When I was growing up in Mwisho wa Lami village, I always looked forward to school holidays. As siblings, we would fight every holiday over who would visit my father in Rongai, Nakuru, where he worked as a supervisor in one of the large farms that belonged to a short, fat man who was simply called Tajiri. With time we got over it, and developed interests in other things.
If you had told me that I would, in old age, get excited about visiting someone during school holidays, I would have told you to get lost. Until this year when Fiolina, the enviable laugh of my life, started working in Kakamega. I still do not know the company she works for, (she is yet to tell me) but I can tell you for sure that it is a great job that pays well
And that is I why I have been looking forward to school holidays so I can go spend some quality time in Kakamega with my lovely family. Given what has been happening in school the last few weeks, I couldn’t wait for schools to close so I could travel to Kakamega.
As you are aware, Bensouda, who had become so actively involved in school matters, recently went back to default settings, leaving a pedagogical neophyte and a professional toddler in the name of Alex to run the school. As a respectable professional, I did not fight him. I remember my brother Pius’ great words of wisdom, that for you to be a great leader, you must be ready to be a faithful follower.
Those who know me will tell you that whenever I am in control, I always close the school earlier — there was a time I closed the school earlier by one and a half weeks. The teachers were so happy and the students loved me.
The challenge with my colleagues is that while they are always happy when I do great things for them, no one comes to my defence when I am under siege, or sieke , as someone called it. Like when Bensouda unprocedurally left Alex in charge, no teacher spoke against it.
But they still expected me to help them close the school early. No, I would not board such a bus!
“Dre, when do we close,” Asked Nzomo. “I was hoping we can close early so I can visit my people in Nunguni, Ukambani.
Atika also said she wanted to travel to Nairobi together with her husband, who was visiting. I told them to speak to Alex. In the meantime, Alex neither asked teachers about marking nor followed up on report form readiness. He was clueless, rudderless, and planless. And it was not my responsibility to educate him.
On Wednesday morning, I completed marking my scripts and recorded marks in the report forms as expected. With nothing else to do, after lunch, I boarded a Kakamega-bound matatu and dispatched an SMS to Alex as soon as the Probox matatu started moving.
“Hey, sorry I have had to rush to Kakamega to sort a personal matter. All my work is completed. Wish you the best. See you next term!”
I was in Kakamega by 4pm, and went straight to Fiolina’s house. There was no response when I knocked. After knocking non-stop, a tall muscular man came and opened the gate. He was wearing a vest and a pair of shorts.
“Who are you looking for? Are you normal?” he asked impatiently, as if I had interrupted him when he was just about to discover a cure for corona.
“Fiolina is my wife,” I said.
“Fiona moved from here long ago. Who are you to her,” he asked.
My son Sospeter was so happy to see me, and he quickly took the toy I had bought him. Electina just continued with what she was doing as if she had not noticed me. The house girl served me tea. Were it not for Electina and Sospeter being around, I would have asked for juice!
In the evening, I wondered why Fiolina was not arriving. I did not want to call her, remembering how she had quarrelled me the last time I called.
But when supper was served before she arrived, I got worried. I called her several times but she kept disconnecting, only replying that she would call back.
When I continued to call, she responded with a loud SMS: “I HAVE SAID I WILL CALL BARK. I AM NOT A FULL! IS SOMEONE DYIENG?”
I felt like I had wasted my time coming, but was happy that I would have time with Sospeter.
In the meantime, I hear that Alex kept waiting for Bensouda. As a result, they closed the school on Friday at 4pm after she kept saying she was on her way, but never arrived.
And for the first time, students went home without report forms as no one had signed them. A few teachers called me to complain, but I told them I had other more important issues to deal with. Serves them right!
