people’s opinions or your own intuition?

My 16-year old sister - Neethu - and 10-year-old brother - Kevin - in the backseat of our car

The security area of Nelson Mandela's house in Qunu - his hometown

Day 191

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The media is making parenting very difficult – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 9: 16 PM on day 191 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – and watch TV.

This evening I was watching my brother watching WWE – World Wrestling Entertainment – and I realized with great sadness that the media was responsible for the increase in violence and promiscuity amongst kids having said that I would like to tell all the boys and girls out there that you don’t have to get into fights and have sex to be cool and have fun just ask my friends Sophie (@SophieBrown95 on Twitter) and Kendall –Sophie is a 16-year-old from the UK who’s raising money to raising money to build a school for village children in South-West Uganda while Kendall from the USA founded Kids Caring 4 Kids – an organization which aims to raise awareness and money for AIDS orphans and other highly venerable kids in Africa and to inspire kids to care for others in need – in 2004 at the tender age of 11. Are you parenting on autopilot or do actively seek out positive role models for your children?

Day 187

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People who feel insecure within themselves will try to tear you down – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 10: 58 PM on day 187 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, make sandwiches for the people in our housekeeper’s neighborhood (if you have no idea what I am talking about refer to ‘Day 184’) – it was a relatively drama-free morning with the only snag being that there wasn’t enough foil paper but that too was not a problem without a solution we decided to stack the sandwiches on top of each other – a HUGE thanks must go to mom who helped me every step of the way – I LOVE you mommy 🙂 – feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for breakfast while watching TV – food tastes better when you eat after you give to other people 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign only stopping to feed myself Spring rolls for dinner – @sharoneden (Sharon) made a donation of $53.85 – thanks again Sharon 🙂

Today as I sat at our dining table buttering the bread for the sandwiches my mom and I were making my dad came up behind me and said why don’t you do two first and in that moment he made me feel so incompetent so I said if you’re not doing anything shut up and although I don’t regret saying it I do regret the way I said it because those words were unbecoming of me. Are your insecurities causing you to be mean?

Day 184

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If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. – Mother Teresa

It’s 10: 24 PM on day 184 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and jam for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 5 minutes, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – it was the saddest thing every 30 minutes I would click ‘Refresh’ in the hopes that someone had made a donation only no one did 🙁 – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – butternut and vegetable curry for dinner and watch TV

Today our housekeeper, Nandipha came to me and asked how much it costs to attend the schools that my brother and sister go to and I replied to go to Selborne Primary – the school that my brother goes to – it costs R6 000 per month and to go to Clarendon High – it costs R10 000 per month and after I answered her question I was curious as to why she wanted to know how much it costs to go to a private school because I knew that she had already finished school so I asked why do you ask and she replied my cousin is moving here from Johannesburg and she wanted to go to the best school that there was and since your brother and sister do go to those schools I thought I’d asked you only now that I know how much it costs I’ll have to tell her to look somewhere else because those schools are too expensive and in that moment I knew that I had to help Nandipha’s community in some way so I decided that I would make some bread and jam sandwiches on Saturday and have Nandipha hand them out to her hungry neighbors. In your quest to change the world have you forgotten that the smallest things can make the biggest difference?