Life's Little Detours Pt.7 - My Way or the Highway

byjmutisy5

933 followers

8 years ago

Our home was at the foot of a mountain. By the time I was born, the witch has already killed three of my sisters, or so it was believed. My parents had seven children, but I only got to know three of my siblings.

When my elder brother was 7 he was taken to school and my mother made the mistake of taking me along. When my brother was registered for school, I cried to be registered too, but I was only five. The teacher argued that I was too young for school. I burst out crying so hard that he had no option, but to register me. When my mother was asked for my name, she said gave the name that meant “the one who suffers.” Again, I burst out crying and refused the name. I said I wanted to be registered by the name that meant “cliff,” which is my official name to this day. This name was special to me in two ways: first, it was given to me by my grandfather; and second, it was a statement of what I was, being a cliff upon which even an eagle cannot patch. It made me consider myself strong, firm, and unshakable.

Well, I started school. I was not very good with the academics, but I worked very hard to beat my brother which never happened but because of my competitive spirit, I maintained good grades, though below average. But that did not bother me. Nobody, in our community, had ever made it to the university. The most educated person was the school teacher and the rich had not been to school anyway. Too men stood out in riches, none of whom was educated, so I could not see the value of pursuing studies. The only motivation I had to go school was that I did not want to look after the cows and the goats.

When I was in Standard 4 (Grade 4), the witch struck again. I became very sick with excruciating stomach pains. My parents concluded that I was bewitched and took me to a witch-doctor. The witch-doctor cut my stomach with a razor and sucked out some bones from my stomach, something I am sure was just some form of magical tricks. There was no way those could have been real bones. How could some real bones have been lodged in my stomach? After a year I got healed and went back to school, but I had to be in the same class as my brother, although I had missed a year. It was either my way or the highway. I had to be in the same class with my brother and my classmates.

When I sat for the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE), which used to be taken in class seven (Grade 7), I did quite well and got admission into nice High School, but different from the one that admitted my brother. By then I was a teenager and I did not need to be with my brother in order to compete with him. So, I accepted to go a different high school.

Did I say I had a problem with women? Very early in life both my father and my grandmother warned me against three things that according to them were very dangerous: drinking, smoking, and women. Since two were inanimate, I tried them and they were not destructive at all, or so I thought. Women scared me. They still do. When I found that the High School, to which I was admitted was mixed, both boys and girls, I reverted back to standard seven (grade 7). My goal was to retake the exam and get admission into a boys’ high school. After a year, I got admission into a boys’ high school. There were no girls.

To be continued . . .