Early school days: chapter 2

11th of March 2022

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Continued from previous chapter.

On reaching home, we took our cards to Papa. Nana was called upon to interpret the contents. After it was over, Papa passed his remarks. He congratulated those whose positions ranged high but to Matthew and I, he said "come and kneel down here, you good for nothing children".....

We were trashed and denied supper. Though prepared, this was consumed by the other children. Papa cursed us, he went further and threatened that he wouldn't allow us go to school anymore since it was a waste. To him, he found it irresponsible for me to score one (1st position) out of thirty six while Matthew scored five (fifth position). Papa wasn't educated so he didn't understand how grades were arranged.

That evening, our class teacher visited our house. I was afraid that Papa might order him to drop me out of school. Only few people could afford to send their children to school at that time and only few could spare their children from the fish lake to attend school. We greeted our teacher and he answered us by shaking our hands round. We felt delighted as it was special to us.

Matthew and I quickly buried our heads between our knees. Others were happy but we felt dejected like repentant sinners. Papa told him that only two of us had failed the examination. Our teacher laughed and told I and Matthew to bring our report cards for examination. Papa cursed and heaved a long hiss at our direction. The teacher was taken aback when he saw the results. He explained the contents of each person's performances and told Papa that I came first, followed by Matthew while the rest scored weak passes and failures.

Papa did not believe at first. The teacher further explained and Papa was convinced. He felt guilty and openly apologised for his ignorance and said that it was not his fault since he was an illiterate and hadn't been schooled to differentiate the norms of education ton the local calculation.

The other children were made to pay for their laziness. Papa sentenced them to three days of hard work on the corn farm with one meal a day. Thanks to our teacher who made us laugh last.

My stay in school the following year was good. I encountered hardship but it was unlike the previous year. Everything was okay and I grew wise. Our teacher was Mr. Saint-Peters. I was paired in a seat with a girl Josephine, her father was the a dispenser in the only dispensary in the district. We called him "Dokita" (In English... Doctor).

At first she wanted to occupy my heart initially but I had to push those feelings out. I quickly and prayerfully discarded that thought in my mind and we became academic pals. I also bought her sweets occasionally without Matthew's Knowledge.

There used to be an automatic promotion by then, and though I was almost the smallest in the class, the bigger boys and girls were no match for me academically. They giraffed at my work during weekly and terminal tests (stretch your neck to the fullest and copy the work of a pupil next to you).

I happened that our teacher fell in love with one of the big girls in our school, Linda by name. Our teacher used to send her home during manual labour to prepare soup for him. We thought that it was real soup making but after some keen watch by some inquisitive boys, they came out with a different observation.

Linda's belly protruded like one recently out of the fattening house. When questioned by her mother, she denied being pregnant and lied that she ate too much corn flour. The obvious was that she was carrying a human child in her stomach. It was a shameful experience for her parents when they eventually found out that she was pregnant, and for the teacher Mr. Peters. It turns out that Mr. Saint-peters wasn't a saint after all. Our teacher was made to marry Linda so he could take responsibility for her and was transferred to another school.....

To be continued...

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