A day in the and home of a child living in an informal settlement

I groaned and turned over in my, well, it is a bed but I call it a wooden slab, because it has no blankets or matrresses, it is also wet because it rained last night. I’m Seb Cocoqe and life isn’t so easy as you think. I got up, I was starving but we didn’t have food in the house, every Monday and Wednesday and Friday I eat at school. It was 3 O’clock in the morning, I have to wake up early because otherwise I would miss the 3:30 bus. I’m lucky I get to ride a bus though, most of my friends walk to school. Sometimes I see a car driving past, I really wished I had car, but I don’t.

Our school starts at 7:00 so I have to wait 2 hours. I didn’t mind, I like waiting, I get to think, during class there is a lot of noise because there is about 60 kids in a class, so I like my alone time. We don’t have a field so I waited outside of the school. I looked down at my feet, they were bare of ‘course, my family doesn’t have enough money to buy me shoes.

When school started I didn’t listen at all to what the teacher was saying, no only because I was hungry, because I didn’t understand her and because there was only 10 Textbooks, so I had to share with 6 other kids. I couldn’t even write notes, because I had no stationary, also I could barely read because there is no libraries. At break I went straight to the cafeteria, after I ate I felt even more hungry, there is hardly enough food and water  at my house and school. We have no field like I said before so I just sat on the concrete.

I had I long way to walk, I go on the bus most of the way but I still need to walk about two kilometers to get to the bus.

When I got home I was really dirty and wanted to clean myself but we have no in-house water, and no toilets, I really wish we had those things though, I because I have to walk outside in the dark if I need to use the bathroom. We have no gardens, unless you count some rocks with lots of litter on it. I decided to go to my friends house, we share a wall so it was twos steps to get to her house. But when I got there her whole house had broken down. This always happens because we build our own houses. One day I want to live in a normal house, one that is made of bricks so it never falls down.

My mom said that she is saving up for a fireproof house, she said that it costs R4000, she also said that my big brother got a job making those houses. I really would like to have a house that won’t go on fire at any random moment. My dad is now working at a small shop, doesn’t pay much but he said that in 8 years we can buy the house. I would love to have a place to study because I really want to become a accountant when I grow up.

But the main concern my mom has is that my younger sister is very sick, there is not enough hospitals so we might only get the house in 10 years.