Kirk people I remember who left in 1978

You really cannot avoid talking about characters in a story like this one and Kirk 78 had quite some characters. I will talk about the ones who left Lenana in 1978.

In sixth form we had an Asian guy whom I believe was doing double maths in his combination called Desai. Was rarely seen at house practices and was almost always in his study. He had come to Lenana in fifth form. There was Thairu built like a tank and therefore impossible to neck-tackle. A speedy winger who was very exciting to watch for Mean Maroon. Ayodo (E.O) whom I had the honour of playing rugby with later at Impala club. I really admired his “torpedo” kicks for touch which I saw for the first time in ’78 and If I ever became a good kicker for touch this is where the inspiration came form. Coach (Wachira Waruru) our wise head of house who was extremely fast in 100 metres. Angawa the deputy head of house that I have already spoken about at length in an earlier post. Ombima was doing sciences but would always draw accurate and hilarious cartoons and caricatures and stick them up on the house notice board. The most memorable I remember was the one he did after we had beaten Mumia in a tense seniors rugby final. It went up about an hour after the final whistle (I kid you not). An amazing guy. Incidentally we rabbles loved him best in those days because he was an active member of Christian Union and never lifted a finger against any of us. Ganase was a great rugby player and hilarious in the house.

There were a host of fourth formers. Ichangi the lady’s man and with good looks to boot. Chelogoi a tall guy who reminded me of a panther ready to pounce, a Mwariga who was very different from his other famous bros in many ways. Lukalo who was a great inspiration in forcing me to develop and perfect my rugby tackling skills as early as first form. Choge a guy with a dark complexion who could make your life extremely dark if you ended up on the wrong side of him. A Gitata who loved to smile and went elsewhere for his fifth form (He had 2 other bros who passed through Kirk during my time).

My sincere apologies to those I forgot. It was such a long time ago…

Head of School Jinx

The office of head of school in Lenana in those days was akin to what the Kenyan presidency has always been. It attracted numerous candidates as well as pretenders to the throne, was shrouded in mystery and was an extremely powerful office for a mere student. Indeed the head of school had his own office up school although in my time it was barely furnished. Still it was on office up school which most teachers didn’t even have.

But what happens to Lenana heads of school after they leave? My careful analysis of numerous holders of the coveted office from the 70s is that they ride out into the sunset and oblivion. Whatever they end up doing, they mostly become underachievers in life. I am NOT saying that they end up failures but their achievements in later years hardly manage to live up to the larger than life office they held in their last year of school Why is this??? Why manage to achieve so much and then fade away or achieve much less in the real world? This is a mystery I have never managed to solve. In discussions with old boys of the school I have called this phenomenon “the head of school jinx.” For you to overcome a jinx you need to recognize its’ presence first. I suspect that most who have held this office will bear me out if they ever decide to open up and be candid enough about their own experiences.

The first head of school I saw was Ken Sagala in 1978. He had the unenviable task of breaking in a new headmaster which I believe he handled rather well under extremely difficult circumstances. I do not know what the issues were in 1977 leading up to his appointment but I could see in 1978 he must have had plenty of competition breathing down his neck and that says plenty about the man and what he achieved.

I had the privilege of playing rugby with Ken Sagala briefly in later years and pinched myself to fully come to the realization that I was playing the game with my former head of school.

Traditionally at the end of the year the head boy received the Old Yorkist Shield for achievement. Getting to head  of school is not easy and this is something that is fully deserved by any holder of the office as we shall see later in these Facebook memoirs. However once in a while another student surpasses these achievements and ends up getting the award and the head of school has to make do with an alternative headmaster’s award. 1978 was one such year. Edward Bisamunyu got the shield for achievement for his amazing and unprecedented work with the school choir in a year where as a student he filled in for a music teacher the school did not have.

