Mr Ndou has something important to do - he's up early and washed and ironed his clothes the day before
- He's a nice person - feels guilty when his dog Mutsuku (the red one) finishes his food when he still has food in his own plate - but he is too poor to give more - but gives his own food anyway
- He is looking forward to getting his pension and it's a ritual for him to buy a Black Label on pension day
Signs that he is poor
- He doesn't have more food to give Mutsuku
- Beer is a luxury
- He lives in a zink house
- He doesn't have water in his house and uses the tap outside
- He rents in someone's yard
It's joyful in the taxi because many people are getting pension
The pension office says there is no money - Mr Ndou quickly prays (religious man)
He worries about Mutsuku not having food (selfless)
- They all get a white paper to take to the hospital - they fill it in and bring it back so you can apply again
Mr Ndou cries
The hospital is very far and when he gets there they say he must wait, they don't know about the forms
He says he'll come back the next morning
He says the government isn't looking after them anymore
- institution = antagonist
He doesn't want to take an avo from the tree because he feels sorry that he will eat and Mutsuku won't
He builds a fire and makes pap - separates it into two for Mutsuku and himself
He goes to the hospital the next morning
- They get sent away and have to return the next week
The lady he rents from is nice - she was also denied her pension - and doesn't bother him for money
He eats avo's and gives the dog pap
He's concerned the dog is becoming thinner - he loves the dog, it's his only companion
His need to not be alone is the most important
The next Monday he goes to hospital - they say he must go back in April (three months)
When the pap runs out for Mutsuku the radio says they must get pap from the hospital
NTK donated pap to help the poor
That night someone breaks in and steals the pap - he thinks one of the neighbours' children watched him
Mutsuku attacked them and is bleeding
He throws his blankets on the floor and lies next to hin
He asks boys to bring him wood in exchange for avo's - they laugh but do it when reprimanded by a teacher waiting in his car
The teacher also brings a bag of flour
At the clinic the doctor says he's becoming thin
- He asks for antibiotics for himself but it's actually for Mutsuku - there's pus in his wounds
- The doctor gives him vitamin pills instead because there's nothing wrong with him
- After three bad nights Mutsuku looks worse
- Mr Ndou cuts his own arm on the zink plates outside his house and rubs his dog's pus on it (he calls Mutsuku "his friend")
- His arm gets infected two days later, he goes to the clinic and they give him antibiotics
Mutsuku looks like he's dying, the teacher remarks when he comes again
Mr Ndou says he is his friend, he can't die
Mr Ndou is sick himself and eats some cold chicken
Mutsuku doesn't want to eat
He goes to the clinic again but isn't better - the doctor is concerned
Instead of saying he takes the pills, he says the pills are being taken (conveniently leaving out who is taking them)
They find out it's his dog that is sick
Mr Ndou must go in every second day so they can look after his wound
They give him antibiotics again
The English doctor goes running that evening and goes past Mr Ndou
- he sees something is wrong
- flat on the ground Mr Ndou sits - his head is bare and he is silent
- he is crying profusely
- the dog is dead
Thursday, 6 November 2014
'n Beter lewe vir Mams summary
Solly wakes up early from worry in the morning
- He's been looking for a decent job for three years
- He has matric with exemption but for what?
- Irony: he works hard in school to get somewhere in life but battles to find work in an honourable field
- He has to wake up early and do manual labour (he's a builder)
He has to look after his brothers Yaboob en Yusuf and his mother who lost her job because the factory closed down
- He goes to work on the train from Manenberg
Solly was a protester in high school and held illegal political meetings and was in jail
He meets Sabu who is also a builder and Xhosa
- Sabu has a friend who has work for them
- They can make a lot of money
- Five thousand rand to sell pills in Manenberg
- He knows his mother will be upset
- The friend gives them a box with packets of cigarettes - the drugs are in the bottom packets
- He gets his friend China to help (he's a gang leader in Manenberg)
- He worries how he is going to explain the money to his mother - he says he found a wallet
- He buys lots of groceries and his mother says nothing
- He gets the nickname "Die Don"
- His life changes radically, he has lots of money, Yusuf and Yaboob get bicycles, new school shoes
- By the time his mother realises something is wrong, he has a whole team working for him
- When he mother asked him straight, he couldn't lie to her
- Irony - he did it to make his mother happy and it is making his mother sad/she doesn't accept it
- China drives a white Mercedes and this makes the neighbours suspicious
- Solly wants to leave Manenberg and is just waiting to make enough money
- One night the police come and arrest Solly
- He was found with one million rands worth of drugs
- A week later a letter arrives:
- He askes his mother for forgiveness
- She forgives him but he never knows it because he is killed before the can speak to him (irony)
- There was a fight in the cell and he was stabbed
Woordeskat:
1. kanalla – asseblief.
2. tamaaf – vergewe of verskoon my
3. maaf – vergifnis
4. labarang - Eid, Viering van die fees van Ramadaan
5. tramma kassie – dankie.
