Unveiled

Chapter five: Otro lado De la moneda

We actually got to meet at Joyland Mark flats Juja when we were joining Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. I was not meeting him for the first time. Some years before I left St Elizabeth Bokoli, he joined that school and continued battling with Arnold and Sylvia. Never in his narrations has he stated that he came close to beating the two academic giants. He was not a dwarf anyway, his efforts were below standards maybe, (at primary level) as compared to the two. Before we even joined university, he had already brushed through the roughest streets of Nairobi and had already established links with the settlers of the city. You should listen to him explain how he earned fifty shillings per day and spent sixty-five the same day, and manage to come to work tomorrow for another fifty. The most complex routes to decode in the CBD were his shortcuts and he knew exactly when and where a traffic jam would occur in the city. Sometimes he made us avoid some routes just to hear later on Ghetto radio that the traffic on that route dragged itself out for four hours. The Newspaper publishers around the city knew him as a Private Investor because of his prowess in communication and choice of dress codes but later on came to realize he was just their distributor. He almost won the position of chief supplier for The Standard Newspaper in Nairobi region before they discovered that he was just a form four leaver and did not even qualify for a cleaners Job in their organization. Later on, they will regret for having taken that job from him, but still this opened even wider doors in his life. Safaricom tried to snatch him later when he was at Third Year but failed due to some documentation here and there....

So, Teremi High School was the school we met again. He was in Stream R and I was in Q. We never talked with him back in high school apart from those days we were sent away for school fees. This is where we met at the gate and asked each other rhetoric questions almost in quick succession; "Pia wewe unaenda?" To mean, "Are you going home too?" We rarely missed going home for fees, not at all. Not that we invested our fees some place! Most of the time we could go home for as much as three weeks. I used to come back earlier though, like a day before he came. We only showed up during exam time. This time he scored 97 in business and 93 in Kiswahili as I bagged 99 in physics. That was after being at home the entire time. We set the pace away and in school. I have never seen him play any game apart from the little hide and seek he played with his 4R friends back in school during the meals in the dining hall to make away with extra sugarless porridge for breakfast. Sugar was not part of our life and salt was not the only option. That's too much to explain about someone. In short, he is my best friend that you would wish to have. We have come a long way to University, through thick and thin, and we are never stopping. Well...He has his story too; you should read it! Ooh, his name is Joshua.

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Apparently, Elvin was his crush back then after high school. He even drafted a note to express his feelings to her just to realize later on that Elvin never got the letter. Well, am writing about that because am directly linked to Elvin and we both faced the wrath of her rejection. We were told NO, not in the humblest way possible but in a 'go work hard' type of way. She was like our driving force in campus and we just wanted to make sure we beat her standard; which we did with the first two weeks in JKUAT. Basically, everything about Elvin would be repetition because nothing that made sense really happened (But there is some story in 2015, you'll find out later). I guess for my case I was just lusting. Maybe Joshua loved her; again, that's his story to tell. Elvin grew big with time and we became good friends. I tried to hit up on her any time we met but it never worked. She was already rolling with big people now that she had joined Kibabii University. I wasn't really serious by that time because I was joking about everything and the biggest of the reasons was, I was dating!

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After transferring from St Elizabeth at class six, I joined St Raphael Day and Boarding primary school around second term of that class. I met with these other very important people in my life. I won't grade them on the scale of importance but just to remind them that their presence in my life changed my version of story to tell. Well, Hugeprize. This was a walking dictionary. His writings even gave the teachers hard time to interpret. They hired external markers from the nearby secondary school to come and check whether everything about the compositions were correct. They never figured out anyway, google was not so popular by then. His father was a popular English man respected even by the whites that ever visited the region. They opted to spent a day or three in his class for some English lessons. Then Jacinta, My cousin. She was the silent girl in class and always acted innocent. Teachers even felt guilty punishing her because of her softness. I wish I was bold enough to take her punishment from Mr. Anthony, but that guy whisked us as if the sole intention of the punishment was to render us disabled. He helped us though. Thank you, Mr. Antony, you were my best primary school teacher, coming second after myself. Then Kevin. This was the chief legal advisor of that time. He knew little about life but his father's name, Patel, gave him more confidence. He was the supplier of hot morning Mandazi from Mare (Rest in Peace Mare) who had a shop just next to the school. Later on, he became a teacher, graduated from Chuka University. He is a vibrant guy who wants to run for some parliamentary seats later on in life. All the best bro. Lydisha! Well, her real name was Lydia. Hey!! Head girl. I was the head boy. We shared a lot about friendship and life. She was a cute girl to be honest but so hard to crack. Not like I tried anyway, I just heard. Plus, she was the best friend to my first love. Currently serving in the police force of Kenya. All the best girl. Enock, Chris, Charity and the others that I cannot recall, thank you.

Iris was another being that livened up my life in primary school. She was a daughter to a retired headmaster Mr. Mutoro who was known far and beyond of his strictness both as a teacher and a parent. Iris was a short beautiful girl and was sharp in class for that matter. She was always brought very early at school by her father or brother on their motorbike. By that time her dad had not bought the car. I liked her, but as a friend. We had these awkward moments with her but I feared opening up to her. It was not an easy task talking to a girl whose father scared the old men of the region. As far as I wished we could talk more, we did not have a chance to talk about anything, apart from simple meet ups in the morning to eat those hot mandazis. She knew I liked her and that made her even much proud. Later on, in high school, we met at different occasions. Basically, academic trips because I wasn't involved in any other noncurricular activity in school. I learned later on in campus that she loved me to the moon and back. She was the first girl to dedicate me 'All of You by John Legend'. You have to listen to that song. She however behaved as if she was not interested at all. Her friend Sharon whom they studied together at Chebukaka Girls, was in the same campus with me and gave me all those stories. Well, apart from few letters we exchanged and the texts at home, we had nothing else that glued us together. Came to learn that Hugeprize also eyed her and wanted to date her. I don't know about their story but I gave up after I joined the university and got serious with my other life. Well, her story is a long one but it led to nowhere. It's not vital. Thanks though, Iris.