Biography: Lesedi Badisang My childhood I was born on 9 September 1993. My mother left me with my Granny because my stepfather did not want to look after kids that weren’t his own. I never saw Mommy again until much, much later. My granny was poor - she had no job. She had no job because her tummy was swollen like that of a pregnant woman. Touching her tummy felt hard as rock. I was young and Granny was old. Neither us nor the doctors seemed to understand what was wrong with her. The doctors said that in her X-ray showed clouds and a rainbow – this really set my young imagination alight. Granny tried to be brave but at times when she suffered too much Granny couldn’t help talking about the pain that was her stomach. How we survived I do not know. I used to go into the veld with some farmers goats and cattle. I even grazed a few donkeys. I would keep the animals together while they were feeding and took them to drink. I learnt that cows chew the whole day by watching them. I learnt that you can’t always take a donkey to water let alone make them drink. Goats are crazy and will eat anything.
The worse time of day was when the kids came out from school. I would climb trees so that they wouldn’t see me. They used to tease me because I didn’t go to school. They used to tease me about my clothes. They used to tease me about not having shoes. They used to tease me lots. The end of the month was the time when sometimes the farmer gave me money and sometimes gave me stories about me using their expensive water and eating their food. I was young – I did not understand money nor the fuss they made about water and food. There were days when Granny and I ate pigeon and pap. There were days when we ate okra and pap. But there were also days when we ate salt and pap. When the farmer gave me money, I gave it Granny. She loved buying sugar because she liked tea… Ah, yes, and there were days when we ate sugar and pap! On bad days there was no pap.
UPCOMING MAG
12
