A date like today during a class meeting, our class teacher Mr. Mayeku asked if anyone could showcase his talent as we prepared for the school's inter- house choir gala night. The preparation was to be thorough as students (read girls) from Moi Girls Eldoret were going to attend. This was the culture; the yearly event started at around 6:30pm, just after we, as the gentlemen, had the grace and honour of sharing our palatable dinner of ugali and pork with the girls. FSK pork was a designer gold fried 5 star dish consisting of succulent pieces of meat harvested from locally bred pigs, which were fed on well and executively selected farm feeds that included but not limited to githeri donated by students to the garbage bins as remains of their meals. Invitations to such meals used to emanate from an official state announcement of His Excellency Jeshi, the school Principal during evening parade.
The school Principal’s public name outside the gates of FSK, on his official duties and on his birth certificate was Mr. Nabukwesi. The good lord would see himself get baptized to an ‘army’ commander by his students not out of fear but because of the respect and command he earned. Jeshi was one guy who turned some of us from boys who could not approach girls during school functions to courageous and bold gentlemen who only interacted with ladies of a certain standard. In fact the visit by the yengs from Moi Girls Eldoret was out of a resolution by Jeshi and the students’ fraternity from a Saturday morning talk, where we had demanded to see the girls, and in particular from that good school. If at your age you don’t know who yengs are, then please log off and start applying for your retirement benefits. So Jeshi had agreed to invite the girls and to a late night event. How sweet.
Serving visitors pork with ugali was always a goal for us as the hosts, as we knew so well that adolescence effects on the face of teenagers had made those girls believe that pork would damage their smooth faces with pimples, while some girls, especially in form 3 and 4 would shy from the palatable dish, with fear that it may result to addition of their body weight. I wonder who had misled those young ladies we had a preference for lightweight ladies. No we didn’t.. sorry, I mean, I personally didn’t as I preferred them huggable and tangible. So we, senior students, had made it a priority to occupy the tables to the end of the dining hall. This position was strategically positioned next to the bins used to collect leftover meals so that anyone who would try to throw away edible pork in the name of 'aki you know I don't eat fatty foods,' would be recalled and instructed to empty it into our plates, the people who cares less about the relationship between pimples, acne and food. Yours truly was one of those people.
Back to the class meeting, Zacharia Abuya Nyapeni walked courageously to the front and was ready to entertain us with a song, a piece he claimed was well selected for our beautiful guests that evening. This is that time when one could strive to do their best because appearing on the performers list meant that you shall share sitting space with the visitors. Who else wanted to miss that opportunity? Maybe you but not architect Abuya. My guy walked to the front, cleared his throat, took a deep break and started singing Awilo Longomba's song, Coupé Bibamba. The whole of form 3Y burst into laughter uncontrollably making our very able artist to denounce his bid of being listed to perform. Just like that ladies and gentlemen, brother never appeared on the list of performers for the gala. I tried to appeal and intervene to have my brother reconsider his bid but it appeared that his self esteem had developed a puncture and was running flat. To make it worse, John Wafula and I had written mails to Moi Girls threatening them with a world class performance of our artist until we discovered that we, as producers and personal managers, were just bragging of a nonexistent artist. Let this too be an apology to the then women of Moi Girls Eldoret. We promise never to register anyone again for the interhouse choir gala. Of course you know so well we shall never again do so. We also promise to write to the current class of gentlemen to use the resources of YouTube to organize this year's gala night with songs that shall be competitive.
Our then reliable msanii Abuya is currently an architect bringing up sky scrapers and bungalows in the country. He should never again sing before human beings, maybe constructions. To get his services, please write to John Wafula and I as we are still his promoters in real life.
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