the tarmac road becomes a sandy path. It overlooks hills, other houses and huts, interspersed with wasteland where plastic trash blown in by the coastal winds flutters. “Nice view”, the visitor says to Vuvu’s brother. “Really?” is his skeptical response. The groundBREAKERS from the township all come from very different backgrounds. Oshi, whose full name is Owethu Danster, went to a “My mom has always done everything she can to help me get on in life. We never went to bed hungry.” Babalwa Majola alias Bubbles, groundBREAKER private school and is now studying at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth. That is what Babalwa Majola, known as Bubbles because of her vivacious temperament and unruly hair, also intends to do. As a groundBREAKER, she works in a clinic as a health counsellor, gaining her first valuable practical insights. “My mom has always done everything she can to help me get on in life,” Bubbles says. “And we never went to bed hungry.” The kitchen in her mother’s house is a cozy room with an enormous stove. In the next room, her brother is cutting the hair of some other kids; the annex doubles as his salon and bedroom. Every morning, Bubbles’ mother still cooks food, fills two insulated boxes, and takes her cooking to the factories in Uitenhage to sell to the workers. Bubbles has a photo on her mobile phone showing her mother setting off in the mornings with the boxes on a trolley. “I quite literally owe who I am to those boxes.” Bubbles wants to say a big thank you to her mother when she has graduated. “We’re going to have an enormous party, mom, with masses of food.” The parents of groundBREAKER Ayanda Sali, 24, have also tried to give him as much support as possible. Ayanda, aka Einstein because of his love of math and IT, lives with his parents and two younger brothers on the outskirts of the township. The garden of his house is carefully looked after. Einstein’s father Amos grows pumpkins and strawberries, spinach and carrots there to feed the family. “They do great work,” his father says, referring to his son and the other groundBREAKERS. Einstein’s room is at the back of the house, a wooden shack right next to the henhouse. Inside, there is just enough space for a bed, a television set and an ancient cassette recorder, which he uses as a speaker for the computer. The wall is covered with handwritten notes, one of which says: “The only limit is the one that exists in your mind.” Einstein’s mind is not familiar with many Plenty of ideas and plans for the future: Einstein in his room behind his parents’ house. 64 limits. He has plenty of ideas – for example, he wants to write a program to create an app for a 3-D model of your body to try out new clothes or make up, which you can then order direct. “Who enjoys queuing up in a shop?” Unfortunately, his computer is on its last legs, so it is difficult for him to continue writing the code for the app. There are more limits in the real world than there are in his mind. He had a study bursary for university, but that meant getting up at three in the
67 Publizr Home