South Tetu Girls @50

When I was barely 13 years I joined South Tetu girls’ high School. This is a provincial school in Central province. The school was rather small. Every class was made of 2 streams of about 80 students. Being a provincial school meant majority of its students came from the surrounding areas including Mukurwe-ini, Karatina, Nyeri, Othaya and a bit of Kieni. The school was just starting to pop up in the top100 school’s list in the KCSE results ranking. The giant was awakening.

I blended into the school after repositioning my thoughts and behavior. The first and second years of high school were rather interesting to me. I spent them breezing through academics, my interest then was only to fit in. I always had a strong affinity to the Arts and especially so of the written kind. I invested a lot of my time to the drama and debating club-I later became an official in both. I also tried to avoid trouble as much as I could. Sometimes I was not successful and this being the Nyayo era canning was nowhere near being banned. So once in a while I was a recipient of the "six of the best".

Our school was big on discipline and cleanliness. This traits coincidentally also feature highly on my own list of must haves. We woke up at 4.30 a.m and retired to bed at 10.30 p.m. This might explain the early morning phenomena I am going back to. I showered with cold water for the four straight years I was in the school. The former alumni will be shocked to learn that today hot water is provided for the girls to shower (Imagine that).

By the third year I was entrenched in the school. I had ceased complaining of my inability to survive therein. Time was also starting to hit home indicating clearly that the next year I was going to sit for KCSE exams. Coupled with other responsibilities that came with the interests I had, it was wise to start putting my house in order. I wrote a Poem which went upto the National levels. When the bomb blew up “bell bottom” in 1998: Miss Munene(Now Mrs Njega), Rachel Kamau & I had just left KICC on our way back to school. In that year at the divisional levels during the music festivals we entered in over 25 classes for the first time, we won over 17 accolades. Such was the fete. Am told some people still remember the words to “Society Debt.”

Form four came fast and furious. Schedules became tighter and stricter . The message kept been repeated, if you failed you were on your own. Then something happened. I call it a personal magnanimous tragedy. And today, I speak for me and any other child who was stranded.  We who genuinely didn’t know what hit us. I pray that you overcame this hurdle and finally healed. I know God was a witness only that his evidence will be provided in the end of time. And as history teaches us, something good always comes from the tragedies that befall humanity. That was my turning point. I had no choice but to pass. And so I buried myself into the damn books.

The day our results were announced, I was cold as a fish. I was as scared as hell. The marks were relayed to me on phone, I screamt so loudly. We were with my late grandmother at her house. She guessed why I was screaming. There she was, so happy she started jumping with me crying’ nitwahituka nitwahituka- we have passed we have passed”. She didn’t understand what the grade meant but she was elated to the moon. In my life, the lesson that hard work, focus and persistence pays was derived from the grade that I scored. This virtues were imprinted in my mind, and I will hold on to them forever. The University of Nairobi was going to be my next home for the next four years.

Last weekend, I travelled back to South Tetu girls mainly to give back to society and also face my demons-everthing has an end-It was time to forgive the administration for their high handedness and ignorance. The last time I was there was in 2002, a whooping 12 years had passed. The place has changed, really changed. Believe it or not, there are storied dormitories and storied blocks of classes. Actually, the Form one class has four streams. The bell is electric. There are boilers that heat water. The fences that gave us sleepless nights when cleaning have now been pulled down. It is true that a change is as good as a rest.

My former school is trying to fill their new library with books. The target was at least 500 books by the end of the year. This is in tandem with celebrating 50 years since the inception of the school. During the organization of the event and consequently attending the same I met very amazing young ladies. Never mind they are 10 years younger than me. They are so full of knowledge, insightful, lively and focused. They have adopted the school very closely. The girls in the school look up to them. I salute Rose Wachuka, Eva Njogu, Wangari Munene(Main organizer), Njoki Waigwa, Grace Nderitu, Wangechi  Karanja, Josephine Njambi and Zippy Kamau.

I wish when I was in Form 2 someone had brought me the message that if I took academic and school life seriously I would amount to anything I wanted to be. All I heard was if I continued joking I would amount to nothing. The idea here was to give an average effort so that I could become slightly more than a nothing. 

The girls were very lucky to have had Mheshimiwa Nyokabi, Daktari Githinji and powerful speakers like Ken, Kigwa, Waruguru, Hope Kid and the Alumni. Am sure the day's events touched their hearts and thoughts. I pray that God continues blessing the girls and the best girls’ school in Central province. Indeed the giant has reached its full potential.

Sojourner.

I hence request kindly that we come together and raise books for these girls to give them a chance at self education and self realization. Books are what exercise is to the body. 

We are collecting all kind of books. Please drop me one.