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Now, since I couldn't teach any more there, I left Pardieberg and went to Bloemfontein to look for work. I got work there as a domestic worker only. I stayed with the relative of a friend of mine, Ariah Bookholane. I had been at school with Ariah, but now she lived in Port Elizabeth. Bloemfontein was not such a good place to live in. I was not so happy there. My children were living with my brother in Kimberley because I could not have them with me in Bloemfontein, and the work was not good. Also the wages were very bad, and the people were very rude. Ariah used to write to me sometimes from Port Elizabeth and after a time she wrote to me to come and stay with her. She thought Port Elizabeth was a better place, people work better there. I didn't like Bloemfontein, so I caught a train to Port Elizabeth and went to stay with her in New Brighton.
In those days it was much easier because I didn't have a pass. Women didn't have passes yet then, and so I could go and work wherever I wanted to, not like now. It was about the beginning of the war, 1939 or thereabouts when I got to Port Elizabeth, and then I had to look for work. There was a lot of work around that time because of the war. Lots- of men were going to fight in the war, and there were a lot of things to be made for the war, and so they had to use black workers in the factories. And they started to use black women in the factories around that time too. There were a lot of industries in Port Elizabeth, and so there were lots of jobs.
But I got work as a domestic worker again, working in some white people's house, cooking and cleaning. I remember my first job was at Summerstrand, right near the seaside. My employers were not bad; they were nice people, and I enjoyed it. Of course, in those days people were not paying well. I can't remember how much I received, but it was just a little bit. But at least there in the Eastern Cape they paid better than they did in the Free State - that was where they paid really badly. But then prices went up because of the war, and so it was not very easy.
I didn't have a house of my own to stay in so I used to stay in the yard there at the house where I was working. It was a small little room, with a very little window, and a toilet next door. But it was better like that, because sometimes I would finish up late, especially with the Jewish people. They used to have late dinners in the evening, and when you came out of the kitchen you are so tired you just go to your room and sleep. But it was not so bad. When I was new to the town I did not know many people, but then I made friends with some other people who worked nearby, so it was not too lonely. And sometimes I would be with some friends and then perhaps we would go to the seaside or something.