A day in an informal settlement 

Hi I'm Zama  I woke up in the morning to a dark, cold and dirty shack i was really miserable  because i hardly got any sleep that night . I flopped out of bed and slowly walked to the table in the middle of the shack. I slumped down onto the squeaky chair and ate. For breakfast I had oats and a glass of milk thats what I have everyday I sometimes get sick of it. When I’d finished I packed my bag for school, I did it all by myself because mommy’s sick with H.I.V I wish that we could afford the treatment she needs. Daddy’s at work, he's a painter you know, he paints the most beautiful things. 

It always takes long to get to school, the teachers don't really mind if I’m late, although sometimes it can be a bit embarrassing,  they know it takes long to get here. When I got there I sat down at my desk that I share with sibulele we also share textbooks, and stationary and most other things. Today we are learning to do read, write and do sums like 5+7 and 8+2.

After that I had lunch, for lunch I had bread I wish we could afford other food but I know that daddy tries his best. When school finished I walked home down the long mucky river that makes me want to throw up, I almost fell in yesterday so today I am going to be very careful.

When i got home to the plastic, tin and wooden shack, I Put my bag down and sat down on my cushion and tried to read my homework. It was to hard because I couldn’t see anything in the dark. I went outside to read under the lamppost. The reading wasn't hard, my teacher says i am a good reader.

A few minutes later my mom called me to come eat dinner so I went inside. For dinner i was having chicken and 3 carrots, I wish i could’ve have more because i was really hungry tonight. After I’d finished I went to my cushion lay down and prayed, when I finished I went to sleep hungry, again. 

The Horrible Mr Raymond

The horrible Mr Raymond 

The diary of Benny  Patterson

Yesterday Mr Raymond  came to school. My teacher said he was very kind and gentle but he was wrong. Mr Raymond is the loudest, meanest, scariest man I’ve ever seen in my life. He is a singing inspector and I hate singing because in first grade I had to sing in front of the whole school and I forgot all the words, and everyone laughed at me.

I was just doing my math sums when he barged into the class and yelled at the top of his lungs, “If one of you can’t sing I’ll kick you out of the classroom .” That really scared me because I knew I would probably forget the song or go completely mute. We all sat at the desks in his classroom and all the seats at the back were taken. So I had to sit right in front of him. It felt like if he moved any closer to me he would fall right on top of me. He had long golden curls, and wore a giant pair of knickerbockers and looked a bit like a leprechaun.

Charles Anderson and I were the first people to sing, I could actually feel his breathing. We were both breathing so fast we couldn’t even say anything. Mr Raymond screamed at us to start singing but I couldn’t think of any songs to sing. Mr Raymond kept yelling and screaming and eventually Charles squeaked,"We can sing Pretty Polly.” I wanted to say that I didn’t want to sing, but I’d gone completely mute. 

At this point I was completely terrified I thought that at that very moment he was going to get up and give me a caning. But we both started singing Pretty Polly. In the middle of the verse we stoped singing because I forgot the words. Mr Raymond yelled so loud I thought the windows would break. He kicked us out the classroom and I am never ever going to sing ever again.