It is also fascinating to note that many of those who failed to make it to head of school were devastated. Many recovered and used this disappointment to spur themselves to great achievements in the real world outside school where it really matters. Sadly others never recovered. And that is why this is one of the sections I am writing with lots of sensitivity and care. There is no denying that some of these wounds remain for decades and even lifetimes.

Campaign season at Lenana was hell for rabbles

Despite the hardships of first form the year was very eventful and there was plenty to learn and even analyze and so for me time flew and suddenly the end of the year was just a few weeks away and once again it was campaign season. Up for grabs were the positions of 10 heads of houses (school prefects) and the jewel of them all head of school. All school prefects had their tea in the prefects common room better known as “tower” and met with the headmaster weekly amongst a host of other privileges and responsibilities.

This time of the year was especially hard for rabbles. Certain candidates desperate to prove their worth always, always used the poor rabolis to try and attract attention to their suitability. They forgot the golden rule of any successful candidature to any office which is perception. How are you perceived? What image have you built over the last 6 years? In all my years at Lenana these last minute campaigns achieved very little if anything. But still they were there and first formers especially, were the ones on the receiving end. In the house people campaigning for head of house had to flex their muscles and up-school the “big four” were fiercely competing amongst themselves while trying to pretend they were cool and unconcerned. Just to jog your memory the big four were the 4 (sometimes 5) school perfects appointed in third term to learn the ropes from the outgoing school prefects and one out of them would end up being head of school the next year.

Working parties, round houses and every terrible punishment you could think of were the lot of rabbles in this last and most trying term of the year. The good thing is that it would give us plenty to laugh about when we returned for the first term of the new year to find that the most aggressive campaigners had failed to make it to office while those who hardly campaigned ended up at the very top.

1978 was an interesting year. I do not remember who the top four were but none of them were from Kirk which meant that the campaign for Kirk head of house 1979 went down to the wire which naturally was not fun for a rabble in the house. This was of course the time of the year when some very serious reading was going on for the final exams and so most of the bullies did not have that much free time to make our lives hell. But sadly where they let off the “campaigners” more than made up.

Personally I was curious to see who would be head of school in 1979. Clearly despite my many denials to myself and others the spirit of Changes was getting to me.

Ndau Kanyi

In the course of 1978 a new headmaster Ndau Kanyi arrived to take over from Maina “kung”. His arrival and some of the changes he wanted to make met with stiff resistance which culminated in a stand off with the seniors (mostly fifth and six formers) that year. Interestingly one of the issues had to do with rugby. I remember once we were in chapel and after the service he stood up to talk, mainly addressing the senior students. They jeered and booed back at him. As a rabble that was really exciting because visions of the school being shut down, at least for a while, started to present themselves to my mind.

I was only a rabble then and so I do not have the facts on what the issues were exactly. Maybe Bwana Gaitho who was a sixth former then (and who is very active in this forum) can help us out here. What I do know is that Kanyi slowed down and stopped to listen. Key attributes to any successful manager. Kanyi had very powerful contacts within the Kenya government that had the ears of the president and so I am certain he would have forced anything he wanted through. In later years I got to know Kanyi very well and appreciated his approach to the management of the school. He would always listen, even when he did not agree with what you had to say. He was also a very intelligent man who quickly soaked in the school traditions and got to respect them after that first encounter shortly after he arrived. The man had his faults of course but he did well to preserve the school as it had been for the years he was there (until 1984). The outcome was that he got results. The school consistently did well in national exams and was also a top performer in many other areas of activity.

One thing many people do not appreciate is the fact that with the old strict hierarchy system in place, a school strike was virtually impossible those days because all the students would need to agree. How would this happen when it was taboo to be friendly with your juniors. You had to respect your seniors at all times and basically you were supposed to have nothing to discuss. The 1978 incident was the closest thing to a strike there could ever be.

Mr Kanyi had a stunning wife who taught languages (Kiswahili and English) I believe. Sadly she never taught me so I never really got to know her well except for the few times we met when I visited the headmaster’s house in 1983.