6. Ya Allah – O God
- He's been looking for a decent job for three years
- He has matric with exemption but for what?
- Irony: he works hard in school to get somewhere in life but battles to find work in an honourable field
- He has to wake up early and do manual labour (he's a builder)
He has to look after his brothers Yaboob en Yusuf and his mother who lost her job because the factory closed down
- He goes to work on the train from Manenberg
Solly was a protester in high school and held illegal political meetings and was in jail
He meets Sabu who is also a builder and Xhosa
- Sabu has a friend who has work for them
- They can make a lot of money
- Five thousand rand to sell pills in Manenberg
- He knows his mother will be upset
- The friend gives them a box with packets of cigarettes - the drugs are in the bottom packets
- He gets his friend China to help (he's a gang leader in Manenberg)
- He worries how he is going to explain the money to his mother - he says he found a wallet
- He buys lots of groceries and his mother says nothing
- He gets the nickname "Die Don"
- His life changes radically, he has lots of money, Yusuf and Yaboob get bicycles, new school shoes
- By the time his mother realises something is wrong, he has a whole team working for him
- When he mother asked him straight, he couldn't lie to her
- Irony - he did it to make his mother happy and it is making his mother sad/she doesn't accept it
- China drives a white Mercedes and this makes the neighbours suspicious
- Solly wants to leave Manenberg and is just waiting to make enough money
- One night the police come and arrest Solly
- He was found with one million rands worth of drugs
- A week later a letter arrives:
- He askes his mother for forgiveness
- She forgives him but he never knows it because he is killed before the can speak to him (irony)
- There was a fight in the cell and he was stabbed
Woordeskat:
1. kanalla – asseblief.
2. tamaaf – vergewe of verskoon my
3. maaf – vergifnis
4. labarang - Eid, Viering van die fees van Ramadaan
5. tramma kassie – dankie.
6. Ya Allah – O God
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Lied oor Niemandsland summary
Evert returns from being a captive of war a year after the town is divided in two by a new boundary line/a fence manned by guards
- He was away for five years
- The old market plain was flattened
- The day he returns his mother is waiting at the station
- She leads him home:
* It probably looks different and he won't know the way
* She's happy to see him
* She wants to tell him about Anna his fiancee who is on the other side - he wanted to marry her
* It's dangerous
- She tells him a boy was shot one night by the fence
- He finds work in the factory behind the station and every night on his way home he stares across the fence to Niemandsland (no man's land)
- One night he comes home and a girl is there - his mother is trying to set him up
* She wants grandchildren
- She says he's throwing his youth away - Anna is engaged to another
- His mother says he people on the other side are bad, they throw stones and curse them with names they learnt on the other side
- The next evening he goes home and gets his guitar
- He goes to the fence and tells the guard his girlfriend is on the other side
- He says he'll respect the fence and starts singing
- The guards find it amusing and want to see if she's still his girlfriend
- She didn't come and he went home
- He tells his mother that night that if Anna comes to listen to him, he'll marry whoever his mother wants
- The next night he goes again and plays and sings to her
* He sees Anna coming
* She was wearing a red dress and braided hair
* She sings along with him
* The townspeople gathered and listened to them, some sang along
- He thanked Anna afterwards
* She confirms she's engaged to someone else
* He says it doesn't matter, because she came
* He says one day the town will be one again and maybe their children will marry. He hopes God will bless her.
- For one night, and for a long time in remembrance, song crossed the boundary of Niemandsland to create a proud peace out of one man's pain and to be a messenger to all who heard
- He was away for five years
- The old market plain was flattened
- The day he returns his mother is waiting at the station
- She leads him home:
* It probably looks different and he won't know the way
* She's happy to see him
* She wants to tell him about Anna his fiancee who is on the other side - he wanted to marry her
* It's dangerous
- She tells him a boy was shot one night by the fence
- He finds work in the factory behind the station and every night on his way home he stares across the fence to Niemandsland (no man's land)
- One night he comes home and a girl is there - his mother is trying to set him up
* She wants grandchildren
- She says he's throwing his youth away - Anna is engaged to another
- His mother says he people on the other side are bad, they throw stones and curse them with names they learnt on the other side
- The next evening he goes home and gets his guitar
- He goes to the fence and tells the guard his girlfriend is on the other side
- He says he'll respect the fence and starts singing
- The guards find it amusing and want to see if she's still his girlfriend
- She didn't come and he went home
- He tells his mother that night that if Anna comes to listen to him, he'll marry whoever his mother wants
- The next night he goes again and plays and sings to her
* He sees Anna coming
* She was wearing a red dress and braided hair
* She sings along with him
* The townspeople gathered and listened to them, some sang along
- He thanked Anna afterwards
* She confirms she's engaged to someone else
* He says it doesn't matter, because she came
* He says one day the town will be one again and maybe their children will marry. He hopes God will bless her.
