ST AUGUSTINE'S MASOTSHENI ? IS IT JEALOUSY OR JUST BEING TERRITORIAL?

MY LIFE-LONG FRIEND - 1969

In 1969 , just over a year after my father passed on , some phenomenal changes took place within my family set up . I was moved to live with my grandmother in Mhlungwane , near Barkleyside , in the Northern Natal . My grandmother lived in the same  vicity with his only surviving son , Charles Zigode , my father's baby brother , who owned a general dealer shop in the area . My mother had been a qualified teacher , who remained a housewife while my father was alive , my father's death , necessitated that my mother should seek employment to takeover the family's financial responsibility . For the duration of 1969 , she assisted at my uncle's shop until she was able to get a teaching post , at the beginning of 1970 .
I also started to attend school in 1969 , while living with my grandmother in Mhlungwane , but was again moved during that same year , to live with my mother's parents in Kwa Chwezi , just outside Nkandla . Muzomuhle Dladla , who later became my close friend , lived with his family very close to my grandparents's house . I had already started school when I moved to live in KwaChwezi . We soon became friends with Muzomuhle and got to the habit of playing together , sometimes after school and mostly over weekends . Our special place that we enjoyed visiting , was the local cemetery . What we liked most about playing in the cemetery , was cracking the artificial flower containers , which were usually put on the graves , and opening them up to gain access to the artificial flowers . I don't recall any reprimand from anyone , it's highly possible that we were never discovered but we played in the cemetery a couple of times . We were a good match because of our somewhat similar family backgrounds . Muzomuhle's father was an Anglican priest and his mother was a qualified school teacher . My grandfather had been a school inspector , who had become an Anglican priest and my grandmother was a qualified school teacher , who had become a housewife . Infact , Muzomuhle's mother and my mother grew up in the same vicinity and were both qualified school teachers .
Anyway , 1969 year drew to an end , and again I moved for my second grade and lived with my mother in an area called , Dalala near the School where she had just started working in 1970 .
Interestingly , my mother became my class teacher in 2nd grade .
My friend Muzomuhle's father got a transfer at the end of 1969 , and coincidentally, he was to be transferred to my home village parish of St Augustine's Anglican church in Masotsheni . This is where I was born and bred . My parent's home was also there . What a coincidence , we hooked up again with my friend Muzomuhle in December of the same year I had left my grandparents's home in KwaChwezi , leaving him behind . Little did we know that , our separation would be a very short one and that our reunion was going to translate into a life long friendship . In 1971 , I went back home for my Std
1 , and we went through the same local primary school in my home village with my friend Muzomuhle in St Augustine's Masotsheni . Our friendship grew even more during this period until we
, unfortunately , seperated for about two years when I moved to live in Durban , to do my secondary school levels . We , however, reunited again with my friend in our high school level . By this time , we were both teenagers , Muzomuhle had gone to Amangwe High School , in EMpangeni , in 1980 and I joined him in 1981. Amangwe High School , was a boarding school but only girls were boarders during our time . In the beginning of 1981 academic year , we organized ourselves a place to rent and we named our residence , " Jamaica" , this name had a connotation as you can imagine . Our residence was close to school , we soon realized that, this was by no means , an advantage for us , because of the uncontrollable high volume of our school friends who frequented our hood . Our parents  looked after us , they would send us money on regular basis to buy food and other necessities . We found ourselves having to share our food with a lot of friends from our school . Everyone would just pitch up in Jamaica to fill up , their tummies . This state of affairs would hit us hard every month , but our friendship never diminished instead it grew  stronger and stronger . The food that was supposed to take us through out the whole month would just get finished within the second week of the month.

We took seperate paths after high school , Muzomuhle worked in the Government Magistrate's offices in Newcastle and Nkandla for a while , but later on , trained as a teacher . I went on , to study Theology and became an Anglican priest . We never lost touch ever since 1969 , even after we both got married , our families exchanged family visits , up to this day . We still visit each other frequently and enjoy each others company , especially because we have shared so many life experiences together over the years . Our friendship owes it's growth and nurturing to the mountains and valleys of my village , St Augustine's Masotsheni . We grew up together .