Mermaid: By Yolisa Nyoka
Dark, untamed, mystical and beautiful with long red hair. One might think that I am describing a majestic creature, when in fact it is my interviewee. Sitting restlessly on her chair, fidgeting with a white cut-up cloth, eyes wide up as if wanting to desperately construct a clear answer for the questions I am about to ask. With no set of questions, planning to make my interview into a normal conversation between friends is what I wanted to accomplish.
Born to a single parent, Faith, who is from Namibia in the City of Windhoek, was, destined for strange things. “My childhood was pretty normal, I did what kids normally do; I climbed trees went to school had friends etc”. Faith’s father had four children; he was never married to Faith’s mother. The one sibling that she was close to was her sister who is her Step-mothers daughter. One can immediately sense the strong bond these two sisters have by their mere interaction with each other. Even though they did not grow up with each other, and also only share one parent (their father). The bond is still visible.
As a child growing up in Windhoek, Faith described herself as Tomboy, always hanging out with boys and being friends with them, with no certain interest in them what so ever. Another contrast of Faith’s personality of the person that she is right now and what kind of person that she was when she younger is that she was more gullible, timid and naïve. “When I look at myself now; I’m harder on myself, rude, sarcastic, optimistic and friendlier”. The habit of always looking for the good side of people even when they are infamously known as individuals with a bad streak led to her being so naïve and gullible, but with that judgement in her mind problems arising in her friendships in her growing cease to exist.
Like any other child growing up Faith had dreams, and like any other kid, those dreams varied. The earliest dream she could recall was when she was in Grade 3. “I remember in school a magician came and showed us all these amazing tricks, for my young mind I thought that was so cool! And I wanted to be that. Then I had another dream of becoming a gymnast, but after the first day of practice, I told myself JACK (hell no!!), I’m not putting myself through that kind of pain. Another dream that I remember wanted was to be a horse-rider, but that ambition did not work out so nicely”. Being thrown off and seconds being trampled on by a not so well trained horse is no joke!
As a scholar diligence and perfectionism was the order of the day with no room what so ever for acting foolish and going astray. But as a snake needing to peel of its skin and a caterpillar needing to breakout of its cacoon and becoming a beautiful Butterfly, one need to, in any time of their lives break free of the mould that their friends, family or society have placed them in. And that is exactly what Faith did. One can say that Faith definitely came out of her shell. “After Grade 7, I sort of came out of my shell, and started to be more carefree. I remember in Grade 8 I got suspended from school because me and my friends broke into a tuckshop and stole lollipops and at that time I lived in a hostile”. Instead of becoming care free being of an advantage it soon became a twisted cycle of failing subjects at school, sneaking out of hostels and going out to adult clubs with heavy make-up, and excessive drinking. Issues of between Faith and her mom did not help matters either. “ Me and my mom now have a close and communicative relationship, in the past all I knew from her were constant verbal and physical abuse, there was even a time when I moved in with my dad because of the issues we had, but that is all in the past now.
With the inspiration of being a fan of CSI and excelling in her school work, having done her O and A levels before coming to Rhodes, doing Forensics is now the goal that is set in plan. Rhodes was definitely the order of the day, after a late reply from University of Pretoria and being taken for a BSc from Stellenbosch, It was just destiny.
“Rhodes is very consuming, sometimes you don’t know how to balance things, when I came here I wanted to be who I am, unfortunately that didn’t work out” The positive aspect that Faith has seen is her friends who she feel has brought out the best of her.