STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT...kinda

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Among the Bishop girls, it is survival for the fittest. The rules are:
You must survive or die by force.
Your calabash, your pride.
Never allow any girl to speak to your calabash
The Kiswahili teacher is a friend when you need help but an enemy when she I stalking to your calabash.
Taking a bathe five times a day is not debatable but mandatory… we live near the Lake
If you don’t know how to dance, you are mad.
Our backwardness is always left at the gate.

It was competition every day. There were some girls who could never be defeated in anything. They claimed to know so much yet they were just bush girls. Some saw that coming from Nai city was a big deal and no one could top that ever and that’s why I could sometime hear them gossiping about me in our native language thinking that I can’t understand.

We had owners of the school, the ones who had the best colored calabashes. Their calabashes were the crème de la crème of Bishop. Oh Calabash in this school means boyfriends and colored ones were the school prefects. The form two where more protective of their boys being that the Form ones were more beautiful much that the boys in Forms two, three and Four tend to flood their class. The form ones are always complaining but there is nothing to be done. So the relationships in this school were like:
The form ones were high aimers so their boyfriends were mainly in form fours
The form threes were all rounded, any can do
The form two made their affair between themselves.
For us form fours, we were only four girls, don’t cares at that.

We had different couples, forced marriages, marriages of convenience, players etc. teachers tried to talk about it. It was announced at the assembly once but it kind of gave them the go ahead. They were even shamed at the assembly that day. I remember madam head girl and the calabash was so serious that the parents were to be called. Some even left school because of this.

The irony behind all these was that the school prefects were the leading players of this script. They used their authority to get all the girls they wanted while the girls took advantage of their calabashes’ authority to get whatever they wanted as what the assistant head boy used to do for his girlfriend. The girl wanted to taste the special food that Floriana and I were cooking, when we refused to give her, she went and called the assistant head boy to come and chase us from the kitchen. When the boy came and saw that the case involved me, he went to call Mikey who when he arrived and saw it was me, called me aside. By pure luck, the Kiswahili teacher was on duty so Floriana went to call her just as I was walking out with Mikey. Being that the case involved three of madam’s kids, the assistant head boy, his girlfriend and, Floriana, she took it over. I don’t know what happen after but all I know was that I ate peacefully my food.

Our boarding family had different characters.

THE RICH GIRLS- Whenever we came back after the mid break or holidays, they had so much money you really wonder where they get it from. They have very expensive make ups, ever at the canteen and mostly have rich calabashes.

HOLY GIRLS- these girls never talk. They are so silent that you cannot notice if they are at school or not there and they are also kind hearted.

TESO GIRLS- one character about these girls is that they are very bright. They are not natives but they are really hard working. I love mingling with them most.

CONFUSED GIRLS- what more can be said about these ones. Their clique name says more about them. Majority are form ones so…

BLACK MARIAS- now these are the best pretenders of the school. They are worse than the devil but also in the religious aspect, they are the most active.

We also have mothers among us in the dorm. In my former school, it was not as serious as here really. Every day at night, it is always as if we all go back to our homes because they speak too much mother tongue that it brings division between us especially for the Teso girls who don’t understand. Being that they are few, whenever they speak their native language, they are bullied. They are even accused that they are abusing the others.

Given a reason to change schools again, these girls will be the best excuse. They are just the worst. Their cliques are scary. I hate their behaviors, discussing and gossiping about each other. They are not hard working in class.

In this dorm, you never speak when you are not included. If they are talking about you, you are to assume oh, we have a drama queen who always pretend to be sick when the exams are on, Queenvera and the queen of Gossips and a big mouth, literally, Susana. We have the ever sickly girl, Farhia.
MADNESS I TELL YOU