One day a very clever baby was born in Gungululu
in the Eastern Cape Her name was Sindiwe Magona She
was the oldest of eight children At night her grandmother
told magical stories about ogres and giants animals of the
forests great beasts and little creatures of the veld It
was Sindiwe's favourite time Sindiwe loved school and she dreamed
about being a teacher When Sindiwe became a teenager her
family organised a feast to celebrate She was given special
things to wear and a wise old man sang a
praise song to her Blessings long life May your ancestors
guard you Sindiwe trained to be a teacher She was
very excited to teach at her first school But there
weren't enough schools for black children and they had no
desks or books to write in This made Sindiwe feel
scared How could she be a good teacher when the
children had nowhere to sit She left the school to
work as a cleaner She worked in four different houses
Sometimes the people there treated her badly and Sindiwe became
very unhappy All this time Sindiwe studied Her hard work
paid off She won a scholarship to study at a
university in New York She and her three small children
packed their bags and flew across the sea to the
United States of America In New York Sindiwe studied to
become a social worker She wanted to help families make
their lives better When she finished studying the United Nations
gave Sindiwe a job Most of the countries in the
world meet at the United Nations to talk about their
problems Sindiwe told the world about South Africa and how
hard it was for black people living there The people
at the United Nations loved to listen to Sindiwe's stories
They wanted to learn more and more about South Africans
Perhaps together they could help to change things in South
Africa She worked at the United Nations for twenty years
while her children grew into adults But Sindiwe missed the
country where she was born She wanted to tell her
stories to the people at home So she packed her
luggage got on a plane and flew back over the
sea to Cape Town Sindiwe's love for books and stories
have helped her write piles and piles of books And
children and grown-ups love to read her stories Many people
call her Nomabali because she's always writing telling and reading
stories cloud link academy China xi'an Jerry Deng