Life at the girls' place

If you have never been in the middle of a war torn place,... if you ever want to have the feeling,... you should live with 23 teenage girls in a compound haha! However not every day is war day but I can say I have had my fair share of those. I have stayed with the girls since January and its the most rare and teaching experience I have ever had and all I can say is I am humbled by the experience.

A normal day at the girls quarters begins at 5:30 for the teacher on duty and 6;00am for the students where you have to wake them and this may mean heavy pounding on the door and or taking away the blankets from their covered faces and loudly but sweetly shouting wake up! Girls! Then its a round of duties and making of breakfast since the smart girls always know their specific duties for the day. Chapel is at 8;00 am and so by 7:30 am all the chores should be done and inspected and the girls can then finish off whatever else they want to do before we leave the girls place and always this period has to do with putting on make-up and looking good, of course they are teenage girls so dont forget. (we are a little self conscious haha! )

Once they leave for chapel a few minutes to 8:00 the gate is locked. There ends the morning at the girls place. Woe unto you if you are on duty and you forget to open the gate at exactly 5:30 pm in the evening after class otherwise you will have an army of lieutenants and generals and commanders ie girls looking for you because they have to go change for games at the boys place or do their washing trust me it is only at 5:30 that the girls become living alarm clocks and you can never be late.

So round two at the girls place involves them doing their laundry and the girls on kitchen duty preparing ingredients for making supper. Monday evening is study day,and so is Thursday and Friday, Tuesday is devotion day, Wednesday is TV day (their favorite) and Saturday and Sunday is a different program. Usually this can be a very peaceful time amid shouting and singing so long as no one decides to start up an argument of sorts.

How about you and I go on a virtual tour of a week at the girls:

Whoever is on duty whom we will call Teacher On Duty (TOD), gets a knock on the door or window and when you ask, Who is it?, the answer is always the same “Keys za kitchen” (keys to the kitchen)this is short for good morning TOD, I hope you had a good nights sleep I am so and so, may I have the keys to the kitchen.

And so TOD gets up and heads to the kitchen to hand out items for the morning chores and breakfast preparation. Once tea is ready whoever was on kitchen duty will call out.. “kujeni mkunywe chai” (come and take tea) and this is when you can be sure that we do have marathon runners in Kenya because all that is left outside are tools of work i.e brooms and dusters and settling dust as everyone whizzes past to go get breakfast.

After a noisy breakfast which will end well if no one missed their fair ration of slices of bread, everyone resumes their chores and those who are done hit the showers. At this time TOD can come back and take a quick shower and prepare for the day.

Then at exactly quarter to 8.00 TOD has to go round warning the girls that its almost leaving time an then its chaos unleashed “sina viatu” (I don't have shoes) “give me my blouse”...my blouse is wet.. “someone give me socks”” who has taken my eyeliner from here” just to give you a few of the choruses. And don't forget I said this is make up time so everyone is clustered at a mirror and if they cant get access to one, there is always one big one in our (Olive and Fiona)room. Girls will be girls right?

Finally the TOD will say... “get out! get out!” as she bundles them out of their dorms and locks up. Then they will have final inspection at the gate this entails looking at their uniform and general appearance and finally releasing them for chapel.

At 5.30 the girls place is functioning again I mean it has come alive, girls doing their laundry, others plaiting and making each others hair, others telling stories in their dorms laughter and playful screams and of course the occasional argument. Here are some of the titles for the arguments we have witnessed... ‘I want my socks back clean before tomorrow’, ‘who told you to sit on my bed’, ‘why are you staring at me funny’, ‘oh so you think you are better than me’..’don't talk to me like that’...and my personal favorite... ‘you eat too much’.

So TOD comes to give out supplies to those who need them this includes tissue paper, sanitary towels, bathing and washing soap, and toothpaste. TOD will also give out ingredients for the days evening meal so that those on kitchen duty can peel , chop grind cut whatever in order to cook it for our supper.

I know this may mean relaxing but you will never hand out supplies to all the girls at once just when you get to your room have kicked off your shoes and are about to fall on your bed and close your eyes for a second... “TOD come give me soap!!”. So naturally you ask why she wasn't with the others at the specified time to hand out supplies and then come the answers, “i was outside watering the plants” , “i didn't hear you call out”, “i forgot”, and my personal favorite, “i didn't know i needed it”.

This is also a case solving time and just so you know how our girls report cases..

Student: “ Fiona, please warn so and so for me, shes really looking for trouble, warn her,

warn her I tell you, before its too late”.

Fiona : “What has she done?”

Student : “Shes' always on my case

Fiona : What happened?

Student : I was minding my own business when she walked in and stood at the door. She Looked at me from head to toe and left. You tell her its not nice and i am not happy and its not fair and I am going to do the same so she can feel like I did.

And with this words the student leaves and you are left wondering how you helped solve the problem haha! Anyway, we have so much going on at the girls that I may need to write a series of novels but just so you know every day is a new day at the girls place. More next time from the girls place.

Fiona Ondara