This is a tale of two little South African girls, both aged 4. One is African, the other is Indian.
Last week, Grace, our domestic worker, told me about her little girl, Karabo. She has a tooth that was so badly infected that it was bleeding. Her cheek was swollen and the infection had travelled to her ear. The child was in so much pain that she couldn’t eat or sleep. Fortunately, Grace was able to take her to a clinic and get her on antibiotics. Today, Grace told me that Karabo is doing better, but her cheek is still purple and she is still in pain. They are waiting for the antibiotics to clear up the infection and then will pull the tooth, one of her permanent ones.
Yesterday, I returned home and pulled into the garage. There is a “street” in our small complex where the many children who live here, of all sizes and colours, play. Two little ones, aged 4, Sabi and Alex, are my favourites. If our front door is open they will often pop in for a quick visit and they have proclaimed our place “very nice”. When I got out of my very basic and serviceable Fiat Palio, they were there to greet me. Sabi, the little girl of the pair, informed me has she has a much nicer car than I do. She proudly added that it is an Audi. I was quite astonished that a 4 year old even knew what an Audi was! I tried to explain that my car was a blue and that colour was very nice, making mine a very good car too. She would have none of it and returned to play with Alex.
The South Africa that these two little girls live in are worlds apart. Sabi’s mom is our next door neighbour and couldn’t be a more a more friendly charming person. She is a stay-at-home mom with two small children, age 4 and 9. She also has a domestic helper 7 days a week who does the housework and will look after the kids if she has to go out. Recently, when I mentioned I had joined a gym and would she like to come along sometime, she mentioned she had no free time for such things—it would be impossible as she is just too busy.
Grace is a single mom who works as a domestic for various families 5 days a week. She lives in a township called Diepsloot and I have always feared of asking her what her living conditions are like, but I can imagine as the townships are known to be notoriously unsafe.
I cannot help but wonder about these two little girls, Karabo and Sabi, whose lives could not be more different. What will growing up be like for each of them? Where will each of them end up? I would love to be able to see each of them fifteen or twenty years hence as I can not imagine what their lives will be like.
