A Gift for Nia's Granny

As many of you know, I have been studying abroad in South Africa since late January. My trip has been one hell of a ride (to say the least) filled with hard work, late night tears and plenty of smiles. Throughout the semester I have lived with four different host families in four drastically different communities. For my last homestay, I lived with an elderly woman in Bo Kaap. Bo Kaap is an inner city, predominately Muslim community in the heart of Cape Town. Most residents in Bo Kaap are Colored (of mixed race) and working class. 

During the time of this homestay I was preparing to conduct a month long independent research project on South African politics. The structure of my travel program is that students begin the first two months of their semester going to class and living with families and for the last month they live independently and conduct an intensive study. On March 28th, after two months of collecting data, I got my project approved and I planned to do my research on the politics of forgiveness in post-apartheid South Africa. That night I came home to my Bo Kaap host mother and, after having a heart-to-heart conversation with her, I decided that I wanted to write her life story instead. The next day I went to my school and petitioned to change my research topic to writing this woman's story. They told me that I had until the end of the day to convince them. I drafted a new proposal and in five hours I managed to do what it had taken me two months to do. I convinced them to allow me to ghostwrite her autobiography.

I have spent my last month here in South Africa meeting with this woman, cooking her dinner, interviewing her for hours and writing her phenomenal life story. We've cried together and shared long laughs. Through these long talks we’ve formed a strong bond, a bond unparalleled in any of my other homestays. She’s become a granny to me.

She’s cared for me in her home and shared with me her innermost thoughts, regrets, secrets and desires. She has had a fascinating and incredibly hard life; she grew up in the apartheid era, she was extremely abused by her past husbands and she raised her children on her own.

I've created this campaign because I will be leaving Cape Town soon and I would like to leave a generous gift for my host mom (aka my new granny). She is a pensioner and lives off of $90 a month. After a lifetime of hardship she still struggles financially (she hosts students to help pay her bills and even gave me her bed and would sleep on the floor while I stayed with her). I would like to leave her with something to alleviate her struggle and make life a little  easier for her. This woman treated me as her own daughter while I was in a foreign country and an ocean away from my mother…. I don’t have any big plans with the money aside from just giving it to this deserving woman who has a beautiful soul and a really big heart.

This campaign is intended for people who know me and trust my good intentions. People who know how many hours I work watching small children to fund my world travels. People who know that I’ve spent my entire college career thus far taking social justice classes to try and find solutions to remedy all the pain and suffering in the world. People who know that I just want to give something to this deserving woman who has given me so much (life lessons, compassion, wisdom and more). People who trust that if I needed the money I would work for it (or find some scholarship) and I wouldn't create such an elaborate story in vain. People who would take the time to read this (because I know this Gofundme statement is longer than most…lol).

If you feel inclined to give at this point please feel free to do so. It is worth knowing that 1 U.S. dollar equals 15 South African rand. To put it into perspective, her rent is about $80 USD and a carton of eggs here costs less than $1. So any amount that you are able to give will go a very long ways.

Also, I will be leaving the country and returning to the states in just a few days so this campaign will end very soon. If you feel inspired to donate please do so now because this is not a running campaign that you will be able to return to at a later time. 

Below is an excerpt from the reflections section in the short book that I’ve written about her life for my school project. It tells the story of why I was inspired to ghostwrite her autobiography. Feel free to continue reading if interested.






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**Please note that Marleena is a pseudonym used in place of my granny's real name.

“…..One Thursday afternoon I sat in Marleena’s living room in Cape Town while a young woman stood in the bedroom and packed her belongings. Apparently the woman had left an abusive relationship and had been living in Marleena’s home with her two young children for the past three months. Three months prior to that day the woman had hopelessly wandered the streets with her children and knocked on Marleena’s door for refuge. On this Thursday afternoon the woman was packing her belongings because she had chosen to go back to her drug-addicted, abusive husband. I watched Marleena’s eyes swell with tears as she bid the woman and her children farewell. She closed the door behind them, sat down next to me and started balling.

For three hours Marleena told me of her previous marriages and experiences with domestic abuse. She shared her struggles of raising two children on her own as she cried uncontrollably. I held this seventy-year-old woman against my bosom while she cried like a baby. Considering what she had gone through, Marleena could not bare the sight of this young woman and her children returning to the man that had brought them so much pain.

As Marleena spoke I realized that her (real) initials were the same as my late grandmother’s and that their first names were different by only two letters. This surprising realization was emotionally overwhelming.

My paternal grandmother and Marleena shared the same pale complexion and had virtually the same name (they also would have been nearly the same age today). Like Marleena, my grandmother had been very abused during her lifetime (at the hands of her partners) and she also experienced single-motherhood. My grandmother passed away from cancer on the first day that I moved away to college. For years I have regretted that I never took the chance to learn more of her life story. I’ve also regretted the fact that I can’t see her today to show her the college-educated, worldly woman that I’ve become.

During Marleena’s cathartic moment, she mentioned that someone should write her story one day because she had so many stories to tell. Without thinking twice I volunteered to ghostwrite her autobiography. We spoke about this briefly and we quickly decided that the fascinating stories of her mother and grandmother should also be included in this “book” (I had to keep reminding her that it was a school project and not an official book. That it wouldn't be published in hard copy, shelved next to I am Malala and sold across America).

…..In less than two weeks, I returned to Marleena’s home with a pen, notepad and recording device in hand. From there our journey began.”