Macharia Gaitho adds; Yes, I was in the group that protested against Mr Kanyi. We even marched around Brooklands. I don't exactly remember what the grouse was, but Mr Kanyi had come from Government Secretarial an wanted to change the school rules to introduce things we thought were rather girly. I think we disciplined him.
Ndegwa Ndiritu adds; The spark that lit the fire was his inviting himself to a sixth form society debate, or the entertainment thereafter, and asking the ladies to leave, totally embarrassing the boys in the process. Next morning the seniors refused to enter chapel for Sunday service until 'Wong' came to Kanyi's rescue.
Chris Kavila asked Ndegwa Ndiritu Thank you so much for your valuable input. I have to assume that he must have been briefed extensively by Wong on the dos and don'ts at Lenana because things changed after this incident. I have to ask, were any sixth formers victimized for this incident?
Ndegwa Ndiritu answered Cant recall any, after all it was more spontaneous than organised. In the mid nineties I had occasion to meet him in business, he was running an auctioneering firm, and on informing him I was his student in '78, he remarked that the class caused him the most pain.

Loud Mouthed Pretty Face

As I got busy getting involved in all kinds of house activities not everybody was cheering me on. One guy who was a year ahead of me whom I will simply call loud mouthed pretty face (LMPF) got very jealous early on. There would be many incidences (which I will mention later) including a time in later years when he called me into his study to warn me to stop being so active in the house. But the first time I was rudely awakened to this jealousy was in third term of first form.

We had gone to the same primary school with this guy and so he knew I was a useful soccer player and so he suggested that I join the Middle Colts school soccer team but when I attended their first practice I quickly realized that I would be much better off at a higher level and so the next day we had to go for school team practice I went and joined the Senior Colts which was the same team LMPF was playing for that year. He was not amused and warned me to slow down because
I was being way too ambitious. He threatened to give me a severe beating if I did not change my ways.

If LMPF ever gets to read this and recognizes himself I want him to know that I have forgiven him and do not harbor any ill feelings towards him. In fact he deserves a drink from me if I ever meet him because he helped shape me. Obstacles shape you and lift you to greater heights achieving what you would never have achieved had there been no opposition. Admittedly at the time I found him a pain in that place you know.

One day LMPF found me receiving a well deserved beating from a second former called Olando (I had borrowed his soccer boots but had lost them at Nairobi School when a Changes old boy called Otolo had borrowed them and failed to return them) and loudly started cheering him on. What really enraged me was the fact that on the first day I had arrived LMPF had promised to protect me. I didn’t want his protection, I just wanted him to leave me alone. That would never happen during the 5 long years we were in Lenana together.

I was not the only person who ended up on the wrong side of LMPF. His loud sarcastic laugh and piercing voice was well known to many… let me just leave it at that.

How my love affair with rugby started

Soccer was my first love but when I came to Lenana and was introduced to rugby everything changed. In those days all the other games were minor, rugby was THE GAME. Whenever Mean Maroon played at home everything else in Lenana usually shut down and most of the school was in attendance, even most of the subordinate staff. Little wonder than no other school in the country has produced such an endless belt of top class talent like Mean Maroon has over the years.

But I started my love affair with rugby in a rather interesting way. In 1978 we had extremely vicious bullies in Kirk. Rabbles in other houses just peed on themselves when they had to visit Kirk for whatever reason. But we rabbles in Kirk were so hardened that when we visited some houses during that dreaded round houses punishment early in the morning we found them a big joke. One such house was Lugard. Anyway I found that house rugby practice was an excellent opportunity to get my revenge
on some of these bullies. Whenever I saw some bully that I particularly disliked I would go in extra hard. This went rather well and gave me plenty of satisfaction until I encountered a guy called Lukalo. He was rather huge and well built and had a hand off that was more of a punch. I carelessly tried one of my tackles on him and ended up on the ground eating grass and with my head spinning as many stars flew past in all directions. Still this did not deter me and the next time I got an opportunity I went in very low and very hard and I would tell that he was angry because he shouted “you rabble if you injure me I will fix you.” I really didn’t care because I was going to get a beating later anyway usually for nothing else but just for being a rabble and so I treasured this moments when I would exert my revenge. This is how I developed my crash tackling, a skill that took me all the way to the Kenya national team. Looking back I will be forever grateful to Lukalo because the truth is that without him it would never have happened.

