|
The Refuge Seekers #2
1 July 2008
Brave stories from Claremont Seventh-day Adventist Church, Cape Town, South Africa
Fearless four year old
My name is Phine Kabamba and I am nearly four years old. I come from the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). My Dad came to Cape Town almost four years ago and saved money to bring my Mom and me and three older brothers from Lubumbashi. My Dad graduated from university in Lubumbashi but there was no work and a lot of war and fighting. He said it was not a good place to raise children. Some children were even forced into fighting with guns. He earned money in Cape Town by painting houses.
We arrived last October. It was a long, long bus ride but we were very happy to see our Dad, I had never seen him and my brothers had almost forgotten what he looked like. My Dad could only afford to rent one room for the six of us. My Mom cooks on a hot plate on a low table in the passage. Other families occupy the other rooms in the house and we all use the same bathroom. My Mom says she is the only one who cleans the bathroom.
One day we were very frightened. My Dad got very sick. He could not breathe and we could see on his chest that his heart was beating very fast, like a butterfly fluttering. He went to the clinic but they said that they could only give him an appointment in two weeks time. “I can’t breathe,” he said, but it didn’t help. He came home and phoned one of our friends from our church. It was nearly night time and GrandMama in her white car came and fetched him and took him to the hospital. My mother was very scared because she speaks French, Swahili and Lingali but not English. She has not been able to find work. How was she going to help my Dad? I told her that God would take care of my Dad. She must not worry.
My Dad was always very tall and strong but now his heart is weak and he has to take many tablets two times a day for the rest of his life. He is working again when he can get jobs and he takes us to the sea to play on the beach because our room is near the sea. My Dad prays every day that God will help him to find work so that he can buy us food and pay the rent (R1200) and pay for my older brothers Russell 10 and Jehu 7 to go to school. They go on the train every day. Sometimes, especially now in winter, it is very hard for my Dad to find somebody who needs their house painted. Next year Azael 5 will go to school.
One day it was very cold and the low table and hot plate were brought into the room. It helped to warm the room. My brother just older than I were playing, but I must tell the truth – we were really fighting a little bit over a slice of bread. I said it was mine and Azael said it was his. In the tussle, I sat down hard on the hot plate where Mom had been cooking. I could smell my burning pants and my bum was very, very burnt too. Both sides. In a small mirror I could see the whole shape of the hot plate on my bum. I did not cry at first but later the pain came and I cried. My Mom put Vaseline on to try to help. My Dad was shy to phone GrandMama again to take me to the hospital so he only phoned her the next day. By that time big, yellow crusts had formed. I could not sit or walk.
GrandMama took Mom and me to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital where there is a burn unit. I lay on my tummy on the back seat of the white car with GrandMama’s soft jacket as a sort of pillow and Mom sat in front with GrandMama. This is a state hospital so there were lots and lots of people with children, all waiting for their turn. We were at the hospital for a long, long time. Because I couldn’t wear pants, my Mom dressed me in a long T-shirt. I always drape myself over my Mom or Dad’s lap when I get tired because I can’t sit or walk.
I had to lie on a table while the nurse cleaned off all the crusts that had formed. It was very, very, very sore but I did not cry. I clenched my fists, and clenched my teeth and groaned a bit and twisted a bit but I knew that the nurse wanted to help to make it better. Afterwards GrandMama told my Dad that I had been very brave so I felt very proud. The nurse put white bandages on from my waist down to almost my knees so that it looked as if I had on some tight white pants with just two small open spaces, front and back, so I could go to the bathroom.
The next time we went to the hospital GrandMama gave me a little car to play with. This time my Dad came too and a doctor looked at the burns. The doctor was from Kenya and he and my Dad spoke Swahili to each other. The doctor said the sore places were getting better but it would take time. I am beginning to walk again with little steps and feel happy that I will soon be all right. My Dad said just like God had helped him when he could not breathe, so He would also help me to get better.
I heard GrandMama asking my Dad if she could write to her friends to tell them how I had not been scared of the pain and hospital and nurses and the new things like lifts which I had never been in before. She said there may be some of her friends who would really like to help the many needy people like us in our church with food money or rent or school fees. We often can’t attend church because of the cost of the train fare. Sometimes my Mom goes with one or two of us and sometimes my Dad.
@@@@@ Cheques to be made out to: Claremont Seventh-day Adventist Church - Relief Aid Project and sent to the following address: Fund-raising co-ordinator, Relief Aid Project, 50 Bordeaux Tokai Villas, 11572 Main Road, 7945 Tokai, Cape Town, South Africa. Update on Gladys (Refuge Seekers #1): presently staying with an SDA family – still looking for work. Employment agents visited. Advert placed in newspaper, some feedback, nothing definite.
|
Comments