MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN SCHOOL IN KIBERA SLUM

My sister Linnet was enrolled to class one and me to class two. I was very much welcomed by other pupils who were just like me. I immediately felt as if I belonged to this place. I felt at home simply because, even though I had no uniform, no books and no nothing that could have made me look like a pupil, my fellow pupils were in the same state too. So I had no reason for worrying. The bell rang and I was told that that meant that it was break time. We all went out in a small field in front of the classes. After a few minutes of confusion, we were told to make a line and we were given this wonderful yellow porridge. The old pupils nicknamed it “Glondu”, oops! I don’t know what the name means or which language it came from. So don’t even ask me. I was convinced that this porridge was nutritious, some other pupil told me the ingredients and I was surprised. He told me the porridge contained ground omena(others call it small fish). What! To be honest, I have never heard about that. I was surprised but do I say? As we finished taking this sweet porridge, the bell rang and we all went to class again. There was no much of learning because we had no books, but teachers came. Some of them told us stories about their lives and how they have made it, just to encourage us, others taught us the bible just to inspire us. I was very much inspired by the motives and good heart of these wonderful new teachers. In life I have had so many practical teachers before I joined school, but the difference between these new teachers and those practical ones is that; these new ones taught you on how you can strive, thrive and make your life easy while the practical teachers all they did was force you in doing things which could not in any way develop you as a person. In fact others were in a position of manipulating you and making you suffer. My first day in school made me see the difference between the two and I have learned to avoid the practical ones at all costs if they are not adding any value to my life. Am the author of my life so I have to choose who to include in my book of life very carefully. From then I have learned that the friends you choose determines your life so much… choose the wrong ones and all you will be doing is wrong things… choose the right ones and all you will be experiencing is favours. Bad friends are taking you nowhere, so drop them as quickly as you get that chance to do so. Good friends are a gift from God so keep as many as your life space can allow. Somebody can ask “how can you differentiate between a good friend and a bad one?” so simple. A good friend is the one who is always there for you in both good and bad times. In good times you enjoy together. In bad times you encourage one another… these are the qualities of a good friend. Whereas a bad friend is one who is there only in good times. When the bad time comes, they are nowhere to be seen. A bad friend will never want to see you prosper in life. Whenever you make a step forward, a bad friend will work day and night to bring you down, just to make sure that you stagnate like him/her. Avoid these people if you have some in your life. They are not worthy keeping. Run away from them as fast as you can.

As these nice teachers were continuing to encourage us, the bell rang meaning it was lunch time. We aligned ourselves again. This time round we were served with a sweet lunch of ugali together with sukuma wiki and in it they included unpeeled potatoes.  At first it seemed awkward but I came to appreciate its nutritious value. The bell rang again and we went to class. Teachers came but this time round they came to inform us to come with exercise books tomorrow. At 4pm, the bell rang. This meant that we were about to go home. But before we went we were served with food again. They did all this because they knew that there were some of the pupils whose parents were unable to provide food. What a way to start school! I enjoyed it, not because we ate food and all, no, but simply because, in this world of ours we still had people who cared about humanity. There were people who saw others not in that particular day or that particular life span but those who saw what these people were to become in the long run. They never saw us on how we were dressed or how we looked. Am meant to believe that they looked at us on what we were to become in future. I am where I am today because of the good will and generosity of this kind of people. I call these people makers of the nation.
After we finished eating, we parted ways. On our way home, my sister and I overheard some neatly dressed pupils say, “Hahaha! Look at those, can you imagine they are from school?” one of them asked the other, “what! You must be kidding, look at them, they don’t have uniform and books, how do you know that they are from school?” the second one asked. The first pupil answered, “I just saw them come from that gate, look at that name over there, can’t you see that the school is called Calvary Evangelistic centre?” I was so embarrassed, I wished the earth to open and shallow us alive so that nobody can see us. But it didn’t, so we just had to persevere and walk as people followed us with their eyes. At one moment I hated going back to that school again. Remember that I was just a standard two kid, so you can bare me witness that, overcoming such a humiliation was not easy. To make the matter worse, these pupils were our age mates. You know how kids can react at such a situation. Can you imagine a scenario where you have a rich neighbor who buys for his/her kid presents each and every day and you don’t have even one?… and mark you you are all playing together and this kid doesn’t want you to touch his/her toys. That is how we felt. Imagine it is our first day at school and people are looking and judging us. We struggled to walk but we were not able to overcome these judgmental eyes, so we started running until we reached where my mother was doing her business. We told her all that had happened. I even forgot to tell her the good moment we had had at school early in the day. I thought that she was going to change mind and take us to a school where pupils wore uniforms and carried these big bags on their backs walking in an academic angle. I have come to understand that when we are kids we will never understand how hard our parents are working just to make sure that our life goes on. All we know is to complain to the same parents or even tell our friends the secrets of our homes: oh! My parents refused to do this, oh! My parents refused to do that. They are trying, can’t you see that? Grow up!

