Maipelo

I am sitting outside, I don’t know how but I have found myself looking at the stars. I keep thinking to myself that my current job is not what I signed up for. The five years I spent at university were for me an insurance against such a job. Screaming kids, scheme book deadlines, endless marking and how can I forget screaming daily at the top of my voice.

My name is Karabo. I am in my early twenties (a woman never reveals her age apparently). I come from a family of four; my mom, dad, my older brother and myself. I attended public school, did fairly well in all my exams and went to university. My university years were by far the best years of my academic life. I was an average student doing my best to keep my head above the water but not necessarily achieving academic excellence. If I had put in more effort I have a feeling I would be doing so much better in terms of a better job.

 As with most if not all young people who taste freedom for the first time, I experimented on a lot of things including alcohol but after a few tries I decided it just wasn’t meant for me; I hated the taste on my mouth and unlike most people I couldn’t get the same joyous feeling they got when they got drunk and couldn’t remember what they were up to when they were drunk.

Of the five years I was in university I did my best to go out as much as I could, attended a few parties here and there, and just lived the typical life of a young person at university. One day I woke up to find that the five years had passed. All of a sudden I was moving back home, a certificate under my arm with no job lined up. To say it was depressing would be an understatement; being back home under the watchful eye of my parents was something else altogether. I needed to find a job and move out soon rather than later. That’s how I came to apply for a job I was totally not qualified for; an assistant teacher.

My first post was in a remote village I had never heard of but I took it anyways, you know the thing about desperation is when you make decisions in that state, it rarely ever ends well. It wasn’t that the village was bad, only that it was quiet, too quiet. Sometimes I wanted to scream at the top of my voice just so that I hear some kind of noise. I guess the villagers who stayed there were used to it because the quietness didn’t seem to bother them, in fact, I was the only one who seemed to have a problem. I was in that village for 3 months and my contract ended but lucky for me, it got renewed again and this time around, I got posted to a nearby town.

I thought teaching Standard sixes would be better than small kids, oh how wrong I was! They were still very immature and acted like little children. Of all the children that I taught, there was one particular child who had my attention from day 1. Her name was Maipelo. She was very thin due to being malnourished. What caught my attention about her was her intelligence but sometimes she looked like she has her head in the clouds, she was absent-minded. It happened on a regular basis which is why I ended going to the Guidance & Counseling teacher in the school during tea time.

“Mrs Kopelo, I have a student whose behavior really bothers me.”

“What is wrong with her?” she asked me. Then I explained to her about Maipelo and her behavior. As a fairly new teacher in the school, I didn’t know a lot about the students in the school so she explained to me about Maipelo’s home life.

“Maipelo lives with her mother and two brothers. Her mother is a drunkard who is drunk most times and both her brothers are older than her. They live in a two roomed house so her mother sleeps in one of the rooms in the two roomed house while Maipelo sleeps with her two older brothers in the other room which also serves as a kitchen.

There have been talks in the neighborhood about possible sexual abuse but no proof yet and if we ask Maipelo she neither confirms nor denies anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if that child is being raped by her older brothers and just keeps quiet about it,” as she said this I saw her face fill up with sadness.

 After that I did my best to try and engage the little girl in some conversation in an effort to draw her out. But alas, to no avail. Then one day I just came out and asked her, she was recovering from one of her ‘episodes close to break time.’

“Maipelo, are you okay? Is there anything you would like to tell me?”

She looked at me for a long time, opened her mouth and was just about to say something when one of the children walked in. The moment was broken and she drew back into herself. After school she gave me a note, “it’s dark, my tears don’t show, the stars are hard to see outside…”

 I knew what she was trying to tell me. My heart broke; I didn’t know where to even start. I sat on that chair for a long time, I don’t know for how long. Then my phone rang, I was being called for an interview. I got the job and I left the school without following it up.

Today I received a short note in my mail. It read, “Its dark…the stars look clearer now.” For a moment I was a bit confused then I remembered her, Maipelo. How in the world did she know where to contact me? But it doesn’t matter now. Just like with the first note, I know what she is telling me.

I always wondered about that child; what happened to her, how she fared but I am grateful that she is okay. I burst out laughing remembering how different my circumstances were the last time I sat outside looking at the stars.