Everybody in Masada was insane with only the level differing significantly. Personally I used to visit those places at night when I couldn’t manage to see who was who on the walls though my imaginations created monsters which never existed both within and without the latrines. Very courageous boys like Sam Owiti and George Orinda made their visits right in the middle of the day nyawawa. (ghosts that speak Luo language). The consequences of getting in with clothes were dire as nobody would want to walk with you or even sit next to such an air polluting demon from hell.
Everything related to the latrines required some technique so as to avoid getting inside those tiny prisons. Passing water required the boys to stand outside the door at an angle; stand one to two metres from the toilet, depending on the strength of your subject matter; remove the precious assets, bend backwards and apply pressure as you move slowly towards the pit….by the time you reach the latrine door – you’re done with the business. Female teachers, including Mrs. Nyakado, found it hard to believe their eyes. Nyakando was extremely beautiful and many students liked flocking near her with questions which had neither heads nor tails.
These latrines were the same reason that made Kisumu Girl’s High School ladies abhor Masada. They wanted to help themselves after taking too much juices, sodas and tea but they couldn’t just dare the site of worms with horns looking lugubriously towards their direction. Sinyolo High school girls also went through the same torture or even worse. These girls came to Ngere for a Science Symposium which was held at the Laboratory next to Form four classes. They were given a usual treat of courtesy; sodas, tea and juices with Nyapolo’s well cooked mandazis. Just before t hey took their drinks half way, the boys decided to walk them around the compound without bearing in mind that the students who were in class were on forced study. As soon as they left for the walk, the form fours jumped into the lab like wild monkeys, drinking and eating everything that was left unattended in a splash and settling back to their classes as if nothing had happened. The girls could not believe their eyes when they returned; a shocking welcome awaited them from the screaming empty bottles and scattered plates. That was Ngere for them.
Mr. Obunga got fed up with the latrine behavior and offered a decree in the Monday morning assembly “From today, no more removing clothes when visiting the latrines; no more leaving the latrine doors open when doing your business inside; you must tack in when still within the latrines” he roared. That was when it became real to us that hell was knocking at our doors and nothing would save us. Obunga’s word was law and no one would dare break them. From that day, guys would come from those rest rooms with tears rolling down their cheeks with their mouths full of poisonous liquid substance while stinking like Obel Sibuth - the demon in charge of gathering warms in hell.
Mr. Obunga had the tendency of secretly “sleeping” in the dormitories with his ears wide open to listen to every gossip from the students in the thick of the night. One could only hear his name at the morning assembly, the following day, followed by “You fool run to my office!!!” Who would dare speak anything wrong even in darkness? Not even in the latrines; we wouldn’t even dare whisper anything to anyone – Obunga would obviously hear it. At one time he hid himself in the latrine next to where Odeny used to go to in the evening and he managed to hear everything Odeny was planning. Odeny could not sit properly the following day.
Ong’a was later transferred to Thur Dibuoro Mixed Secondary school on a promotion. He was booed on his very first day when he decreed that every student, including ladies, had shave their hair. That was the first and the last booing.
Things took a different turn at Masada thereafter. We were left with the Mr. Ndolo, the Principal and Mr. Ochung as the acting deputy principal with Odongo Shelimia as the acting senior master. Whether it was a demon or some kind of unwarranted intoxication, I did not know; what I knew was that Ochung imported a spear from his village to his office which he would carry while strolling around the compound, like a watchman, at night. He would bully the students with the spear whenever any simple mistake drove them to his office. I remember one time he almost pierced my ribs with that lethal weapon; my mistake - praying early in the morning on a closing date. The Principal had decreed that there would be no more prayers by the Christian Union in the morning hours. We managed to pray underground for some time but this fateful day we decided to come out of the cover since the whole student fraternity was making lots of noise in anticipation of traveling home. Ochung took our morning prayers as a gross misconduct which had to be punished by a spear.
