STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT...kinda

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

I hated my parents for making me transfer from my previous school to this village school. It was the worst feeling ever. I had gotten used to the students there, the new environment and even made some friends. I hated everything about their work. My father is a civil servant while my mum is a teacher employed by the T.S.C. last year it was my dad who had been transferred so we moved. My mum was also given the transfer, now this year, my last year in high school again we are moving again, but this time round, it is my mum having to transfer because of the so called mass delocalization or something. Apparently, the TSC so that my mum would be a better teacher here in Saraland and my mum being the typical mum, so that I needed to change schools. Not even seeing or putting into consideration that it’s my last year really. She said that I will benefit more from learning in a mixed school and that is how I landed to this school Bishop Clementi Secondary School- Consolata brothers.

The school is surrounded by hills and you can also view a man-made lake from a far. It has its own farm where they produce their own food and a very beautiful chapel being that it’s a catholic institution run by the Consolata brothers. The teachers here are just so-so and the worst part is that it is a boarding and day mixed school. The uniform is grey skirt and trousers, blue blouses and shirts and navy blue sweaters. My mother made sure that I was a boarder so you can imagine the horror... No more nickelodeon, cartoons, movies…

The principal is from Democratic Republic of Congo and he is also the French teacher. What I have come to love about the school is that they have French lessons and so I get to continue with it. I have only two classmates in the class, Mikey Odera, the head boy and Evince Aero who never talks.

My classmates are also just so-so. I am hating it here already. Our class have only four girls including me. They never talk. I know it will be hell on earth but I will try and maintain my cool until I finish this year. My class teacher is called Mr. Wasonyiro who is apparently my Physics teacher. Our class has only four Physics students so I don’t understand how he became a class teacher yet he teaches an elective… yes I know all these because my mother is a teacher. The guy is a chatter box. That explain why he is also the drama teacher really. I would like to join the club but no, I think having the Wasonyiro guy as a class teacher and Physics is torture enough for a whole year. I also came to learn that in this school, everything, clubs, people tend to have their owners as they put it.

My desk mate is Mikey Odera. Apparently, we happen to be doing the same subjects apart from Biology that am not doing because I do Physics that he is not doing also. What I have noticed about this guy is that he seems to be totally different from others in this school. He is shy too shy so much that he even walks while looking down literally, a clean freak- too clean for a guy, very orderly eve the handwriting, the desk arrangement, books too clean, he is also a unique one but underline the very shy part. He seems to be a big town boy because even is Swahili and slang’ is somehow good.

We also have his guy, Aduwa who people say is from the capital city Nairobi. Truth be told, he also seems refined and he can also speak Swahili pretty fluent. He is also kind of a shy boy but a very careless one. We have a girl, Knightlyne who also claims to be from Nairobi but I don’t think so. There is another guy, Robert but he is really scary to talk about.

There is a rule that during the weekends, especially Saturday, they have entertainment but separately. The girls do it in their dorm while the boys hold theirs I the school hall. There are sometimes when the girls are allowed to join the boys but under tight supervision by the teacher on duty and the school prefects. That is where the drama of my one year life in this school started. I call it,

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT.

This night was a special one. We had just eaten our usual delicious sokotaz the staple food in this school. A mixture of maize and bans that have been boiled. They don’t fry or add anything in it like in my previous school where they added cabbages, meat and potatoes. They used to fry them for us back in my former school but that was a town school. Here they just boil add salt and then serve to the eager students who it without complaining.
Our dorm mother came and told us that we were having a joint entertainment. The girls were very happy. They went to change and came back fully geared to enjoy themselves. I had been told that these girls can really shake what their mothers gave them so I was really eager to see what these village girls could do. I was planning to do some revision before going to the hall but the vocational group were praying the rosary in our class so I decided to join them so as to save me having to pray it alone which I always doze before finishing it.

The prayers ended earlier than expected and we had one and a half hours to go so I decided to go and see the girls dancing. A rue that I learnt there was hat the girls were to dance behind while the boys danced at the stage in front… weird right? They were not allowed to mix especially when the teacher on duty was not around. I went in with my friend, Floriana, a form one girl from Tanzania. This girl was a good company. She was too mature for her age I loved her because we could talk in Swahili without any problems. The rest of the girls were always envious of her.

Reaching there, I felt as if I was in my father’s man cave. The music, God, how was it that these people were listening to ohangla my father’s kind of music and trust me they were really dancing their hearts out. Even the form two class monitor, Marimba, the boy who never speaks was dancing very seriously dancing, shaking what was not there. I was shocked beyond words. It was very hilarious.

Floriana was called by her classmates, leaving me stranded in that hall with the weird music. I decided to go out because it was becoming boring. The girls could dance but I was thinking that I would be watch some riddim that my former school was used to dance too seriously... I felt betrayed… as I went out, to my surprise, I met Mikey sitting outside also. He was lost in his thoughts. He also seemed to be bored as I was. I decided to sit with him. As we were talking, I felt as if we bonded so much. There was this special bond. We were talking as if we knew each other since like forever.

We talked about our past relations and that is where I learnt that he had a girlfriend who dumped him because he didn’t have a phone. He told me that he did not trust girls after that. He also felt that this school was not his haven just like me because he was older than most of the students of this school. He talked about our Swahili teacher being his age mate. He was also pissed off with the kind of music that the students were listening to and that was why he was sited out there alone. He wished he could go and sleep but he had to stay there and act like the chaperon the girls being that he was the head boy.

In the middle of our bonding session, the CU students finished their fellowship. The Swahili teacher came and joined us. From our talk, I learnt that the teacher was also new just like me. She was talking fondly about the school she came from and her experience so far in BISHOP. So far, this night became one of my memorable day at this village school.

That night, that started as Mikey, the stranger in the night became the day that we strengthen our bond even more we became the bestest of friends. After the talk, the Swahili teacher took us girls back to our dorm. I found that Floriana had already slept. Apparently she had looked for me but then decided to just go and sleep. I also learnt that not all girls were into the entertainment issue so they were always in the dorm sleeping or even making noise being that the next day they had to wake up early to go for mass at the chapel.