Roberta Jones

Ro was a weird girl. At least, everyone in the township where she lived thought so. Ro’s real name was Roberta Jones, but she was better known as Ro. She and her parents lived in a small, two-roomed shack in the outskirts of a big city. The township’s men travelled to the city on foot to try and sell homemade wares made by their wives’, daughters’ and young sons’ for a bit of money or food. The girls and the boys under the age of 14 helped their mothers make simple toys, little dream catchers and carved figures of wild animals.

 Ro had other ideas. You see, Ro had a talent for selling. She would go from door to door instead of standing at the traffic lights. She had a simple theory, that people in cars were rushed and in most cases, agitated, so they were not in the mood for people selling them little decorations and toys. Their houses were already filled with much more priceless items of finery than you could ever imagine, and their children had an endless supply of toys, including T.V’s, PSP’S and Xboxes. Now, at home, people would be more relaxed and maybe even tempted to buy some of the trinkets.

Once she had thought a great deal about this concept, she took some trinkets from her family’s stash, and set off to the city with her friends, Nadia and Joise .When they got there, they decided to try and sell some of the things. Fortunately, the first few houses they visited, owners were sympathetic, so they made R20,50 by selling 5 dream catchers. At the next house, they were invited in by a principal who asked them to tell her about themselves. So they did, and the principal, Mrs Grace thought for a few seconds. “Well, I can’t say your story isn’t sad, but how would your village’s children, and you, like to have lifetime scholarships to my school? You won’t have to pay for anything!!” Mrs. Grace smiled at their surprised faces. All the townships’ parents agreed, and all the children went to school that fall and had fun at their new school.