Page 115 - The Mending Season

have been together for years without this kind ofproblem. We have proven that it works, now lets prove to the rest of the world that it does. Lets show them what we know.”Mrs Allison looked at Sister Cecilia, who was standing at her side looking at us seriously.“The other thing,”Mrs Allison continued, “is that you are all - and I know we keep stressing this, but some people dont seem to listen - you are all in an English Medium school. Please speak English! Especially the Black girls. This is not a township school. You cannot speak your languages here.” She paused and started to say something but she seemed so overwhelmed that she only sighed heavily and wiped her eyebrows. I remembered the Portuguese girls speaking Portuguese in class and when they were sitting together at lunchtime.“We are all here for the same reasons,”added Sister Cecilia. “We want to provide education, knowledge, and that means education without prejudice. As Mrs Allison said, let us prove to the world that we can succeed at this. We have set an exam­ ple; let us continue to do so.” She paused and looked from one end of the lines of pupils to the other. Taking a deep breath, she added, “Girls, what you dont understand - and what you may not be able to understand because ofyour age - is that we are living in a time of making amends. Truces. Rightingwrongs. The past has been difficult and unfair for most of us, but that is no reason to take out anger on other people. This is a time offorgiveness. Forgive and forget - thats what the Bible teaches us.” She stopped and looked down at her hands, and then she nodded to herself. “Thank you, girls.”We said the Lords Prayer and were then sent back to class. As we walked, I approached KB and walked alongside her.“Did you read the SowetanT I was anxious to hear her opinion. I was ready to tell her how I now felt that we should tell the whole story and let people hear everything.115