My Education Fees

Free education is all in the news in South Africa. Here's how my own education was funded, by and large. It all began with British colonial home schooling on a remote island. Then we moved to Africa -- and my parents were poor. They sacrificially put me through Junior School, High School, then Bible College. I remember my mother's distress when school fees were increased from R10 to R12. My German grandfather generously sponsored a Master's Degree in Switzerland. However, I didn't obtain the degree. He stopped the funding when his protégé (me) just didn't apply himself. Many years passed, and the Russians made restitution to my family for property they had seized. Some of that money fell to me, and my late wife and I bought a house. But the house was seized by a mob. A year later, we wrested it back, and made a panic sale. I poured all of that money into an MA in the USA, and a US industrialist kindly paid one-third. I started writing seriously, too, and made enough money to pay for the rest of the MA in the USA, and all of an MTh in South Africa. At the end of it all, I didn't have enough money left to attend my last graduation. All in all, then, I obtained matriculation exemption, a DipTh, an MA, and an MTh. OBSERVATION: The "preciousness" of the education undoubtedly contributed to high grades. And I say that in the context of "rich kids" tricking their way through.