A day in the life and home of a child in an informal settlement

My Name is Riley. I am six years old and I live in an informal settlement. I was lying in my bed one night doing my homework.I was working with my flashlight but then the batteries ran out.I went outside and I sat under a lamppost until I finished then I went back home. So I wish I had electricity so I can work and not go outside and get cold just to get some light. My mom has HIV so every morning I use to wake up at 4am to go wait in a line to get water for my family. Then when I get back we wash ourself before I go to school and my mom and dad goes to work. So I wish my family and I had running water so I don’t have to get up so early. And I get some more sleep.


When I want to go to the bathroom I sometimes rather just hold it because when I am on the toilet people walk past and look at me. I wish there were toilets that had doors so I can have some privacy when I use the bathroom. I walked to school and I didn’t have shoes.  It was a far distance because I had to walk over hills and there were hard rocks and sharp rocks everywhere. I really wanted shoes or a car that my mom and dad could drive me to school and I don’t have to get cold and my feet don’t freeze and get sore.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Singing Inspector

My name is Jesse Mr Raymond the singing inspector called everyone except for the little kids and the big boys which I found very unfair. Anyways we went into the big room and we had to sing doh Ray me rah and tata tete. So first Mr Raymond called Benny and Charles to sing and they had to stand in front of everyone and sing I felt so bad but I knew that I also had to sing under all that bad pressure what is also scary is Mr Raymond. So Benny and Charles didn’t know any song so they had to sing Pretty Polly which sounded awful no affece but then Mr Raymond looked even more upset and I was next so I said good luck to myself hoping I wouldn’t get shouted at then he called me and I think i sang really well I sang on the modelater quite a nice song I felt I sang better than Benny and Charles. Then Mr Raymond said Thank you Jesse that was okay not nice but not horrible. Then he called a duet of singing girls my two friends Gladys and Iris I felt really bad this time but I knew that
Read more

My Injury

Because I did not go on camp is when I went to Athletics in the Morning I was running on the field and I fell on the side of my foot.I  carried on running, after I was in Athletics training I went to sit on the bench, my foot started aching, and thank goodness my mom was there to see that I fell, my mom called coach Jc and he said can you move it and I said yes and then he just said go get an ice pack, but then the bell rang so I went to go line up, then my mom left after I said bye. Then I went inside to my class. After school I did a race at another school it was a Afrikaans school I forgot the name of  the school. But I ran sprints but I did not come last but I came in the pack. After the race I sat on the chair and I was in tears. I also did a relay with a broken foot OH  MY GOODNESS! I just made it worse 4 weeks with crutches and a moon boot. I was very depressed that I had to stay in the house and just lie down and also very depressed that I missed camp. 
Read more