“There is one student here who insists of disobeying every decree the principal issues” Ochung began his speech at the assembly. “we have to teach him that this is not his village where he can do whatever he likes and get away with it” he continued. “Awat, run to my office right away – RUN” he shouted mimicking Mr. Obunga. During the speech I thought he was referring to someone else as I was known to be one of the most disciplined students in the school. I had been leading people to the Lord and there was no way I would go against the school rules. When the acting deputy head teacher came to his office, he took his spear and pointed at me so that I could keep my distance. I wondered what he was afraid of since he was huge and tall and obviously I offered no threat to his life. Mr. Ochung then started throwing blows at me without telling me what my mistake was. Mr. Bolo opened the door without knocking and coincidentally I was also tired of the jabs so I missed this one. It landed on Bolos nose. “Sorry! Sorry! Bolo. That was meant for this fool” he shouted. I managed to find some breathing space and asked, in the presence of Bolo “Sir, with all due respect, can you please explain to me why you are hitting me?” That led to more blows with the shout “Do you think you can disobey everybody now that your father is a member of the board?” That was still not answering my question. Bolo finally came back to my rescue when he requested Ochung’ to explain why he was ruthlessly beating such an obedient student. In fact Ochung’ was my class teacher and I was one of the best performing students in his subject, English. When he gave the reason, Bolo surely sympathized with me and requested him to let me go and that’s how I left with that office telling God “Jehova if you are God, Ochung’ will not be confirmed in that office” and surely God answered my prayers. Those days, reporting Ochung’ to dad would have led to even bigger troubles – I was safer keeping that to myself. George Matete, a form two student, gave me the consolation I required.
I thanked God that before the dreaded Mr. Obunga left; he had given the Christian Union free will to worship as long as we did not interfere with anybody’s peace of mind. He had, at one time, given us the schools music system to use as a Public Address system in our very first CU crusade which took place at Reru Market where Andrew Owesi, now a pastor, got saved. Andrew was my classmate in Primary but dropped out of school due to lack of school fees. Mr. Obunga also helped us hold rallies in the dining hall where he made it compulsory for all students to attend and indeed many gave their lives to Christ.
One time George Orinda and Sam Owiti joined hands to give me trouble in class and I reported them to Ochung’. I’m sorry to say that they came back with itching behinds. They never gave me trouble again in class except for a few occasions during coffee breaks where they wanted to fill their komboras with the precious liquid to the disadvantage of the majority. Making sure that coffee was shared equally was my salient feature.
Mr. Odongo was the form four East mathematics teacher as well as the CU patron. He would never allow us to go for any outing unless we produced our maths results. To him, anybody who did not pass in maths wasn’t worth going for an outing. “How can you go for an outing while you don’t know maths?” he queried.
During my tenure as CU chairman, I managed to protect over twenty form ones from bullying. I had many obedient sons than anybody would ever have in a single year. I can remember a few names; Felix Alala, George Matete, Steve Omoso, Geoffrey Odhiambo and the list goes on and on. Matete had a brother, Kennedy Matete, in form four who had all the books of the world but could not by any means lend any them to anyone. We nicknamed him – Top Mark, after the kind of books he had.
Steve Omoso, managed to divide Christian Union right in the middle by picking a few junior forms to rebel against me, their chairman. It was so painful when the people you’ve managed to bring up in Christ end up turning against you in broad day light. Some even went as far as writing letters to me stating their stand against my style of leadership. Otherwise, all in all, those who were for me were more than those who were against me. Steve Ochiel was later to be expelled out of school owing to his queer behavior.
The worst moment in Ngere was when Mr. Oga and Mr. Ochieng’ fought each other in front of the students and parents during parents day. We had all gathered at the school Kamukunji for a price giving day cum parents day. My class form four north was to entertain the guests with traditional music. We had surely prepared only to be knocked out, by Mr. Ochieng, from the final list of entertainers. I protested to Mr. Oga, the MC of the day. Oga, returned our names without consulting Ochieng’ and that is when things became male elephants. We ended up entertaining the parents anyway.
Yours out of Masada,
Migingo Awat
