Monsters

I once sat in an orphanage, pouring make-believe tea. The little girl I was playing with told me to add milk and sugela. I suppose I should have corrected her; should have told her that I would stir in the sugar and ignored the isiZulu word. The orphanage teaches the children to speak English, because English speaking children have a much better chance of finding new parents. I suppose I should have done that, but I couldn't bring myself to take away one of the last few words of her mother tongue. I put usugela into the tea.

I've visited homes that I wouldn't call houses. I stood outside an abandoned garage with a broken door. A young man – only a teenager, really – bent double to walk inside. Sewage-ridden water from the street seeped into the dank, dirty room. It was shelter of a kind; a place to keep things and a place to sleep. The boy cheerfully told us that the owner of the garage up the road allowed him to use the customers' bathroom. He explained how he earned enough to survive on the streets.

For a year I ran homework detention at a Centre of Concern school. Children came and went, but there was only one week that Malibongwe was not on detention. He was a creative, intelligent, energetic kid, but nobody had shown him how to put that energy into his schoolwork, or helped him to practise his reading every afternoon. Nobody made sure that every evening he did his homework. I smiled at him and laughed at his jokes. I helped him with the Maths he didn't understand. I listened to his crazy stories. A year later I had to move on. I hope he still has somebody to whom he can tell stories.

They tell me that on Halloween children dress up and try to scare each other. Where I come from, children don't go trick-or-treating. I would be lying if I said there aren't some that scare me. These children have lives that are full of tricks, but they don't see many treats. October the thirty-first is just another day for them.

Halloween may be about dressing up and eating candy, but it should also remind us of some very real monsters. This Halloween, I am taking up the challenge of fighting those monsters. I'll drop my change – and perhaps a little more – into the charity collection tin. I'll say a prayer for those in need. I'll look for a way to give a little time.

Care to join me on my monster hunt?