Welcome to the Personal Blog of A Cape Daisy
Welcome to my personal blog, where I would like to share some of my interests such as my thought-provoking poetry, some of my art and jewellery designs and recipes etc. I will tell you a little about my background in this post.
I was born in Mossel Bay in the early 1980's to my father who was originally from Mossel Bay and to my mother who was originally from Athlone on the Cape Flats. At the age of three years old we moved to a small town in the Western Cape called Heidelberg, where we lived at the Municipality's Water Works where my father worked. Our house with the row of houses on the site were government subsidised housing and were literally surrounded by farms. I grew up eating fresh farm vegetables often, raw honey from the comb we got from nearby farm workers, warm home baked bread with butter and fresh meat from the local Spar. Later when we had to start attending school, we moved to inside the town, also to subsidised housing and went to primary school there until I was 11 years old. Then in the second term of school in the Std 3, we moved to Cape Town and I left behind close friendships and a best friend, whose mother taught at the primary school I attended there. It was a bit traumatic moving from a small plattelandse town where everyone knew everyone, to the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town at the water treatment plant in Constantia Nek, where most people spoke English.
However, my two brothers and I adapted very well and very quickly in our new environment and excelled academically and extra-murally at Battswood Primary School in Gosford Rd, Wynberg (the school is no longer there but relocated to another area) in 1992. I achieved the highest marks in the over 100 year history of the school only in the first term I was there in 1992, with a 92% average pass mark and was first place in my grade. I obtained 100% for some of my subjects and adapted very quickly to speak English to my teachers and peers, when not being a complete stranger to English as my youngest brother was raised English even when living in predominantly Afrikaans speaking Heidelberg. I excelled at ballet at the arts centre across the road, and the ballet teacher often praised me in the class, causing some jealousy and resentment from some of the other girls. I often entered competitions and Eistedfodds, including when living in Heidelberg. One of my art pieces for a project the City of Cape Town ran for school children, depicting a baptism of a baby in a church, was so highly regarded that it was displayed in the City Hall for a period of time in 1993. This was around the time when there were talks of peace for our land which was a common theme at school assemblies and church sermons.
We attended the Catholic Church in Constantia and were the only Coloured family, a lower middle class family, in the church amongst the wealthy elite of Constantia. We attended Cathechism classes with the children of wealthy white families of Constantia. There was only one other black child in the class, an adopted coloured child of a wealthy woman, and this child identified as white and not coloured, as he told us and was a bit nasty to my brother and I initially. Later he became our friend somewhat.
My second eldest brother who attended Cathechism classes with me, and I often had to wait long hours after school before the classes would start at the church premises. We would take the taxi to the church which was en route to our home in Constantia Nek for the classes on some days, and we would wait for hours in the cold, being cold and hungry, for classes to start and then to go home afterwards. On normal school days, we would take a taxi or sometimes a bus from Wynberg where we attended school, to the bus stop in Constantia Nek, then walk about a kilometer to our house from the entrance of the council property.
Our Cathechism teacher, a very caring and compassionate older white woman, took pity on us and brought us to her home after classes, gave us sandwhiches and tea, and let her son drive us to Constantia Nek in his expensive luxury car. He was a little racist and annoyed at his mother's kindness shown to two poor Coloured children, and told us not to speak to him in the car while taking us home. It is because of this woman that I don't condemn all white people, as she has shown me that there are good white people who care about black people who have been disadvantaged as a result of apartheid. She showed us kindness and inclusion when often some of the white kids in the class were nasty to my brother and I.
In 1994 my father was promoted to assistant manager at the water treatment plant in Blackheath, northern suburbs of Cape Town. He was the first black assistant manager and later first black manager at the plant. We moved to council subsidised housing again but this time it was much better than cold, dark and damp Constantia Nek. The houses at Blackheath Water Treatment Plant were on top of a hill off the Stellenbosch Arterial on the way to Stellenbosch, just outside of Kuils River. It was a bit of a culture shock moving to the slow paced of life and conservative northern suburbs, but living up there on the hill was the best time of my life. We were blessed with a view of the whole city, stretching from False Bay to Blouberg, with Table Mountain right in the middle. At night the city lights were sighted just by looking outside our lounge windows. We had a big beautiful garden with a nut tree, cherry trees and a grapevine. Often I would sit in the garden with my maltese poodle Jessie and sketch the plants and flowers around me. I often wrote poetry as well. It was safe and away from crime, away from the rush of urban life and was surrounded by vineyards, being right next to a wine farm. We often had school friends and cousins visiting due to the fun we could have in the open field across the house and the safety of the environment.
I often went jogging from up the hill and down Stellenbosch Arterial or cycled on my mountain bike sometimes. It is also on the Stellenbosch Arterial where I drove a car for the first time at age 16 when my father started teaching me to drive. The only negative was being far away from schools and amenities like shops, post office etc. and often could not do many extra-mural activities due to how far it was from everything. For example the closest ballet school was in Durbanville and in those days after 1994 fresh after Apartheid, those institutions were not always friendly to people of colour, so I had to give up my ballet. I have always fantasised of starting ballet classes again in my adult years, but now not so sure as my outlook has changed to being more afrocentric. However I believe all cultures can learn something from the other and participate in each other's cultures, excluding practices of cultural appropriation.
In 2010 my parents bought their first home and it was my mother's dream home, large with wooden floors and a fireplace. We did a lot of renovations and built a swimming pool later on and the property was totally transformed into a beautiful and tranquil place. I enjoy the tranquility of my parents' large garden, deck and pool and still live with them in the granny flat on the property and don't think I will move out as housing is extremely expensive in today's life. I want to be here to take care of my parents as they age.
Professionally, after high school I studied medicine for four years but it did not work out for me, and decided to become a bookkeeper with job security being my main motivation. As an introvert, I think this career is perfect for me, although I often wish I could dedicate my life to something more altruistic. But I would like to one day work for an NGO or start my own bookkeeping services business and help the poor and previously disadvantaged people and businesses empower themselves financially, as most social problems stem from poverty.
I believe people should be empowered to follow their dreams and not be in survival mode their whole lives. People often seek refuge in religion and churches and often become prey to exploitative spiritual leaders who are actually running a church business for profit and not saving souls. I believe that heaven is in one's heart and mind and you create it right here on earth in your daily life. It was the actual message of Jesus who is God incarnate alongside many incarnations throughout the ages. Each of us actually has God inside of us, we just need to purify ourselves so that our Godliness can become visible to us and to enjoy the fruits of the Holy Spirit in religious terms, which are the true riches of this life, not things like fame, money or material wealth. Heaven is a place on earth and we should all share in it equally as humans on this planet, while living as close to nature and our souls as possible. Those of us who can empower the poor and help them escape poverty should do so in our personal capacities however possible.
Welcome again to my blog, I hope you will find something that will touch or heal you when you visit my blog. You are welcome to comment, although comments are moderated and only appropriate comments will be allowed out of respect for everyone.
