FIRST TIME SCOOL

The government of Kenya had issued a law that every family must send one child to school, whether you like it or not. My father did not like it. He wanted us at home not at school. To help rase the cattle. A child at school was one fewer child at work. My father wanted us to grow up our own culture, among our own people. But this was a law. " You must send one boy to school. Choose!" No girls at school, only boys. My father did not know what to say. He did not want my older brother to go because he was the most important person in the family. And my father could not send me; i was too young to go. Because the village moved around sometimes it was close to the school and sometimes far away. At that time, it was close I'd say about a mile away. The school was run by American missionaries. They taught reading and writing and arithmetic, they also Christianity and other western ways of thinking. lmatarion, who was 11 years old was placed in the first grade. Right from the beginning he could not stand it. went to school for one day. And the next day he ran away from school with a group of boys, they all went different directions. He hid in a hyena's hole. he later said " I'd rather be eaten by hyena's than going to school." But the hyena's had moved out. He stayed in the hole for three days. Later the villagers and police found him and brought him home. But my father still not want to send one of us to school, "but the police said you still have to obey the law, You still have to send one". I was there the full time and, "i said Im here!" They said "how old are u?" They asked. I said i am "eight", but i was really six years old. So the police said "touch" so i gave it all i had and I pushed as hard as i could and i made it. It solved the problem for them and for my father and brothers. So the next day i went to school which it was about one mile from the village. When i got there the teacher send me to first grade. The school was vary simple. There were no chairs, no desks. The had a blackboard, and we sat, and write on the ground. The school day long, starting at seven in the morning and running until four or five in the afternoon. We learned the same things that all the children were learning all over the world. School was so different from life at the village and the cattle camp. The first thing we were told to take off our traditional clothes our nanga and beads. The missionaries supplied us with uniforms instead; shorts, a shirt, shoes, sometimes a jacket. And thats when i started my real name was Joseph. But when i am at home I change back in to my traditional dress, and put my beads and panted my body. School was hard the teachers expected a lot from you. They expected you to pay attention and work hard, and to sit still and not cause trouble. But i still loved school.