SDUDLA is singing the hymn softly as the lights go up.

SDUDLA: Hey, buy an orange and the juice will open your eyes.

MAMPOMPO [looking around downstage]: Where are the people today? It's getting late. I must sell more chickens, otherwise Mrs Ntlebi will give me the sack.

MAMBHELE: Why don't you sell your chickens on credit?

MAMPOMPO: Hayi, hayi, Mambhele, you know Mrs Ntlebi won't allow me to do that.

MAMBHELE: Mampompo, can't you see that there are green flies on your chickens?

SDUDLA: Hayi, it's because your chickens are very expensive, nobody wants to buy them.

MAMPOMPO: Sdudla, do you remember that day Mrs Ntlebi came here and shouted at me because I didn't sell enough chickens?

MAMBHELE: That one, she does what she wants with you, pays you R2 a day. Have you seen the smart car she bought herself? While you stand working here in the rain and sun, she is driving in it. What is this bonus business you are talking about?

MAMPOMPO: If I sell a lot of chickens she gives me an extra 20 cents for every chicken.

MAMBHELE: How many extra chickens?

MAMPOMPO: That depends on how she is feeling.

MAMBHELE: Now you know why I am my own boss.

MAMPOMPO: I can't afford that. At least I’m sure of my R2 a day. You don't know how much you are going to get and sometimes you sell very little, just like today.

SDUDLA starts making the sound of a helicopter. MAMBHELE and MAMPOMPO join in. They mime as if it is flying overhead and duck as it goes past.

SDUDLA: There must be trouble somewhere, that bird has been flying over us all day.

MAMPOMPO: Don't let it come here, let it happen in the other townships. Mrs Ntlebi will deduct money from me if anything happens to her chickens.

MAMBHELE: People say her house in the township is beautiful – just like a white person’s. Why don't you leave her?

MAMPOMPO: Shit, it's nice working here. I’m even used to this brutal murder. I even dream about the sound of chickens.

SDUDLA [makes the sound of chickens, making fun of the other two]: Chickens, chickens.

MAMPOMPO: Thula, Sdudla. Thula, Sdudla.

MAMBHELE: She is starting again.

MAMPOMPO: Sdudla, go and sell somewhere else. I’m sick and tired of your nonsense.