Nezi Wesonga

One of the first friends I made who was my senior was Nesbitt Wesonga whom we simply called “Nezi.” He was a year ahead of me in Kirk.

Nesbitt was very ambitious and already knew many stories about the sports legends of Lenana who had come before us. One name kept on popping up again and again in his stories—Jacko Omaido. I even believe Nezi’s run on the pitch ended up having many similarities to Jacko’s very famous one. I did not know it at the time but I would later not only see the legend himself in action but would practice with him at Harlequins and then even tour with him out of the country at least twice. Others he mentioned were Nick Kado an extraordinary full back who was a prominent Tuskers player when he was still a school boy and was one of the most powerful and respected head of schools ever. Nezi is also the person from whom I first heard of the name Pare Mukora, one of the most stylish fly halves Lenana has ever birthed who was also a great goal kicker and played a major role in Mean Maroon’s amazing Eric Shirley win in 1977. These stories from Nesbitt so early on are what triggered so much ambition in me to be up there with the very best and just maybe join the legends of Lenana one day.

Later I would go up school and stare at the old photos of some of these stars telling myself that they went through worst and there was no reason why I could not do the same. As coincidence would have it my dad later moved to Parklands when I was in second form where Nesbitt was my neighbor and I occasionally visited him at his home during school holidays. I saw his big secret soccer practice technique that gave him such extra-ordinary control of the ball as a sweeper. It was a simple big wall that he kicked the ball against at different tricky angles.

We played together with Nesbitt in many teams over the years until I could instinctively know what he was going to do in a critical moment of a game long before he did it which would always give our team the edge. It all culminated in the legendary 1982 unbeaten Prescott team. Much has been said about that side but it is rather unfair that everybody so far has ignored or forgotten to mention the role played by the skipper in moulding that amazing winning outfit. Nesbitt was always very cool under extra ordinary pressure and knew how to get the very best from his players. He was especially good at keeping the team’s concentration when we were ahead and relaxation was setting in or when we were abut to despair after things went wrong. I can still hear his “come on guys.”

Nesbitt was crazy about Lingala music especially in the early years and after setting the table as a second former on serving duty he would belt out the Lingala hits of the time. His great looks also served him well during social functions where despite his shyness he would always manage to attract plenty of female attention. I really envied him there.

The Nairobi International Show

Weeks before the annual Nairobi International show you could sense the excitement building up quickly in the school. It was all that the second formers talked about in third term during the compulsory after lunch siesta before going back up-school for the afternoon lessons.

At first it really puzzled me why there was so much excitement over something that would happen only on one day, the Saturday when all students were given leave out to attend the show. I found it hard to imagine the boys trooping around all the different mainly boring agricultural stands. Later I was to discover that all the action was always centred around just a few stands, actually about two where most guys would troop in to drink themselves silly.

All kind of elaborate plans and operations with military precision were dreamed up and executed. For example some guys would report to school by 6:30 go in for supper and answer to their names in the roll call that followed but then sneak out and go back to the show ground shortly after. Of course it helped that the show grounds were fairly close to the school at Jamuhuri Park. In chapel the following day (Sunday) after the show you would always notice the empty seats as well as the red blood shot eyes.

