Chapter 7 From day to day I carried my broken self to school. No matter how emotionally battered I was, I still put my heart into my school work and always came on top. The name calling later stopped and I made some good friends. I was active in so many things at school. I played netball for some time then I quit. I later joined the gymnastics club, the school choir, drama, cultural dance club and I was also on the debating team. This was my way of blocking out all the negative things said about me and also a way of showing everyone that the Zambian girl whom they looked down on was able to do all this and still be the best in class. Everything was going so well and the months seemed to be passing by real quick. Mom had re-gained her body weight,dad was still working at the mine and the whole family had adapted very well to the new living conditions. Being in this small town Id become very fluent in Setswana, I could even speak it better than the Tswanas in Kimberley, akere bone ba bua bo seki, vandag and miskin so I spoke their own language better than they did. I was good at Setswana as a school subject as well. Life was great, in fact it was perfect. The devil is never pleased whenever my family is happy because in early 2005 my mother got her second heart attack and praise be to God that she survived it. She was kept in hospital and was treated for a week and she was sent back home in good shape. She had to take a lot of medication to keep her heart condition at bay but she was healthy and thats what mattered the most. Mom loved her culture and she would always want to speak to Mercy and I in our Zambian language, due to the name-calling I became ashamed of my roots and begged my mother not to use this language in public. Since she wanted to keep us happy, mom only spoke to Mercy and I in English. As time went on, I learnt to express myself through writing. I enjoyed putting pen to paper. This was a form of therapy for me. I would spend most of my time writing and drawing. I would sit and think of life in Zambia. life was good here but in Zambia it wasnt just good, it was great. The year went very well and my sister who was in grade seven at the time received an award as the top academic learner of the school at their farewell function, she had set a standard for the Mwiko family and I had to keep it that way so I worked my little heart out and made sure that I always come up on top. My hard work had paid off as I had done very well on my final exam. My friends and I were very exited as we would be going to grade six the following year. The december holidays of 2006 were especially fun, we had gone out of the northern cape for a bit and we visited dads relatives in Cape Town. It was great. We got to meet some of our cousins for the first time and we also learnt a little xhosa. Mom, Mercy and I had visited the beach for the very first time and it was awesome! :) . Before we knew it the holiday was over and we were back in Kansas and back to school. I told my friends about my trips and we all shared our crazy holiday experiences. We laughed and enjoyed them all even though some of the stories sounded overly exaggerated, Lol. We were all particularly interested in veronicas story of how shed met this high school guy and that she was dating him. Everyone seemed to be dating that year. After Veronicas story about this cute guy named Brandon, Masego told us about her boyfriend whom she had met during her stay in Kimberley. This made me think long and hard and I came up with this crazy story of how Id met this cute coloured guy named Devandro in Cape town. Me: Yoh! I dont think either one of the guys you are talking about beats my Devandro. Masego: De waat se goed? Me: Devandro mahn. Veronica: Thats a nice name,is he coloured matie? Me: Yes tsala and yall would melt at his sight. Masego: Sies matie, I dont believe you. A coloured from Cape town? Im sure he looks handsome just till he opens his mouth. This cracked Veronica up, she laughed as if she was being tickled. Me: Nyaa matie, not all Capetonians have huge gaps in their teeth tlhe. Devandro has a complete set of teeth and they are just perfect. His teeth are white, he has great black hair and his eyes are a lovely yellow-green colour. I could see their faces light up with envy and so I piled up lie after lie. I told them how hed held me and helped me swim and also how Id gotten my first kiss as waves splashed around us and they fell for it hook,line and sinker. They had made me tell the story over so many time that even I started to believe it. Lol when you tell too much lies you end up believing them too.....
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 09:27:20 +0000
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