By Sbongile Nonyana
This is the time of the year where people gather together with their families and relatives, sit down and have small talks about enjoyable memories of growing up.
My family originates from Lesotho but my parents moved to South Africa in Vryheid eMondlo in the early seventies and shortly after that my eldest brother was born, followed by six of us.
Growing up, we used to enjoy the Christmas holidays because that was the only time we got to wear new clothes and eat special food.
At around 11 in the morning on Christmas day, we would be taking baths and wearing our new clothes. After that, we went from house to house asking for Christmas gifts, and in my village we would normally get sweets and biscuits.
Years have gone by and things have changed; food that we would only eat on Christmas is normally eaten every day of the week.
Now we only have barbecues with my family and children are not allowed to visit any of our households.
Due to how cruel the world is, we no longer trust each other with our children and unfortunately our children don’t get to enjoy Christmas like we did back when we were young.
For the past two years, Christmas has not been the same as I have lost my beloved father – my Papa – on 29 July 2020.
Every time when I get home from Gauteng during this period I am reminded that my father is no longer among us because he used to crack jokes and we would have father daughter time as I am his only child.
This year I have so many things to be grateful for as I graduated with my honor’s degree in April and successfully registered for my master’s degree.
Working at Scrolla.Africa has been a joyful ride because it has helped me further my studies as I aim to be a doctor in the next few years. My study is based on translation and interpreting and working as a translator helps a lot.
I pray and hope next year has nothing but blessings, joy, more money and more laughter.
Picturedabove: Sbongile Nonyana
Image source: Supplied
