I wanna do shout outs and dedications as and when I feel compelled to. So, a few weeks ago there was a news story about a teacher that smacked a black girl across the face in class. A lot transpired as one followed that story and for me it brought back memories of my childhood that I would much rather forget.
This got me thinking about the people who were there for me, who were able to nurse me to wellness when I was going through abuse. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw the story below already but I wanted to share it here also. @meujwara is my Instagram and twitter handle, just FYI.
I posted her in my IG story and touched a little bit on my 7 years of hell(I mean top notch education).
Her name is Sphindile Msane, she is a gifted vocalist (google iThemba LamaKhatholika). She is a kind and caring person. An extrovert with a heart of gold.
She is a child of God (a born again mzalwane), I only wish I could be brave like her.
She is out here saving souls.
She was my shield for the entire duration of our sisterly friendship.
I honestly cannot remember how we became friends, all I remember is that we were inseparable.
I always had my elbow on her shoulder. One time I cracked a boiled egg on her forehead (true story!).
We always celebrated each other's birthdays together, just the two of us under those big blue gum trees at St Nivard's Combined Primary School.
She was always neat, clean and on point, the same cannot be said about me unfortunately.
I remember, she always had those colorful soft facial tissues in her pockets...
She would start hymns at assembly and save us all a beating. If she was absent from school, we all just knew that we had beatings coming our way, because nobody else was brave enough to start songs in front of the whole school.
Our circle gradually grew as we entered senior primary.
It was a rough time for me, from verbal abuse because of my weight and skin tone (mostly from teachers) to being denied the opportunity to participate in the Olympiads even though we qualified (simply because we didn't look the part, we attended school barefooted... A story for another day), to being asked to go from class to class to show teachers my infected burn wounds and to the minor and major physical assaults I endured at that God-forsaken school.
This girl was there by my side. Even when a 15 year old classmate had threatened to beat our 10yr old asses up after school, we ran from her together.
What was even sweeter is that even on weekends, we would see each other at church. On occasion we would have church outings, oh those were some fun times.
I just wanted to honor my dear friend today and thank her for being who she is and for allowing herself to be used by God.
