ST. Augustine Primary School Onitsha 2

           "What did you just say?" Amechi asked as he walked towards Chidi's desk. "did you just challenge me to a fight?" "yes Amechi. what self? what is your problem? you think because you are bigger than all of us, you can just beat us up when you feel like it? I will show you that, na small shit dey spoil nyash!" "Ta!!!! shut up there!" eh? the whole class turned towards the sound. It was Ebuka, the most quiet boy in the class. We were now paying close attention to the whole drama. Ebuka was this mousy looking kid; very small for his age, did not really talk much in the class because he stammered and over time, we forgot about his existence. So you can imagine our shock when he continued talking "how d d d dare you? i i i is it because your your mother is the te teacher? eh? wo wo wo what about our money eh? ah ah are you not the person enjoying it?" There was an uproar. The class room went crazy, it was as if they all remembered their money after Ebuka mentioned it.
          "Miss is coming" some one announced. We all ran back to our seats. I looked at Chidi and felt sorry for him, he was trying so hard to appease the other kids, but it was not working. He turned towards me, but I looked away thinking "no, don't look at me, you always ignored me now that you're in trouble you suddenly know me".
           I remember when the final bell went off. Miss as usual left before everyone else, I don't know if she noticed that nobody was getting ready to leave the class. "Chidi oya! outside in the play ground".  I looked at him again, I could smell the fear in him; he was trembling, he turned and looked at me again but I looked away, he grabbed his school bag and walked outside slowly. The whole class followed him, if you had seen the crazy looks in their eyes, you would have feared for Chidi.
           I was the last person to leave the class; I can't remember exactly what I was doing, but I remember that by the time I got outside, there was a very big commotion. Apparently, when they got outside, Chidi removed his sandals and ran for his life and the whole class ran after him, so I ran after them.
           I followed them outside the church gates and as I got closer, I noticed that they've formed a small crowd and somebody was screaming in their midst. I managed to squeeze myself into the crowd and to my surprise, our Miss was sitting on the floor crying! "biko nu, gbaghara m biko nu..Please you (plural) should forgive me, please". I had never seen such a thing in my young life, all the big men in my class were shouting at her, their voices drowning out her pleas. Why no passersby stopped to see what was happening  will always be beyond me, people just kept walking past us. I did not really touch her, I lacked the courage, but when they carried her up and turned her head first into a big 'buta' water drum, I pinched her ankle. Everybody seemed to have forgotten about Chidi, at that instant, we all felt like demi-gods. I did not even question how Miss got there, I went home as if nothing happened.
           The next day, I was late to school, the whole primary 3b were kneeling down in front of our headmistress's office. Apparently the news of our escapade had gotten to our headmistress. I was among the lucky few that were not punished, Chidi had told our headmistress that I was not involved in it. Why he did that for me I will never know because  my mother heard the story and although my name was not mentioned, she immediately transferred me to a different school.
         I did not stay in ST. Augustine for a long time, but I had one of my memorable experiences in that school.


The Nigerian says:
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ST. Augustine Primary School Onitsha 1

The Nigerian says : good morning! country people. how una dey? today's post is a bit different from our usual posts. I'm not answering any questions today, I may ask one at the end of this post.


       "Chidi you must pay N5 today! you think because you are Miss's son you can make noise and not pay? it's a lie o , you must pay that money today". we all turned around to see Amaechi the class monitor charging towards Chidi. Primary 3b had a rule : if you talk while in class, you pay N5. Our "Miss" invented that punishment instead of the usual 'pick pin' 'kneel down until your knees bled' and 'frog jump', because according to her, "you children don't have home training at all. You lack respect. Unu enwero nsopuru, this N5 will keep your mouths shut".

        In the east, in those days, most of us had only N5 as lunch money and that money was a lot of money! I remember my friends in disbelief were saying "ha! N5 ? that's a lot of money. This Miss is an educated armed robber". We all knew deep down in our hearts that we could not tell our parents; their replies would have been "and so? if you make noise, you pay the price. why would you even talk in class? is that why we are sending you to school?".

       I remember St.Augustine Catholic Nursery and Primary school Onitsha. Our school uniform was pink in colour, pink check material for the boys shirt and pink short knickers. For the girls it was a dress, the upper part was pink check material while the rest of the dress was pink plain material.. You could tell the difference between the rich, the middle class and the poor through their uniforms; some boys had very large holes in the back of their short knicker, you could clearly see their buttocks, some never wore underwear and their "pink" was no longer pink, more like a dirty brown colour. Those were the poor ones. The middle class had patches over the holes in their shorts, sometimes they will come to school with their uniformed ironed depending on NEPA. The rich ones never had holes on their shorts, they played with the rest of the kids but had at least N25 to spend every day plus lunch. The good thing then was, nobody looked down on anybody. We did not see class, of course while some of us walked to school, some rode bicycles while some were dropped off.

      Back to my story : "Amaechi I will not pay any money! if it's fight let us fight". eh? the whole class went quiet. We were all in shock, as at this time, our Miss was attending the PTA meeting. Nobody has ever challenged Amaechi in the history of our class. Common sense did not allow it. There was a very clear reason why he was appointed as our class monitor. He was the only person that could collect N5 from students in anyway possible. He was taller than most of us and he was very fat. You should have seen our faces, we could not believe it. "What did you just say?" Amechi asked as he walked towards Chidi's desk.....
(Watch out for part two!)

OK Bye!