This little woman is Colleens best friend. Colleen first befriended her because of her granddaughter - which we later discovered was a grandson, but where confused due to the language barrier.
Colleen is a young mother herself, so she would spend forever playing with the little kid. The kid, who is a year and a half old, was rather afriad of us at first, but warmed up and ended up looking happy to see us. He was terrified of the toy Colleen gave him, but would grab the container of food we brought for the grandmother and wouldn't let anyone touch it.
Thandi, her daughter -whom we later met - and the kid come from Durban. Thandi's daughter has AIDs, and the kid is positive too. Sleeping in the park and being dirty hasn't exactly been helpful, so the kid is sick a lot.
One time Thandi called us over and told us that the Metro cops set fire to their stuff and the kid got burnt. To our horror we were shown a giant infected burn on the child's leg. We got a whole bunch of ointments and disinfectants, and eventually it was healed.
Thandi's daughter eventually decided that she and the kid needed to go back home to Durban, where the family would help look after them when they got sick. It was a heartbreaking goodbye, as we knew we possibly would never see them again. Colleen spent hours saying good bye to the child. She also bought them a whole bunch of basic essentials to take with to Durban and helped pay for the ticket. We hope they are safe.
But back to Thandi. She is the sweetest lady, who always has something nice to say to us. She has a lot of friends - also from the streets. It's hard not to get along with her. She also sleeps by Chuckleberries. She is not much of a drinker, but if she does have a drink once in a blue moon - she tells us... I am not even sure why. I guess she just likes being honest. She recently started having dizzy spells and terrible headaches. It seems to be her blood pressure.
Colleen gave her a pair of black boots, which she absolutely adores.
Thandi's trademark is the scarf around her head and a big bright smile
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