In first form I saw the heavy price many paid for the sake of the show. The Kirk housemaster then, Mr Foreman suspended at least two boys in 1978 over their activities during the show. Sadly I can’t remember who they were or what forms they were in, but it seems people never learnt or were prepared to pay whatever price necessary to have their fun during the show. Interestingly I never went to the show myself in all the six years I was at Lenana preferring instead to take in a movie in town or visit relatives within the city instead. I am told I missed a lot.

Science lab challenges and Miss R causes excitement

Obiri of James was a brilliant guy in the science labs and was patient enough to help me out in the early days when I made a great effort to try and be like Einstein. The truth is that those science labs caused terror in most boys and only a few were comfortable in that environment of test tubes and chemicals with strange names. Probably the only skill I developed there was the ability to look like I was understanding what was being said. I got so good at nodding my head occasionally and looking intelligent so much so that I fooled many teachers.

Despite Obiri’s best efforts by second form it was clear that I was fighting a losing battle with the sciences. My dad whom I later discovered had had similar challenges in his school days was not amused at my science grades. In retrospect these subjects unlike the arts required a great deal of consistency and if you fell asleep in a class or two you were lost forever. With all that was going on in first form and with my life-long habit of leaving things to the last minute I was doomed right from the beginning. Fortunately I was okay in mathematics which with the art subjects ensured that I was consistently way above average in class.

But there were a few times in first form when there was excitement in the labs. A drop-dead gorgeous biology teacher called Miss Rarienda turned up towards the end of first form. She just caused the boys to go bonkers. I remember some of the bolder guys fondling her breasts in class (I kid you not). She had a figure to die for and was every school boys’ wettest dream. Personally I wasn’t brave enough to fondle her but I admit she also had an effect on me. She lived somewhere close to Block 5 and Mumia house and there would be numerous cars parked outside her house on weekends which jealously angered many of us. My most memorable Biology class with Miss Rarienda was one that touched on the reproduction system. I have never seen guys ask so many questions. Some were just outrageous like; excuse me madam, could you please explain more about how the male XXXX is inserted into the female XXXXX? I don’t understand. LOL!!!

Willy And Saturday Night Movies

There are a few things that brightened up life in first form at least for me.

There was Willy Angawa. Deputy head of house Kirk and the only man I met who could inspire even a harassed rabble. He took a keen interest in everything and even noticed my interest in writing and publishing very early on in first form and encouraged me to pursue what he saw as a great talent. He would talk to us rabbles at length about the house spirit and how we should give our all to everything we did. It was not all talk because Willy was quite a character himself. Later I discovered that he was a key member of the legendary 1977 Eric Shirley rugby winning side where he thrived on taking on opposition that was more than two times his weight and much taller. He played wing forward. Willy was also the main brains behind our house play in 1978 a political satire (with a huge cast including yours truly who was part of the crowd) that swept the board in the inter-house
drama festival that year winning best play amongst other accolades.

It was whispered that Willy had missed being made head of house by a whisker. Over the years I went on to see many people in the same position who chose to “switch off” after they missed being made head of house or head of school, not Willy just like he was in the thick of every major move in the scrum he was also in the thick of everything that happened in Kirk. The real inspiration behind Kirk as a house, his influence was felt for many years after he left.

But it was NOT only inspiration that he imparted. There were times he dabbled in outright brainwashing. For instance he would get us to stand in a group as rabbles in Pree's comm and repeat for hours on end the simple line; “we shall not sneak because we are men.”

Still when all is said I owe Willy a lot including my great love for rugby and whatever leadership qualities I may have picked up. Hardly surprising that I later learnt that Willy is actually Welsh and you guys know that rugby is a religion in that country and not just a mere game.

Then there was Saturday night movies in the school hall. I have always loved movies even before I went to Lenana but at the school they took on a whole new meaning. For 90 minutes or so it was possible to escape (if it was a good movie) and forget all your troubles as a rabble and laugh or cry or get really excited with some characters on celluloid. It was something to look forward to the whole week. During my time they showed many great movies from horrors to the action genre covering golden oldies like the original James Bond 007. Whoever picked the movies knew what they were doing because we were very rarely bored.

