Episode One: The Adventures of Moses Nyaemo; Coming to Nairobi.

     Years have passed but
the memories are still vivid, and those first virgin images remain untainted.

My first journey to the big city, the city under the sun, was way back when I was in form 2 and the "Mono" in me was still alive and kicking.

The big announcement was made during the parade hour, and only members of the Journalism club were allowed, of course, this was a stunt pulled to prevent the whole school from calling home and demanding for "Trip Money".

Being ambitious and young then, I was anxious and ready for the trip after joining the club; to avoid the long 4 pm runs around the field in the name of Games. At this time, my envious friends and enemies were jealous of the choice they previously ridiculed as "girlish."

The announcement was made a month early, to give us an allowance to prepare for the trip. Essentially, it was also an allowance to cancel the trip just in case the quorum did not satisfy the guys at the top.

A trip from Kisii to Nairobi in High school was news, breaking news. This was the first thing I told my dad before he could ask about my flopped results in the previous tests. He confirmed it that, by whichever means, I would be on that bus topping the list - first come, first served policy and this time it was first pay...

Being served first in this occasion meant that, you get to choose the best seat on the school bus. The lid of my locker bore a whole - year calendar and in this case, the present month circled in red and each time I opened it, it reminded me of Nairobi. Literally, I cancelled out each day by night preps as a count down to the D-day.

The days lazied away and a wait which felt like eternity finally came to an end and the journey was barely hours away. That fateful night, my woes had began when my sleep lasted a few minutes as I kept on making restless rolls on my bed and checking my wrist watch too.

I couldn’t keep doing this, I slipped my hand under the mattress, just to make sure that, that new shirt and pair of trousers was still there. This was also partly a way of straightening your clad since no one owned an iron box let alone borrow one from the staff.

Seconds, minutes and hours ticked away and the moment came forth. I had been dreaming of getting out of bed, taking a shower and boarding the hired bus from the neighboring school. During our time in high school, you could count the number of schools that owned buses in the county and they still wouldn’t add up to the total of your fingers.

I rocketed out of bed grabbed my mug and dashed to the serving counter at the refectory, which was built in a manner that tiles were used on the other side of the kitchen, probably to the advantage of the kitchen cleaners and a rough patch completed our service counter, but that did not matter as we only spent moments there pursuing our stomach needs.

I sipped on my hot porridge, in fact "whistling" as we used to call it ( taking hot tea or eating hot porridge without an accompaniment) while contemplating on how Nairobi is going to feel like, But wait... Did everybody else anticipate for this first moment or it was my own making? All the stories I had been told about Nairobi were now intoxicating the air I breathed as the voice of our patron filled the air, I was ready for Nairobi. 

To be continued…

Article By Moses Nyaemo