PROJECT LIFE - The journal of a street kid

The girl next door

I was always amazed on how creative Aphiwe was, she would create an African doll out of a single stick. She would take a dry wooden stick and wrap it up with a cloth.

She would make the head of the doll from an old legging material that she would mold until it resembled a round figure. Which she would place on top of the stick and she would continue her creation by adding the chest and backside of the doll.

Once she was done, she would dress up the doll with her hand crafted clothes made from old materials, perfectly sewn into tiny t-shirts and dresses for the doll.

Aphiwe had a lot of these dolls and they looked realistic, except that they had only one leg and no arms.

Cindy loved these dolls, they would spend hours playing and I would just sit and watch them play while drawing cars in my handbook that I would always carry around.

Aphiwe enjoyed singing, even though she was not a good at it, she believed that she was. Singing was important to her as it brought her lot of good memories.

I mean, Aphiwe had a more difficult life compared to Cindy and myself. She was abandoned by her mother at the ago 5 years old.

I remember her telling me her life story once. Saying that one morning she woke up and realized that her mother wasn't there anymore.

She opened the wardrobe and it was empty, her mom had taken out all her clothes, placed them in a bag and left! She never came back.

As a little girl Aphiwe had to stay with her uncle but her uncle was not good man. One day she decided to run away from him and she ended up on the streets at the town central.

She spent  days, sleeping under boxes and begging for money to buy food, from people passing by. It wasn't easy for her on the streets.

One cold evening while she was standing along with other kids on side of the road, stopping cars that were passing by and begging for money.

One of the boys in the group came to her, grabbed her very hard –forcefully removing the clothes that she was wearing. She was screaming, begging for the boy to stop! But he would not listen and no one in the group was willing to help her, they were watching and laughing!

The boy ripped her t-shirt off but he was struggling to remove her pants. Out of nowhere came this white man! Who helped her by chasing the boy away, along with his friends.

She told me how terrified she was and she didn't have nowhere to go.

The white man told her about a place called 'Miracle House' he went on to tell her that it was a  children's home and if she went there she would get food and place to sleep.

Desperately she followed the man's instructions, and went to find this place, this 'Miracle House', that the man had been speaking of. It was not too far from where she had been, so was able to walk there.

As she got closer, from a distance she could see the big, beautiful, double story building the man had described.

The building was white and written in blue on the wall at the front entrance were the words 'Miracle House' on.

At the door were two painted angels that looked as though they were praying. Both of these angels were located on the opposites of main door of the building.

One that looked like a male was to the left hand side and one female looking angel was painted on the right hand side, just as the white man had told her.

The closer she got to the building the more she felt at ease, she wasn't worried any more.

Aphiwe stood in front of the building's gate which was made of steel bars. The building was surrounded by a concrete wall with beautiful paintings of  'little kids playing on it'.

She stood outside while staring up at the building's windows on the upper level, which were facing towards her. As the lights were still on, she could see kids running around and playing inside the building.

When she saw all of these, she thought to herself that, 'This is the where I need to be'.

Not long after, she saw the gate open in front of her. Just as she was about to lose here nerve and run off, there was this lady who looked like she was in her forties standing in front of her, the lady had a smile on her face. 'Hello, little lady what are you doing outside at this time of the night all by yourself?'  the lady asked.

Aphiwe kept quiet, she was too nervous to respond. "It's ok Dear, why don't come inside? It's cold outside and you must be hungry" said the lady to her while taking her by the hand And encouraging her to follow. They both went inside the building.

Aphiwe was amazed how big this building was inside. At the main entrance there were these big beautiful wooden stairs going up to the upper floors.

The main entrance of the building had an orange painting that made the place feel warm. The floor was covered with marble tiles, everywhere you looked.

Aphiwe continued following the lady into the dining room. The dining room had a paintings

of cartoon characters on the walls. The dining room was very big, it had beautiful white tiles on the floor, everywhere she looked Aphiwe saw wooden tables and chairs dotted around the room.

'Why don't have a seat and relax while I prepare you something to eat?' said the lady to Aphiwe.