MY LIFE FROM SCRATCH

Many days passed, many months passed we saw even years pass. The people who sponsored this school came once in a while; these were the likes of J.L Williams and his friends. Many students got sponsored by these kind hearted people and they were transferred to a different school. I waited for the day that wonderful chance will be mine. After about six months these sponsors came again. This time round they came with names of more pupils who have been added to the sponsored pupil’s list. They called the names out… I had my sister’s first, I was so happy for her. But at the same time I was anxious because I had not heard mine. Then after a long time of calling I heard mine. I almost jumped up and down with joy… they told us to make a line because they wanted to take our photos for remembrance. They took so many pictures, they went with some and they left some behind for us. I have so many photos of these memorable moments up to date. Many are times I look at them, but there is one that captures my attention. This picture has my name across my chest. I look so innocent but at the same time so unkempt with this rough hard hair on my head. I had a shirt with few number of buttons than they were supposed to be. Where did the others go? Oops! I don’t know. I had eaten them may be. You know how notorious children can be. But who cared about that? In the photo am smiling weirdly. Do you know why? Actually we were forced to smile. In fact we were tickled. I have come to understand why they did this. From our background then, we had nothing to smile about, so telling us to smile at simple photos was just like an insult. I know that is why they did that. I do look at the picture nowadays from time to time. Any time I look at it, I experience this mixed emotional reactions. At one time I feel like crying when I look at the way I was those days. I sometimes denounce the photo saying that that was not me. But then that was like running away from reality. That was me and I know that clearly well. At another time I feel like laughing. This is because this photo makes me see the change in me. It makes me see the difference between where I was and where I am now. It makes me know where I have passed through… it makes me remember those wonderful God send sponsors who did bring the best out of me. I am me now, I don’t mind the way I looked those days. I don’t mind what I passed through. Am moving on. Those who are ready to move with me. Let’s meet at the end point. Success is the point. Those who were fully sponsored were transferred from Calvary to a new school. My sister and I were among the flock. The new school was called mashimoni squatters primary school, still in kibera. I have no answer for the meaning of this name, so don’t even try to ask. But one thing am sure about is that we were not squatters. We were given full school uniform; that was inclusive of shoes and even school bags. I had a reason to smile. I was now able to walk in an academic angle with a bag full of books on my back. Being taken to Mashimoni motivated me a lot. I made my mind to work so hard because I knew, academics was the only way out of this channel of poverty. It is the light that we have been expecting at the end of this tunnel. At mashimoni I never joked, I started working hard just from the word go. This is because here our main task was reading. We were not supposed to worry about where anything was to come from, not school fees, not uniforms, not books, not even a playing ground. We were fully sponsored remember! You were not supposed to worry about food either! Because at lunch time we were supposed to go back to Calvary, take our lunch and then come back to Mashimoni squatters for studies. I want to thank God almighty for these wonderful sponsors once again. They showed me light, they made me start my learning journey. I have come to learn one thing; anyone can get whatever they want. If you have the drive in you, then why not get that that you have been desiring to have? Go ahead and have it. It is all yours. There is nothing like being lucky. If you want it to look like luck, let me mould it for you and put it the way a close friend of mine, Mercy Waithira Wambugu puts it. This is how she says it, that if you are in harmony with God, then you will always experience favours. That is at least close to it. Actually, people who are considered lucky are those people whose hard work meets the opportunities. It all starts from within...