Yesterday a colleague treated me to a Chicken Inn meal. Oh yes! Whilst for some it is an everyday lunch, for me it’s a once in awhile treat – what with two pieces of chicken and a few chips costing $48 000!

We made ourselves comfortable at one of the tables at Construction House, and I immediately dug into the chicken with great gusto. I was halfway through my meal when I got distracted by a scuffle at another table not so far from ours. Two street kids were begging food from a fat woman. The security guard immediately descended on them. They left only to hover just a few meters away. When the guard turned away, the street kids approached the woman again. From where I was sitting, the food in front of her seemed too much for one person. The woman scowled menacingly and drew her food closer to herself, shouting at the guard to “come and do your job!” Once again, the guard, who looked hungry himself, leapt into action and his baton swiftly descended on one of the urchin’s head.

For a moment things looked peaceful until the street kids suddenly returned accompanied by four others, this time bent on forcibly grabbing the food from the woman. The guard stood there helplessly as the vagrants swarmed all over the woman’s table. She stood up defensively, clutching chicken pieces to her bosom and shouted obscenities at the departing figures that had made off with most of her food. One of the urchins even had the nerve to spit on the remaining food on her plate.

Surprisingly the woman settled back in her chair, rearranged herself and the food she had managed to salvage, and picked out a piece of chicken to eat even though it had probably been spat on. She looked pissed off, yet adamant to finish her food. She continued to eat and ignored the guards suggestions to move to a safer table inside the fast food outlet.

Just then, a whole pack of street kids surrounded her, grabbing everything including the piece she was holding near her mouth and quickly made off.

This entry was posted on April 30th, 2007 at 9:48 am by Natasha Msonza and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.