I was in Form Five, my first term in a new school. In the
first weeks I spent all my pocket money buying food from the canteen. I was
simply too broke to buy chips for supper! All I had was a crumpled Shs
1,000 note tucked away in my metal box, to last me till Visitation Day which
was still two weeks away.
Anyway, I settled down to eat my beans and posho. Carefully I pushed the beans infested with weevils off my plate and placed a piece of posho in my mouth. It tasted cold and rubbery and the bean soup was equally not tasty.
Before I finished my supper, the bell for evening prayers rang. I got up, poured the food into the bin and ran to the field. The religious prefect started the prayers while holding onto her rosary. Round and round over the beads went her hand till her forefinger touched the little silver cross.
Afterwards, she coolly said: “Those who are going to Radio Maria tomorrow please come and see me immediately.” As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, the crowd dispersed and I rushed to class for prep. Each, students would visit Radio Maria, a local station, and pray the rosary on air. This meant that the group would forgo supper, and an hour of prep.
Praying the rosary on air was more scary than saying it anonymously at school evening prayers. However, there would be an alternative supper waiting for you. Sweet potatoes and ground nut stew, this was a welcome break from the routine beans and posho. This treat would be left in the capable hands of the mess prefect. She did not have a list of names of who genuinely went to Radio Maria. Therefore this little loophole gave birth to the La Ligas.
La Liga is Spanish meaning the league. It is the soccer league of Spain. In school students who ate after the official supper were known as La Ligas because they were a specific team that specialized in sneaking away from prep to eat an extra supper.
They crept from their classes during evening prep and joined the Radio Maria group to feast on groundnut stew and sweet potatoes. Amazingly, my desk mate, Emily, heard my tummy growl as I lay my head on the desk. I regretted having thrown away my food because hunger hit me so hard I could not concentrate on studying.
Emily proposed that we could join the La Ligas and eat better food. A frown spread across my face and I told her that I would not do that. It would be embarrassing if we were found out and people would call us “Greedy.’’
Despite my worries of being caught, the growling in my tummy convinced me to join the bandwagon. We agreed that Emily would leave the class first and wait for me outside the door, to avoid suspicion from our classmates. It worked in our favour!
However, there was still a problem of hiding the forks from our class mates. Emily confided in me that she usually hid the fork between her breasts in her bra. I burst into laughter which was silenced by the prep master’s warning glance.
Eventually I agreed and put the fork in my bra. Emily walked out first. I followed and as I was about to turn the door knob, I breathed out and the damn fork fell onto the floor! My heart was racing as I quickly opened the door and stepped out. I could hear the raucous laughter behind me. Emily asked what happened and I frantically told her that I dropped my fork.
“Well, go get it,” she screamed. I told her I couldn’t. She quickly opened the door, stuck her head in and grabbed the fork. As we entered the class, returning from eating, the entire class screamed: “La Ligas First Class Honours!”
Our reply? OMG!
This article first appeared in The Observer.
Anyway, I settled down to eat my beans and posho. Carefully I pushed the beans infested with weevils off my plate and placed a piece of posho in my mouth. It tasted cold and rubbery and the bean soup was equally not tasty.
Before I finished my supper, the bell for evening prayers rang. I got up, poured the food into the bin and ran to the field. The religious prefect started the prayers while holding onto her rosary. Round and round over the beads went her hand till her forefinger touched the little silver cross.
Afterwards, she coolly said: “Those who are going to Radio Maria tomorrow please come and see me immediately.” As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, the crowd dispersed and I rushed to class for prep. Each, students would visit Radio Maria, a local station, and pray the rosary on air. This meant that the group would forgo supper, and an hour of prep.
Praying the rosary on air was more scary than saying it anonymously at school evening prayers. However, there would be an alternative supper waiting for you. Sweet potatoes and ground nut stew, this was a welcome break from the routine beans and posho. This treat would be left in the capable hands of the mess prefect. She did not have a list of names of who genuinely went to Radio Maria. Therefore this little loophole gave birth to the La Ligas.
La Liga is Spanish meaning the league. It is the soccer league of Spain. In school students who ate after the official supper were known as La Ligas because they were a specific team that specialized in sneaking away from prep to eat an extra supper.
They crept from their classes during evening prep and joined the Radio Maria group to feast on groundnut stew and sweet potatoes. Amazingly, my desk mate, Emily, heard my tummy growl as I lay my head on the desk. I regretted having thrown away my food because hunger hit me so hard I could not concentrate on studying.
Emily proposed that we could join the La Ligas and eat better food. A frown spread across my face and I told her that I would not do that. It would be embarrassing if we were found out and people would call us “Greedy.’’
Despite my worries of being caught, the growling in my tummy convinced me to join the bandwagon. We agreed that Emily would leave the class first and wait for me outside the door, to avoid suspicion from our classmates. It worked in our favour!
However, there was still a problem of hiding the forks from our class mates. Emily confided in me that she usually hid the fork between her breasts in her bra. I burst into laughter which was silenced by the prep master’s warning glance.
Eventually I agreed and put the fork in my bra. Emily walked out first. I followed and as I was about to turn the door knob, I breathed out and the damn fork fell onto the floor! My heart was racing as I quickly opened the door and stepped out. I could hear the raucous laughter behind me. Emily asked what happened and I frantically told her that I dropped my fork.
“Well, go get it,” she screamed. I told her I couldn’t. She quickly opened the door, stuck her head in and grabbed the fork. As we entered the class, returning from eating, the entire class screamed: “La Ligas First Class Honours!”
Our reply? OMG!
This article first appeared in The Observer.
No comments:
Post a Comment