In Novusumzi Masala’s life, there are 13 of everything – 13 pairs of battered shoes scattered around her tiny two-bedroom house, 13 bowls stacked high above her sink, 13 stacks of homework to puzzle over every night. Instead, at age 78, Ms. Masala is busy raising a baker’s dozen of her grandchildren, scrambling to keep pace with everything from the rap beats thumping from their tinny cell phone speakers to the schedule of their anti-retroviral medicines and doctors’ visits. Recommended: Think you know Africa?

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