Once the porridge is done, I wake Lesedi up and pray. Each night I pray that she doesn’t pee in her bed. As I wake her up I also pray because there are days when she does it just before I wake her up. That is when I find that it’s still hot and smells fresh. She sleeps on her own grass mat on the floor next to my bed. I make her sleep naked so that I have just one thing to wash because soap is such a problem. But I know that I cannot do that once winter comes. When Mme passed away, Lesedi went back to infancy. This is where my first plea to you comes in. I have heard that there are tablets that Lesedi can take to help her stop urinating in her sleep. I am told they are very expensive. Your money will go a long way to help us with this. I would really like her to stop as it is affecting her. She starts talking to me rudely, you know, just plain disrespectful. I slap her when she speaks to me like that. Something happens to me, I know I should be patient with her.
If Lesedi’s bed is wet, she takes forever to awaken. She turns and turns in her bed until I shout her name or slap her a little on the back. Once she is fully awake, I wash her face and private parts with very little water in a plastic bowl. I use the same water to wash her sheet. I don’t mind it so much when she wets herself over the weekend because that’s when I do our washing. Mme said one should never ever leave soiled bed sheets unwashed: “It’s unhygienic”. She liked to use that word. Mme was a cleaner at the village clinic, so she knew all about it. She used to wash Papa’s sheets and pyjamas every morning and as soon as he had messed on himself during the day. Luckily for me, Lesedi does not do the other thing in her sleep. Granny-next-door said I must not use napkins on Lesedi because that would be as good as giving her permission to wet herself. I think she has a good point. What do you think?
The porridge is usually cooked by the time I finish washing the sheet. I dish up the porridge, then put it aside to cool down. Once I finish the washing I wash my face and private parts quickly, just two hands full of water and a dash of soap. The problem comes with that time of the month. Blood is hard to wash out. It needs a lot of water and soap. Fortunately for me, I don’t have to buy those expensive sanitary pads. I use the napkins that Mme used for Papa when he could not help himself. They were made from Lesedi’s napkins that Mme sewed together to fit Papa. I cut them all up into small pieces and they work out fine. But they are not easy on the soap.
When we have eaten and dressed, I put Lesedi in our wheelbarrow and we go to school. We usually leave our house any time after 7am and definitely before 7.30am. Our school starts at 8.30am because many children come from very far away. It takes me just under an hour to reach school. I always leave Lesedi at Tsidi’s home, which is just four homes away from school. I started doing this when Mme was still around because she and Tsidi’s mother were very good friends. When Tsidi’s mother also passed away, we agreed I could just continue doing this because Lesedi and Tsidi’s baby sister have always been good friends.
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Tell us: If you are still at school, how far do you have to travel each day to school? How do you get there?