Daniel Wilson Added;
Hey Chris, thanks for these retrospectives. Your memory is still good I can see. And well written too. RE: the movies, Saturday night was a night to look forward to (adding to the excitement the prospect of going home for a short but sweet visit the next day), and yes we did see some great movies. What was also amusing about Saturday nights was the number of students who risked their school careers by venturing into the school hall after a trip to 'across' or 'Dago'. The smell of Murat/Chum was a dead giveaway from those who couldn't contain themselves as the School Pre's patrolled the hall for miscreants/lawbreakers. Not to mention those that we found passed out on their beds when we returned to our dorms (who often also had deposited the contents of their stomachs all over the bathrooms). Speaking of horror movies, the most gripping movie I can remember was "The Omen", which scared the heck out of me and kept me up that Saturday night, wondering what the world was coming to. :)

My same year housemates

When you live with somebody in the same house in a school for 6 years or 4 years you are bound to get to know them pretty well. The truth is that whether you like it or not they shape you into who you end up becoming. I have to be grateful to the guys responsible for who I am because despite everything I am proud of the person I have become.

Aliker: In the early days he would often break into song to express his feelings. Coming in from a rather tough final exam paper in fourth form he sang “I did my best but I guess my best wasn’t good enough…” Most will remember the famous song where those lyrics came from but Aliker’s best was of course more than good enough because he easily returned to fifth form. Kirk lost big when he had to leave for the UK late in fifth form before we got to sixth. Shared our love for rugby in common and he was a key member of the legendary ’82 side but didn’t appear in the photo because he had already left.

Gatumbi (RIP): Chris was a great guy. Very sensitive and so you had to understand him to get along with him. He gave me a lift in his motorbike all the way to Lenana when we sneaked back to school to check our O-level results. It was good news for both of us.

Busolo: I never told anybody this but he always reminded me of my late mother because he was so typical lunje. Had his own very memorable sense of cynical humour.

Gichira: The cross country king. I was determined to be an all rounder and was a member of the house cross country team for a number of years. And so I tried several times to beat him. I never managed. The philosopher is how I remember him best and one hilarious article he penned meant for the school magazine describing the futility of what boys endeavored to do while at Lenana is still on my mind. What I liked best about his cynism was that it always brought things back into clear perspective

Mbugua: Part of the 82 rugby squad and appears on the photo. A lady’s man when we went out for debates at chox, boma etc. He always seemed to lazily and effortlessly make it to the top 5 of any class he was in right from first form.

Wangai (RIP): We were best of friends most of the time. He loved Kirk and was a work horse around the house and that is why when I stepped down as head of house in ’83 and the headmaster asked me to name a suitable replacement, his was the first name that came to mind. Never mind the drama that followed when house master “Pee” Odhiambo decided to come up with his own candidate to “show me who was boss.” Although my candidate prevailed, at the end of it all it only served to seriously damage my already precarious relationship with Pee’s candidate who to this day must feel that I hated him and that my decision was personal.

Githere: Loved to crack jokes and had the most interesting stories after school holidays. Those tales mostly held us all spellbound and were really something. They made some of us envy him and his ability to get into the kind of situations that every red-blooded school boy can only dream about.

Muriuki: Bruce Lee and Bob Marley were his heroes. Jude introduced me to Marley’s kind of reggae which I still can’t do without to this day; Bad Card, Redemption Song, One Love, Three Little Birds etc are some of the great songs I still enjoy to this day that remind me of him. I of course forgave him for laughing at me on the very first day when I put a knife into my mouth whilst struggling with that spaghetti stuff.

