Abandoned Life ~ Autobiography:  Part Four

Tinka’s Pets

Tinka had a tamed baboon that gave her many hours of joy.  They use to play ball with the dogs and ostrich, all chasing the ball.  The baboon would sit on the big birds back or hanging on its feathered tail swinging and running at times without letting go.  Then the dog would try to rescue the bird but chasing the baboon away; a funny farm scene for sure.

One day Tinka saw the baboon playing with a frog; now that was fun to watch.  She would hold the frog by his feet, head hanging between her legs and each time the frog moved she would open her legs wider.  Then the frog would play dead and hang still.  After a few seconds she would pull the frog’s toes apart and then it would move again.  She played with that frog till it was dead and dried out like a piece of wood.

One day Tinka tied a dead scorpion on the tip of the baboon’s tail.  The baboon almost fainted.  Each time she would swing her tail from one side to the other it would land up between her feet, she would jump and run away till she had to sit down and then repeated the action.  She then fled into the tree just to let go and fell real hard on her sleeping quarters.  Tinka had a hard time calming her down enough to remove the scorpion.  For days she did not trust anyone.  Finally Tinka made peace by making some custard knowing how her baboon loved it.  Soon after that they were good buddies again.  She would sit with her legs wrapped around Tinka’s waist and fall to sleep bathing in the sun.  Sometimes even Tinka would take a nap with her.  When the baboon would wake up first she would start searching for fleas on Tinka all over her head and body until she got bored, then she would give Tinka a nip where ever she got tired of searching.  Neck, back legs even her boobs; no place was off limits.  Just a nip and then she would jump off and run away teasing Tinka to play with her.

School years became hard when Tinka’s dad got sick.  He had lead poisoning that almost took his life being hospitalized for ninety-three days.  He came home for a week and then had to go back for a stomach ulcer.  The doctors had to do surgery and while all this was going on Tinka had to travel from school to hospital and write exams at the same time.  As a result she did not do too well in school and failed for the first time.  No one could understand the reason why she failed but the illness of her father and the long hours running between hospitals and school took its toll on her; once again paying the price of humiliation from many.  She took it all to heart and closed up knowing she could trust no one she cared for.  She went back to school in the new year, just to be back at square one again, when her parents decided to move yet again and she had to go to another school.

April 1968 Tinka and her family moved to Cradock to start a new life after her dad had to work for six months for a non-governmental company.  In those days they were not allowed to go from one government job to another.  They had to travel by car for two days with the prospect of a new home, school and new friends.  But on arrival they found out there was no house available as promised.  Her parents had to scatter around to find a place to live.  After many hours and starved to death they found the most horrible place but they had no choice and had to make the best of it.  That night they almost froze to death.  They did not know Cradock was such a cold place.  They did not have enough warm clothes to keep them warm, coming from a total different place with a different climate where they hardly ever wore jackets.  Within a few hours the next day mom made a plan to get heaters and warm clothes for everyone at a secondhand store.  To us it was as good as new, and to happy to be warmly dressed.

The next week Tinka and sister Wallace had to go back to school; an all girls-high school.  That was a strange experience for them because they were in mixed schools all their life.  Just imagine no boys to bully you.  By that time both Naas and Toeks finished school.  Naas was in the Police force and Toeks was doing his first year of military training.  Coping with the new school created a hard time for Tinka and her sister. The subject choice was completely different from the schools they came from.  Tinka had to take accounting and German instead of Needlework and Xhosa, which was not easy.  But accounting came easy after a while.  Tinka enjoyed German but was fooling around knowing that she would not do that forever.  Actually, she liked the teacher more than the subject itself and daydreamed about him too much, a cute blonde male.  One day he called her and asked her to do him a big favor.  Tinka was all ears and smiles, thinking he noticed her at last.  But to her utter disappointment he asked her NOT to go on with German the next year because she does not cope well with the language.  Tinka just gave him a shocked look; it knocked the wind right out of her sails.  She turned around and closed up like a shell, with revenge in her heart.  Tinka’s way of getting even was to become the best student in his class and then when he tried to convince to keep it going she just told him what to do with his German and stuff it where it hurts; not realizing she was only hurting herself.