Musical talent lives on the steet

Darvel grew up in Kensington with her parents and twelve relatives. She’s the 10th child.

She described how she ended up living on the street. Her sister started living on the streets before her. One day Darvel went looking for her sister and she decided that life on the streets is not that bad because she had freedom and was able to do whatever she wanted without the rules and regulation of home. Darvel says she had got involved with the wrong friend and started using drugs which lead her to the streets.

She sleeps on Wesley Street with three other friends. She says it is safe where they sleep and nobody bothers them. In the morning my friends and I go scratching in bins. We search for valuable things like cameras and cell phones then sell them. I try to get copper and paper and take it to the scrapyard to get money.

She says the skarrel (hussle) on the street is not always good and that right now it’s tough.

In 2007, a group from Sweden heard Darvel singing on the streets and asked her to join them in a studio. She says for her it was all just a dream. Later they produced a film of Darvel and her life on the street and her tour to Sweden where she performed live. Darvel explains it was hard to adapt to the changes. She missed the streets and her friends and would start crying and it just got too much where she came back to the streets to live with her boyfriend who later died. I worked last year as a film producer in Milnerton and whenever I got paid I made sure I would always buy the my friends food because I believe “When you up there never forget where you come from, because you can fall right down again.”

She says that winter is the worst time to be on the street. “Your bed is wet and it’s really tough but there’s a reason that everything happens and that I am on the street. Many times my mom would come look for me and my sister and beg us to come home. We would eventually go home for a day or two then run away back to the streets.”

“This year I joined a group called Dance for Life where we express music and dance by telling our story to youth. We travelled to Florida and California. It was a great experience. I would always network with people across the world because as you get older those people can open doors for you. I’m getting older now and I don’t always want to live on the streets. I want people to listen to my music and hear my story. I want to motivate and be a role model for other street kids. My adventure in California got cut short due to the passing of my mother so I had to come home.”

“Next year I will tour with the Swedish group in Iceland. I want to see how that goes.”