For most of us, high school was some sort of nightmare, where days stretched endlessly. The exams were always there, teachers operating as though they were running a maximum security prison, and parents were on your neck if your results weren’t good.
In the gloom, however, there were a few things that spiced up high school.
Funkies
Teenagers can almost do anything to be out of school, especially on weekends. It meant that they could meet girls from neighbouring schools, and probably act like they were the cutest couple the world has ever seen. Letters would be exchanged, and everybody had a chance to have a look at the letters, once they had been opened.
Entertainment
It was mostly on Saturdays. We would indulge in a movie or two, where some people would express their delight by chanting: Toa! Toa! Toa! Or hurling leftover ugali at fellow students, which was available in abundance, because a Saturday was almost a sacred day where students did not want to touch ugali.
Rewinding food
If your pockets got drained too quickly, your next favourite stop was the dining hall, where others stopped at the canteen. You would rewind food, three or four times, depending on whether you had avocado on your tag team. On fortunate days, you’d devour a mountain of ugali. Other days when prefects were lax, you’d repeat bread.
Visiting days
Of course 'chali ya masa' would come with a newspaper. He would ask you to struggle for a bottle of soda, which took you to close the three days to get one. Well to do families came with a whole supermarket, the fruit stand, and a kitchen. These were the people who had it good during visiting days. And we’d scavenge for leftovers, pretending that we were orphans.
Closing days
The day we closed school was kind of exhilarating. The speeches took a tad longer, as the best students got announced and rewarded. Your body would be itching to board that matatu, and, if possible, take you to a place where you’d never return. A few days later you’d be back to the same place, longing for closing day.
Canteen
Every boy's dream came packaged in a loaf of bread. Or a kangumu. That’s where the canteen came in. During our days there was a giant mutant muffin we had christened 'mkate wa wishwa', the bread that was used to smuggle a tupa, kwenye tamthilia ya Kifo Kisimani. We loved the canteen. Our canteen man was known as Nicko. He was a god.
Sports days
Sports days were interesting for one reason: there would be girls. They did create some form of euphoric feeling in us teenagers. There’d be music – extremely – loud music blaring the whole weekend. Put music and girls together and you have the most potent drug in a teenager’s mind.
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