A long, long time ago trees were classrooms and stones chairs

No walls, no roof, no cover from the rain, no books and definitely no textbooks!

Government never bothered to look, but the teacher just cooked.

In the sweltering heat and blistering cold we’d make our daily trip to the tree

Every school day gather under the tree to be cooked into the future.

My teacher always told me “you will be someone, someone to make change”

Old people always told us to work hard and forget our hardships, times will change

Times have indeed changed, and all that have disappeared, vanished!!

Schools are no longer trees but walls with roofs to protect from the rain and cold.

Here I am today, like my teacher said “someone special, someone to make change”

Everyday those words reverberate in my mind and flood my face with a smile.

Kilometres away in the river basin of Limpopo change is stagnant, no textbooks!

Government never bothered to look, but the teacher is still cooking

Amazing how times have changed to stay the same. I missed the tree!