This afternoon had been set aside for the Love Life team and us to play football with the kids. We'd bought them 4 footballs as we hadn't seen any around and by the end of the afternoon at least 2 had completely had it! I decided that my best role was the cheer the teams on so I sat on the sides and enjoyed playing with the kids and chatting to Prudence.
Prudence is such a beautiful girl with an infectious smile and as for singing. Wow she's got THE most beautiful voice. She asked me if I lead songs in England. After a while I realised she meant that did I start songs and then everyone join in like they do in Africa. Er no! I would love to have found out more about how they sing and know who will start songs etc. She broke into an amazing recital of Celin Dion's My Heart Will Go On which stunned us all not only because it was beautifully sung but also because Cat had at lunch time recited the whole Titanic story to us, I can't even remember why now. Weird co-incidence.
But a bizarre question she'd asked me got us on to talking about relationships. I learnt that she didn't have a husband but she had a boyfriend who was also her 2 year old son, Roland's father. I asked her if they were going to get married and she told me she didn't know. She said that the reason they hadn't married was because her boyfriend could not afford her Lobola (this is like her dowry - a bride price).I felt tears of fustration pricking my eyes again. I mean how are people supposed to have proper relationships and be committed to one another if they can't even get married? It seems to me that the issue of the Lobola is just compounding the problems of people not sticking to relationships and ending up sleeping around.
It was another piece of the mystery revealed to me.
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