08.19.08
By Patrick L Okeyo
The Night comes, chicken to their chicken house, birds on tress into their nests, cows to their Boma, dogs are watchmen of the night meaning they will be rewarded milk in the morning. Sheep along with goat have to stay here where I sleep on a cow skin. There were mattress those days for the few, to make it worse not for bad kids; I used to wet the bed so the mattress wasn’t available for me. Cow skin was the suitable choice so in the morning it is taken out to dry in the sun.
I used to go to school without breakfast but with roast corn stick “Mahindi Choma”. I carried like two of them one for me and the other to share. Sharing culture in Africa. Share!
Every life in school was to share, have discipline like a sheep and respect the elderly. There was nothing like wearing a long trousers except if one wanted to be stamped “competing with teachers”. Long trousers were only for adults not students and pupils. My head was like a football field shaved to the bottom with a razor by my grandma to show a hygiene and cleanness. Of course discipline was the highest aim on this like village soldiers.
Anyway in those days a prisoner was better than a student! A prisoner was better than a pupil. A tortoise was better than a nursery kid.
Eeeeh! No long nails unless one was asking for a cane! “Kiboko ni cha mtoto mkolovyo” The cane is for a problematic child.
The school wasn’t near, but a walking distance about three miles. Walking was a routine along the foot paths. No shoes! I mean shoes! Shoes were for a special journey so they were hanged on the wall waiting for the journey. Dreams! The growing dreams while the foot was growing that may make shoes small-dreams!
Taking a shower in those days was a dream and a resentful dream, no treated water and no water taps. The only shower I saw and I used to shower was a God provided shower “Rain”. The rest of the miracles with showers were done at the river where there was a water fall. Swimming in dirty water was a childhood hobby. Not a laughing matter.
The cloud and thunderstorm made natural water taps to run high for us. So we used the water for arts and crafts. Clay soil was to make pots and mugs. So I learned types of soils, loam soil, sand soil and clay soil; Arts and Crafts teachers! Ooh Painful but better than sports teachers who used to give us just six inches of sugar cane during sports day. I should have stayed home but who wants to be canned?
A lady who visited our village in those days from UNICEF said “You kids look beautiful and healthy”. She didn’t take our samples to the lab for examination; but anyway we looked healthy. “ Don’t charge the cup from outside but later from inside”.
In boarding schools no letter was received by a student without being opened by school administration. Wee! No joke. No kissing at all amongst students unlike the western countries. The headmaster never shaved his beards and he looked like what you can imagine. My head was shaved like a soccer field in Brazil; it looked like a mirror.
The teacher was the master and final, the parent was only to get information about the pupil’s performance. Teachers never took into account about bed bugs in dormitories, but were interested only in academic, food and school regulations.
These teachers used to command school girls to go to their houses and sweep their houses; I mean sweep their houses. Then in the next few months at the health center a radio will be heard because this girl gave birth. Which radio is that is it FM- female-girl or MW male-boy?
The radio is singing; breast feeding lessons are given to a child mother of the child. The cock crows and the dog parks; the smooth silence is heard and life continues as the child mother retreats to her home leaving the teacher whose house was swept at school working. FM radio station was famous for the commercials-dowry.
The sufferer, the victim and the defendant’s lives were separated. The little token –the radio that was recently donated keeps making announcements yet no batteries. Child support.
Today’s life is opposite than those days. There is no long distance trekking to school, roads are good and vehicles available, mobile phones, personal TV in schools, much freedom than those days. Parents have detrimental say today by teasing teachers to take them to court if they are excessive to their children; that makes teachers to back off on many affairs in school. Then creating much freedom to commit violence in school. Still girls are asked to sweep teachers houses in some areas may be they want to purchase radios.
Properties don’t give grievances on school matters; destroying them means more money from parents pockets to renovate them. It is wise and humble to resort to peaceful demonstrations than being imprisoned with past tense actions of destruction that benefits nobody other than harboring pain.
We keep burying the dead establishing a historical trend that will never change but keeping on the wire until and forever. Peace is peaceful that violence the son of destruction.
Those days generators were expensive not like today where every village is almost equipped with electric power line, so do schools. Students today have the dress code freedom than those days.
Childhood life in Diaspora is quite different due to lenient base of cultural and traditional institutions; a mixture of multiple cultures and strong peer groups. The sense of academic foundation in Diaspora doesn’t anticipate or advocate violence in academic institutions, but provide dialogue as the venue for settlement. Our mission in village institutions should be peace for total peace and advocacy for dialogue.
Pastor Lee Kimani asked the couple to manage their financial resources with spiritual guidance. “It is affection towards one another that led you to love one another, so then be submissive to one another; husbands love wives as Christ loves the church” he said. The congregation was touched with his remarks and clapped heavily for him.
The driver of the car, a lady was changing lanes from right lane to the middle lane at the corner on the blind side of the truck while the truck itself was in the middle lane negotiating the curve. This accident occurred off the exit ramp of New Jersey Turnpike interchange 8A to the right near the next light on Rt.535.
