A lady yawns until her jaw almost dislocates itself. Perhaps it’s a sign of a late sleepless night. A stray dog comes along happily wagging its tail. It stops at the young lady, looks at her for a moment, and wags its tail even more with excitement when the lady greets it.
“Hey good morning and what is your name?” she says in a friendly tone.
A piece of chocolate appears from her bag. Lovingly she offers it to the stray dog which in turn gently takes it out of her hand. At the rumble of the train’s appearance the dog runs off and disappears down the subway. It has no concern of being on time for work.
The whistle blows and we leave with a gentle thud. The lady joins a group of friends which appears to be the daily traveling group she meets every day.
“Oh morning girl, why do you look so the worse for wear?” this morning a guy asks jokingly.
“Het ve’slaap man,” she answers unceremoniously.
“And what or who kept you out of your sleep?” he continues.
“Vlooie innie kooi,” she replies while the rest of the friends giggle.
“Oh damn… Why didn’t you call me? I’ll kill them with my bare hands for you,” the guy says showing his hands to her.
“Really now…” she replies not looking very impressed.
She continues to explain: “Kia came up with her usual trick this morning saying ‘mommy I want to look like you today’,” referring to her curly Afro hairstyle.
“So what did you do?” one of the ladies in the group inquires.
“For a moment I thought of objecting but then decided to let it be, because her hair isn’t as long as mine,” she replies.
“I have done it before, but only on civvies day. I don’t expect any repercussions though,” she continues to say.
“You must be careful it might come back to haunt you. Certain schools are very strict on appearance of the learners,” another lady in the group adds.
“Yes my cousins had fashion dreads and had to remove his ‘niknaks’ as they call it now,” the only guy in the group says looking serious this time.
“Well… Kia’s teacher said she likes her hair in an Afro. It reminds her of the 70’s and 80’s when local guys like Lionel Petersen, Jonathan Butler, The Rockets, Margaret Singana, Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse and international artists like Earth Wind and Fire and The Temptations wore high heels and Afro style hair… and she’s White by the way.”
“The rest of the group looks at her wide-eyed with their jaws dropped. After a few seconds one of the ladies manages to ask “Who is she? How does she know this stuff?” with a hand gesture that says ‘come on tell me’.
Kia’s mother replies: “A very intelligent and enlightened teacher who took the time to research and understand diversity in cultures.”
“She’s a teacher who represents not only the new millennium but also the new South Africa.”
“She’s a teacher whose belief is that you can’t teach a child if you don’t understand their culture… if you can’t speak their language.” “I’m quite chuffed with her,” she concludes with a proud expression.
“Wow!” the rest of the group says almost in harmony like a choir while she sticks her finger through her bushy curls in an attempt to re-arrange it.
At Mutual station the only guy in the group says. “Hey wag mense. Ek gooi nou. Lekker dag vi’ julle.”
“Bye… Safe… Sien jou,” the ladies greet him one by one.
As we approach Salt River station one of the ladies in the group says with a look of sincerity: “You know Les, it’s stories like the one you just shared that encourages me; that gives me confidence to tell my husband ‘let’s not leave yet, let us give South Africa the benefit of the doubt’.”
Quietly Les nods in approval.
***
Urban Dictionary
ve’slaap – The Afrikaaps version of “verslaap” which is the Afrikaans word for “oversleep”
vlooie – The Afrikaans word for “fleas”.
kooi – The Afrikaans word for “bed”.
gooi – An Afrikaans word meaning “throw” but in this case it is an Afrikaaps expression meaning “leave”.