My first year in South Africa - 18 June 1952 Continued

18 June 1952 Continued

We have driven past locations several times since we arrived and the conditions under which the black people live are quite awful. Dolly said there is no running water apart from a standpipe which serves the street nor any sewage and the roads are unpaved. The houses are little more than two room shacks which often house a family of six or more. Dolly says this as though it is their fault and she puts down the conditions they live under  to their laziness. Seems to me the white people here do not see (or do not want to see) that lack of government action on behalf of the Bantus and low wages and poor education have a lot to do with the conditions they are forced to exist under. One could hardly call it living.

As far as I can see their apparent laziness is due to a poor diet (mostly mealie meal made from maize) and the resulting lack of energy as well as having to get up at an early hour to get to work. William who services the flat lives on the roof but has to get up early to get through his work. They work long hours doing the jobs that many whites don’t want to or cannot do themselves because it is too hard. Not many white women want to get down on their hands and knees 6 days a week rubbing up the floors in their own flat let alone four flats, plus cleaning the bathroom and all the other duties.

The maid I have taken on, Elizabeth, will have to leave home at  6 and, from what I have heard from Mrs B, will travel on a dangerously overcrowded train to get to work by 8. This overcrowding is something that she finds amusing as though it is of their own choosing.  Many ‘madams’ expected their ‘girls’ to start work at 7 and work until 7 or after because they are expected to wash the supper dishes. It’s no wonder the maids prefer live in jobs but even those jobs have disadvantages being at the beck and call of their ‘madams’ day and night. Jobs are in short supply so they say they can cook, wash, iron, clean and look after babies and sound quite skilled until they start work.

20 June

Elizabeth has a very pleasant manner but have never found there was enough work to warrant keeping her on after lunch. She washes and irons like a dream. Knows when to strip the beds and change the towels without being told. Leaves the kitchen spotless and gives the floor in there a polish before she leaves to go home. She then comes in to see me when she has finished and says me ‘All finished, missie’ and I, so I am told, am expected to go round the flat to see that this is so.

30 June

The hospital advised me to feed Ann every four hours but I have found that because of  rich milk and over production Ann either has difficulty feeding sometimes taking an hour to feed or does not wake up for her next feed.
Someone has suggested demand feeding and I have tried it and find it works out better during the day, allowing her to decide when she wants a feed. She usually wakes at 5.45 and 10 in the evening for her last two feeds. This suits us fine. John arrives home at 5.15,  she is bathed at 5.30, fed at 5.45 and  put down to sleep in her crib at 6. She doesn’t wake for her last feed until ten which means that I have plenty of time to prepare dinner and we can have the evening to ourselves.
Mrs B was horrified when I told her I had gone on to demand feeding. She insists her way is the best, after all, she said. ‘I have trained as a nurse’. I asked John about this and he said his mother had never nursed and had taken no training and the only nursing she did was when her mother died.

6 July

Walter leaves work at 5.30pm and Mrs B has decided that 6.30 is the time which suits her best for visiting and they have started coming over unexpectedly several times a week after Ann has been put down in her cot. Is she doing this deliberately? It throws out our routine and completely messes up dinner preparation and the rest of the evening. Walter has to drive home, pick her up, and drive over to us.
She always has to see the baby and despite being asked not to wake Ann, who once woken remains wide awake for the rest of the evening, stands by the cot, lowering the side, fiddling with the blanket - pulling it down, tucking it in. When that doesn’t work she talks loudly until Ann wakes and has a little grizzle whereupon she insists on picking her up ‘now she’s awake’.  Then Ann is brought into the lounge and played with for 15 minutes, like a doll, and then when thoroughly awake is handed back to me. They then  left because they have to return home to serve their guests dinner at seven. Mrs B is so dominating and I feel unable to stand up to her most times. Once she has made up her mind to something there is no stopping her. Everything I do is wrong in her eyes.

18 July

John spoke to his mother about the inconvenience of having her call so often after Ann was put down at 6. At first she suggested that I catch the bus over a couple of times a week to visit but I objected because there is too much to carry and manage.  Now she has arranged that Walter will pick us up a couple of times a week just before lunch and take us over and then she can have the afternoon with Ann. John catches the bus to join us after work and W ran us home at the end of the evening.
 

23 July

Elizabeth wants to find a job nearer where she works and has left so, at John’s insistence, I have found another named Philomena who is not half so good!

26 August

Brian took us for a drive in his old black Citroen. It was a bit of a squeeze in the car. Brian, John, me, Ann in her carrycot and Taika. We parked on a small kopjie by the side of a track and let Taika out for a run. H hadn’t a run for ages and he loved it. We left Ann in her carrycot in the back of the car to have a look at the view. The lads were standing about 10 foot away from the car while I was stood a few paces from it. I looked back over my shoulder and realised  the car was slowly moving backwards down the hill and let out a yell. The boys turned and made a mad rush for the car and Brian managed to stop it before it reached the bottom. Gave me quite a fright. Ann, bless her, didn’t wake up.
Meanwhile Taika was having a great time with no one watching him and had found a pile of rotting smelly dung and was rolling in it.  Getting him home was quite a problem because no-one wanted him near them. We wrapped him in an old blanket Brian had in the boot to get him home and once there Taika was locked on the stoep until we could bath him.