Water wahala

Some days are like that. Attending a very good school(academically) doesn’t guarantee adequate social amenities. Amenities like clean drinking water, healthy nutritious meals and the likes.

For me at that time, we never had running taps at our door steps , neither did we have a round the clock water supply. we had to struggle for every cup of water we got. Although the school made provision for water supply using water tanks, it was grossly inadequate as a student had over six containers in his possession just to make sure that he or she is able to meet the demands of seniors, teachers, and at the same time, have some water to drink or have his or her bath with. It was really terrible.

There were always options though. There were two major water-wells in the school premises ; with each located at adjacent ends of the school premises, very far away from each other.

At that time, I was in second year. Nobody wanted to get into trouble as the only punishment that the senior student will give you is for you to fetch him water for a whole week. That was brutal enough. It was harsher, or say, more emotionally entangling than been flogged or given corporal punishment. The worst of all could be if there is no water supplied by the water carrying tanks.

we drank directly from buckets which in turn will be used for bathing, washing and the likes. It was a painful experience; it is still a wonder that nobody falls ill or gets an infection due to water pollution, for It was a serious issue in those days.

I had gotten into trouble again, I was asked to get water for senior E, but on submitting the bucket of water, senior E concluded that the water was not brought from the right source, and for my punishment , must supply him water(clean) for a whole week. That was enough work for one person. Due to this new injunction, I had to be the first to leave class during break time, so as to be able to collect stray buckets from the hostel; I also had to listen very attentively to the final bell which was for 2 pm, and with great speed, rush to the location of the water tank, which was, of course, near the principal’s house. It wasn’t funny at all. I did this severally, until I was able to please the senior who made me supply water for a week; that was not the end of it.

In Jss1, my friends and I, in fact, the whole school had to go out of the school premises into town just to make sure we got water for ourselves. What broke the bull’s back was the fact that when we came back, after three hours of seriously searching the town, the first set of people, of which I was part of, were asked to empty their buckets into the container in the dinning hall for the cooks to be able to cook dinner. I would never forget that day in my life. I had to go a second time searching for water; thank God I found some.

The first few days of acclimatization for me were very practical. After like 3 weeks of stay in school, I noticed that my bucket was missing; I cried and cried, searched for it everywhere I could. To me, that was the end of the world, I was never going to see the bucket again. While I went about crying, I was asked why I cried; when I told my listeners why I cried, they laughed me to scorn; encouraging that in this school , nobody owns nothing except the shirt he or she os wearing and the provisions in your locker. I got the message.....to be continued.