Ngovi: This is the man who gave me all my nicknames. Started out very early in first form by writing at the back of my rack sack (without my knowledge or consent) the words; “Man of Baha” when I wasn’t sure that it referred to a person’s sexual inclination. Caused a lot of laughter one day when a fourth former asked me if I knew what it meant and I told them that it was somebody who was behind the times. Jaha given to me in conjunction with Aliker, stuck. Slade as we called him was a stickler for the strict Lenana hierarchy system. One incident in 6th when I was about to lose the election for soccer captain to a junior comes to mind. I had already been captain the previous year when I was in 5th and some sixth formers in the team were out to ensure that I was not re-elected. Slade simply stared them down and told them in no uncertain terms to come back to their senses.

Ngoloma
This guy was brave and confronted sixth form prefects on the first day of school refusing to wear the shoes they had so kindly borrowed for him instead of the sports shoes he wanted to go up-school with which would have landed him in serious trouble with school prefects. Never really fitted into the Lenana system until he left in 4th never to return or be seen again. I wonder what became of him, maybe Bwana Facebook will help solve that mystery one of these fine days.

Ochieng
Some bookworm. I remember him by his unique ears. Hated all sports with a passion but was always very much at home in a Chem or physics lab where people like me were usually more than a little lost.

Okero
Another legendary Kirk bookworm, the difference being that George was much more “human” and social with the rest of us. His big passion was French. We would sit in the class as he and the French teacher would have a discussion back and forth as the rest of us would be left marveling having no idea what they were talking about.

Gikandi
Stone had a very difficult time fitting into Lenana in the early days but in the end has proved that he is Lenana “damu” if his current activity in reviving the school is anything to go by. I love this guy because he has never been a pretender unlike so many Changerians and he has never changed all these years. The kind of man I would trust to give my hand to when on the edge of cliff and be sure that he would never push me instead.

My very first day at "Changes"

My first day at Lenana reporting in the evening and two familiar faces were more than a little reassuring. We had landed in Kirk with Chris Ngovi (later to be widely known as Slade) and then there was Freddie Ochieng who was already a second former. I went to the same primary school with both (Lavington Primary).

I had no idea what to expect but Slade kept on reminding me to brace myself for some serious bullying. Freddie introduced me to the other second formers who already looked menacing enough. Especially “Jackman” who clearly just couldn’t wait to get his hands on the new arrivals. But what was even more reassuring was the arrival of J. Nabwera all the way from Lugard, just to welcome me. He was a sixth former and after exchanging some brief pleasantries he went into that room that I would learn to terribly dread in the next few days—the Pres’ comm. Yep that place where sixth formers in the house had their tea. I have no idea what he said to them (which I hope to find out one day soon) but I guess it had something to do with the unfortunate family events that had preceded my admission to “Changes” and how they were bound to affect me emotionally (just speculating).

First formers on the first day generally look very confused and I guess that word describes me pretty well on that memorable first day especially when we went into the dining hall and were served with spaghetti which must have been deliberate to smoke out those of us who didn’t have a clue what it was (LOL, just kidding). My problem was that I usually ate the stuff with a spoon at home and so I had major problems using a fork and a knife and once or twice put the knife inside my mouth which proved to be extremely entertaining to those on the table. Actually there was loud laughter all round. Including from the first former seated opposite me whom I felt should have been more sympathetic, Eddie Memba Muriuki who expertly rolled the stuff around his fork like they had been taught at Nairobi primary.

Julius Weche added;

Hee hee... That is why us guys from Nairobi Primary had no problems on the first meal at Lenana School. But it was terrible for those who came from up-country, who had never even held a fork or knife. Can you believe that the current kids in Lenana do NOT even use fork and knife? I was describing this to Brian, a current form 3 student and he thought I was lying. Suffice it to say I now have to teach him how to use these utensils at home... Thanks, "Jaha".

I think it happened over 10 years ago! Even the process of laying table and many other cultural things we did - that have helped us be who we are today are GONE. It is painful being a father in Changes nowadays - bearing in mind what privileges we enjoyed then.