MALIVANI III

i love my school

"Brrrrrrrrhbruuuuuuh"

I woke up to the sound of this which i later learnt it was the school generator. No electricity here? Scratch that, that's not our story.

I stretched before I opened my eyes.
"Hey, sasa?" That was the girl standing beside my bed and my reply was,
"Why are people waking up in the middle of the night?"
She laughed saying it was already 4 o'clock. Time for morning preps. Okay! I was learning some new vocabularies here.

But wait, 4 o'clock? Ain't this some typa oppression? I hardly had sleep the whole night, please lemme sleep.

I stoop up, the blankets fell down my body. My feet tingled from the pressure of standing, they must have fallen asleep.

Ndunge, as she introduced herself, walked me outside to the bathroom.
What am I seeing here? All of them there were naked. In that spacious corridor of the washrooms. There were like 4 bathrooms and since it couldn't accommodate all, the rest used the varrander. Corridor maybe. Hall? I really don't know what to call it. Let's go with space.

"Mimi siogi hapa" that was me.

So we waited in line for the next vacant bathroom.
But why is she coming with me in 'my' bathroom?
She held a 5-litre jerrycan and two basins. Loooord!!! Ati now, one basin was for making soap (foam) and the other she poured clean water for cleaning off soap from the body.
Everyone was actually doing it. Everyone was in pairs. Everyone had soap and water for drying off.

The bell rang and morning preps was over. Did I even had a read? Well, don't ask me. The whole time I was starring at everyone in my class wondering what they were reading.
Back at home I never used to make study time for myself. Just made sure I utilized well class time. Period.

add me some porridge please

Now everyone got out seeming to know their assigned duties. Class sweepers and compound cleaners. Every picked up "brooms" (I quoted because they were just tree twigs combined to act as brooms) ready to clean up.

Later after like say 30min, everyone had a plate and spoon ready for breakfast. Must be a good one. I thought to myself.

Ndunge brought me my cup full of white porridge. Just so you may understand how she got my cup, she was now officially in charge of me so was my belongings as she put it across her allies.
They seemed older. Kumbe they were in class 8! Mmh, I kinda felt protected.

 I took a sip from my cup and how I wish you'd have seen my face then. It was salty. Plus made from maize flour. It had some lumps, which i came to know they are called MAKINDI, the favorite of the kids. please learn the vocabularies with me hehe.I gave it out.

Word had it that I cried all night in my bed and that I didn't want to be seen naked and that I'm from Coast. So I got everyone stealing glances at me.

"What's your name and please reply in Swahili" this standard 8 boy, I didn't get his name till date asked me as everyone burst out laughing.
He wanted to confirm about my accent. They all did.
I later realized that the cool kids in this school are actually from the coast.

And oh! We did not, by that time, have a school dining hall. Just a circular trees-shade which I happened to love.

 So now my small circle was made of std.8 kids. The boys teased me during meal breaks. Just to hear the coastal accent. This is good. It actually faded off my homesick during those breaks.

cool kids come from the coast