Boarding School...Part 2!

Thank you all for your patience, this took longer than expected. During the wait, I got to hear a boarding school tale from a close friend, one that I had not heard nor experienced before, so the wait paid!

It was in high school. Students were given mattresses upon reporting to school in form one. The new students' mattresses would be exchanged for older ones by the older students. They ended up with old, thin and worn out mattresses (obviously), while the older students had all the new and good mattresses.

Unfortunately, most of the old mattresses were half or quarter mattresses. Very old and torn, they had seen better days and probably their first users were somewhere in a homestead accompanied by their fathers trying to convince someone's father that their daughter is worth a few number of goats. In short they were grown men who had been convinced by society that all they needed to be 'whole' was a woman in their home. 😂😂 Anyway...so back to the new students....only half of their bodies would lie on a mattress.....while their thin legs were on the steel beds (cold steel beds). This was worse than in the military...in my imagination. The boys would lay layers of their few clothes on the exposed metal rods to make them comfortable....but we all know that that doesn't work. I am sure they used to wake up with the worst sore calves.  I thought I had it rough until I heard this one.

Some students would carry sacks full of avocadoes to sell when the schools opened. The business was booming and everyone sold whatever they brought to school in abundance. I imagine my mum would have most definitely packed me a sack of potatoes.....
   
We never carried food items, both in primary and high schools. So, it was a precious commodity. More so in primary school than in high school. We would wake up an hour earlier than breakfast time so that we could queue for morning scones. The place was so cold and we had to stand while waiting. So precious was the food that some pupils resorted to hiding extra food in buckets to eat at night. Dinner was served at 6.00PM and we slept at 10.00PM for senior pupils. I guess some people would be hungry by that time and cold ugali stored in a bucket made for a perfect snack before bedtime. I am not exaggerating (for those of you raising one eyebrow). Food was scarce!!!

One time in high school we were punished (a whole class) for eating carrots. To be fair the carrots were meant to make a special meal for the whole school since it was Id Ul Fitr....we ended up eating 70% of the carrots. That Monday we were all told to lie down and we had our feet beaten (the sole of the feet) We were the sent to the coffee farm where we weeded the farm with our hands (ALL FOR EATING CARROTS!!!!).

                                                   
                           
Imagine this.....it's 5.30AM, the matron has just woken everyone up, and they used to be so loud! 😒 You wake up, you already showered yesterday evening so no showering again 😏. You reach for your face towel still in your blankets, it's wet so you just wipe your face. You then reach for the vaseline inside your box and apply generously on your face (to avoid the cold) and some on your arms and legs. To save time (and because you are neat and organized), you had carefully folded your clean dress, socks and sweater at the corner of the bead so that when you woke up getting ready would be swift. You stretch your hand and your dress is not there! 😠 It must have fallen under the bed, you think to yourself. So you get on your knees and scout under the bed, nothing. Then you think, maybe.....just maybe you didn't take it out of the box. You check inside the box. It is not there.

The realization hits you like a cold drift in the morning. You freeze on your bed. You are half-dressed, everyone is rushing outside so as not to miss the morning preps. You have no extra dress to wear. There are three options, miss the morning preps (which would earn you a punishment), borrow someone's dress.....or wear the wet one that you washed yesterday and it is yet to dry.
                                            
You look around, most of your friends have left. Luck is on your side however since one came back because she forgot something. She sees your distraught face and you quickly narrate your incident. She has an extra dress, but it is old and with a tear or two, also, she is way taller than you. You take it without thinking twice, happy that you will not be caned for missing the morning preps.

                                         

As the day dawns, your outfit stands out like a sore thumb. You look like a lost and found item 😂😂. On this day, this very day that you want to be incognito is the day the home science teacher decides that you will be leading the class in reading the revision questions. The class teacher will send you to the staff room to collect something he forgot and along the way, you will meet every teacher in the school. The day will drag on slowly and finally in the evening, you will run towards the hanging lines to salvage your one dress that is remaining. The dress you will wear tomorrow and hopefully, your friend will let you keep this one since you cannot survive with one dress.  It's only the beginning of the term, you have more than eighty days to go! :(

You were lucky if you went through the term with all your items intact. Long fingers were everywhere!!!! I wonder where all those girls are...those who used to save 'top layer' in their buckets.....those who used to hide pork in their lockers in class or better still under their blankets in the dorms 😝. We had an avocado tree near the dorms, once the fruits were ready, it was a competition to run and collect the ones that were ripe and had fallen. It was always a rush for food or sleep.....or to take clothes off the hanging lines before someone else decided to help you wear them.

I miss almost nothing from this life....maybe the music festivals and a few exciting things here and there.....but overall....no. I am good. I hope kids have it easier nowadays. I hope weevils have become extinct...have they? There were a staple in our diet 😞