- For one night, and for a long time in remembrance, song crossed the boundary of Niemandsland to create a proud peace out of one man's pain and to be a messenger to all who heard
Die engelman summary
Main plot
Chris is in Dover (England) and misses his girlfriend Natalie
He almost didn't go because he met her - he asked her to come with but she went to Maties instead
Chris enjoys literature, therefore Dover as a space:
- Charles Darwin walked there
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman was written and filmed there
- Parts of Possession (book and film) are set there
- Natalie shared this affinity for literature
- It is cold and gray in Dover
Chris drives a taxi as an occupation which pays well and he saves a lot
- He is saving for his studies (engineering)
- He is hoping to also get bursaries later on
- He is busy when the ships dock
- He has a very good English accent and makes the people feel at home
He is nicknamed "Ou Suurknol" for being so serious
Natalie dumps Chris with a Dear John letter
- She met someone in Stellenbosch, who is closer
He gets four customers, South Africans - two guys and two girls
- They are late for their ship
- He finds the one girl very attractive, think and pretty
- He understands them but they don't know he's Afrikaans
- He sees she's wearing a cross - Christian - he thinks his dad will approve, even though his dad doesn't approve of mixed race relationships
- She calls him an "engelman" (angel man) - a play on words for Englishman - she says it's correct because he's their angel in time of need and drives over the speed limit to help them
- She says she'd like to kiss him but she's scared he'll charge her with sexual flirtation or something
- She says she impressed because she sees he reads impressive things: Umberto Eco (becomes a symbol of their mutual love for literature) - she also reads it, it's very rare, she also has a lot of books in her bag
- She says he has a cute behind
- She returns to London in three days for two whole days
- He runs after her, tells her she forgot something, gives her his book and writes: For the only other person who reads Eco, I know you're docking in London in three days, I'll be there. Here's my cell number. Thanks, Chris
- She takes it and waves to him
That evening he goes to have a beer away from the South-Africans
- He is antisocial
- He doesn't like the South Africans because they are drunkards who just want to score with English girls
- He has a pie
- He feels isolated from his parents who wouldn't approve of him being in a bar - they won't understand that he doens't need to get drunk to sit there
- His phone vibrates -it's her:
"Blushed so much :-( too scared to phone. Thanks x 10! You are an angel man. Yes for London. But slow please. Will sms again when I stop blushing. Silina xxx
Chris is in Dover (England) and misses his girlfriend Natalie
He almost didn't go because he met her - he asked her to come with but she went to Maties instead
Chris enjoys literature, therefore Dover as a space:
- Charles Darwin walked there
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman was written and filmed there
- Parts of Possession (book and film) are set there
- Natalie shared this affinity for literature
- It is cold and gray in Dover
Chris drives a taxi as an occupation which pays well and he saves a lot
- He is saving for his studies (engineering)
- He is hoping to also get bursaries later on
- He is busy when the ships dock
- He has a very good English accent and makes the people feel at home
He is nicknamed "Ou Suurknol" for being so serious
Natalie dumps Chris with a Dear John letter
- She met someone in Stellenbosch, who is closer
He gets four customers, South Africans - two guys and two girls
- They are late for their ship
- He finds the one girl very attractive, think and pretty
- He understands them but they don't know he's Afrikaans
- He sees she's wearing a cross - Christian - he thinks his dad will approve, even though his dad doesn't approve of mixed race relationships
- She calls him an "engelman" (angel man) - a play on words for Englishman - she says it's correct because he's their angel in time of need and drives over the speed limit to help them
- She says she'd like to kiss him but she's scared he'll charge her with sexual flirtation or something
- She says she impressed because she sees he reads impressive things: Umberto Eco (becomes a symbol of their mutual love for literature) - she also reads it, it's very rare, she also has a lot of books in her bag
- She says he has a cute behind
- She returns to London in three days for two whole days
- He runs after her, tells her she forgot something, gives her his book and writes: For the only other person who reads Eco, I know you're docking in London in three days, I'll be there. Here's my cell number. Thanks, Chris
- She takes it and waves to him
That evening he goes to have a beer away from the South-Africans
- He is antisocial
- He doesn't like the South Africans because they are drunkards who just want to score with English girls
- He has a pie
- He feels isolated from his parents who wouldn't approve of him being in a bar - they won't understand that he doens't need to get drunk to sit there
- His phone vibrates -it's her:
"Blushed so much :-( too scared to phone. Thanks x 10! You are an angel man. Yes for London. But slow please. Will sms again when I stop blushing. Silina xxx
Links to short stories
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/die_engelman.pdf
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/mutsuku.pdf
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/lied_oor_niemandsland.pdf
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/n_beter_lewe_vir_mams.pdf
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/mutsuku.pdf
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/lied_oor_niemandsland.pdf
http://afrikaans-afrikaans.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/5/8/5358755/n_beter_lewe_vir_mams.pdf
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