I hate summers in Durban. Not that I enjoy the cold rainy winters either. But now that it is summer, the sun rises irritatingly bright and shiny at 5.15 am. The curtains I have in my apartment are not opaque enough to let this not bother my peaceful slumber. Anyway, today, as most days, I pretend to sleep for another hour or so.
At around 6.00am the whine of my alarm woke me up in jolt. Finally I woke up and decided to give my running another try after almost a month.
I try to warm up a bit in the lift, while the people leaving for work at 6.30 am (!) smile at me. I hit the road with a little bit of brisk walking. The last few weeks with good food at a workshop and loads of ice-cream (mixed with Amarula :) ) was definitely not a good diet for me! Anyway, I start jogging in a while and after 2.5 kms I get severe calf spasms. Luckily, I was not far from Wilks park so I crawled on my favorite bench to catch my breath and sooth my calves. Incidentally this is my usual spot to rest a bit before a deadly steep climb.
Today, the park was empty, maybe the heat was too much. Or maybe since its a Monday morning, people are at work at 7.00 am and only jobless people like me are trying to enjoy nature while soothing the sore calves.
I did see the little girl in green playing with dry leaves beside the swings. While browsing on my mobile, from the corner of my eyes, did see her moving across the park towards me. She came and sat beside me, we said hi to each other and I carried on my browsing. After a minute or so, she muttered something. So I stopped my incessant obsession with my mobile and turned to talk to her. She asked me again, 'Do you have some clothes?'. I thought maybe I didn't hear clearly, so she repeated it for the 3rd time. Then, to my shock, I realized that there was blood on many parts of her body. I asked her what was wrong, and then while rubbing her tears, she told me that she was an orphan and had ran away from home, where she was beaten up everyday by her aunt.
There were bad bruises on her hands, neck and the blood from the recent wounds in the night before was still fresh. I had no idea how to help her, so I thought maybe I can speak to the security and ask them to take her to her house or any other place which might be safe for her. Unfortunately, the security was nowhere to be found.
I was clueless to what I should do next. I tried to speak to her more, and although she was not happy about it, she agreed to go back home and talk to her neighbors about it. I took her to my apartment and gave her some money, some old clothes and shoes. Her eyes brightened up when I offered her some food. And then she left.
I stood on my balcony trying to catch the last glimpse of that little girl in green.
Situations like this baffle me; what am I supposed to do? Was it a bad idea to let her go back to her hell house? But otherwise what should I have done? Should I have contacted some children shelter to take care of her? I hardly know the city myself, it would have been really difficult to do so I guess. A little ashamed of myself, choosing the easy way in this situation...
At around 6.00am the whine of my alarm woke me up in jolt. Finally I woke up and decided to give my running another try after almost a month.
I try to warm up a bit in the lift, while the people leaving for work at 6.30 am (!) smile at me. I hit the road with a little bit of brisk walking. The last few weeks with good food at a workshop and loads of ice-cream (mixed with Amarula :) ) was definitely not a good diet for me! Anyway, I start jogging in a while and after 2.5 kms I get severe calf spasms. Luckily, I was not far from Wilks park so I crawled on my favorite bench to catch my breath and sooth my calves. Incidentally this is my usual spot to rest a bit before a deadly steep climb.
Today, the park was empty, maybe the heat was too much. Or maybe since its a Monday morning, people are at work at 7.00 am and only jobless people like me are trying to enjoy nature while soothing the sore calves.
I did see the little girl in green playing with dry leaves beside the swings. While browsing on my mobile, from the corner of my eyes, did see her moving across the park towards me. She came and sat beside me, we said hi to each other and I carried on my browsing. After a minute or so, she muttered something. So I stopped my incessant obsession with my mobile and turned to talk to her. She asked me again, 'Do you have some clothes?'. I thought maybe I didn't hear clearly, so she repeated it for the 3rd time. Then, to my shock, I realized that there was blood on many parts of her body. I asked her what was wrong, and then while rubbing her tears, she told me that she was an orphan and had ran away from home, where she was beaten up everyday by her aunt.
There were bad bruises on her hands, neck and the blood from the recent wounds in the night before was still fresh. I had no idea how to help her, so I thought maybe I can speak to the security and ask them to take her to her house or any other place which might be safe for her. Unfortunately, the security was nowhere to be found.
I was clueless to what I should do next. I tried to speak to her more, and although she was not happy about it, she agreed to go back home and talk to her neighbors about it. I took her to my apartment and gave her some money, some old clothes and shoes. Her eyes brightened up when I offered her some food. And then she left.
I stood on my balcony trying to catch the last glimpse of that little girl in green.
Situations like this baffle me; what am I supposed to do? Was it a bad idea to let her go back to her hell house? But otherwise what should I have done? Should I have contacted some children shelter to take care of her? I hardly know the city myself, it would have been really difficult to do so I guess. A little ashamed of myself, choosing the easy way in this situation...
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