A Night in Vuvu Village
I was tasked to write a descriptive essay on a life-altering moment for a Matric English portfolio task. I opted to do it on my evening in Vuvu, during Race To Rhodes 2019, as I felt it perfectly pertained to the brief. The Freedom Challenge trail gifted me with so many incredible memories and completely humbled my outlook on life. Below is the essay I submitted.
Outside The Vuvu Village School
A Night in Vuvu Village
The Vuvu village is a small rural hamlet near Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape, close to the Lesotho border. I am fortunate enough to spend a night in this remote village and it is here where my life changing moment occurs.
I am fetched from the school buildings by an old ‘Gogo’ and after greeting, I follow her into the night with my bare feet, across a stoney path at a swift pace. With ease, she opens her gate and leads me past shackled donkeys and undernourished dogs. Upon entering her home we meet her husband, an old ‘Madala’, who proudly introduces his grandchildren, as he welcomes us into his home. He is an old man with a bent back and a walking stick. Their home consists of two rooms, with peeling vinyl floors, holes in the roof, no running water and a long drop toilet far away from the house. This is far removed from my home in Johannesburg, with its many rooms, indoor flushing toilets and city conveniences. The man shows me to my bed and how to lock the door from the inside with a bent nail that swivels to the side, to secure the door. The bed has satin sheets, numerous thick blankets and lumpy pillows.
As I lie in their bed, I feel welcome, safe and warm. I realize, that although my first impression of this remote, poverty-stricken and rural village is accurate, it is also not complete. The people here live a simple life but with the few things that they have, they are comfortable and full of happiness.
…
I wake up, after one of my best nights sleeps, needing to use the bathroom but it is still dark and cold out and the long-drop toilet is too far away. As I exit their humble abode I am surprised as there is a donkey on the step. I can hear the barking of the dogs bouncing from one side of the village to the other. I open the gate, made of barbed wire and gum poles but as I go to close it again, I find it nearly impossible but the old lady had opened and closed it with ease and efficiency. My soft city feet feel the sharpness of the hard cold ground as I make my way drowsily back to the school.
On leaving the village, I reflect on my time there. I know that the home I stayed in is one of the more “affluent” in the village, as it was considered suitable to host visitors. It is an area of sharp contrasts. There is incredible scenic beauty but large amounts of poverty. I see many children playing happily with simple “toys” (deflated soccer balls, tyres, sticks and stones) but they have most certainly spent a night going to bed hungry. I am used to homes with pets but in Vuvu all the animals are there to serve a purpose - donkeys to transport heavy supplies, dogs (with icicles on their eyelashes) to herd animals on the mountains and for security and other livestock for dinner. Us city folk strive to buy free-range and organic food, normally at a premium but in Vuvu all they have is organic or free-range, they live off the land. There is a strong community ethos but there seems to be very few men of working age - only grandfathers and boys.
I am privileged to have spent a night in the Vuvu village. It taught me not to judge other people's lives as an outsider and encourages me to live a more simple life. My night there will always remind me of how privileged I am to have running water, a warm home and a full belly each night.
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