African Press International (API)

I loved teaching at Kenyatta High School, Mwatate. I was posted there in the April of 1988 after leaving KU but was to report there after 3 months because I didn’t want to teach that far. I had made the mistake for opting to teach Islamic Religious Education/Christian Religious Education and History. TSC thought those who had opted to teach IRE should be posted to Coast Province. I was then a photographer and doing very well taking pictures in KU, Loreto Kiambu, Kanunga High School, Kiambua High School, Karuri High School and Uhuru area in Nairobi. I could afford to live for a few months without a salary.

My father was mad with me. He wanted me to take the teaching job and go to Kenyatta High School but mostly because he thought I would lose my job. It was my father who brought two fellows who had worked in Taita to talk to me and they also influenced my flight to Mwatate. I had also heard of the tales of the beautiful land and the women of Taita. The tales ranged from the women being the most beautiful and the wild story of the dark women given free (of dowry). They were probably wrong because it was almost impossible to get a dark skinned Taita woman. Everybody in Taita is chocolate or brown. Some people joked of those at Mbololo as heading to be white in a few years to come. Many of the teachers from upcountry fell in love with Taita and the women. Some of them like my friend Omosh had a few scandals involving women and worthy a memoir on its own.

I was also told of tales about how teachers were so respected in Taitaland that women sent their daughters to the male teachers so that they could cook, wash clothes and assist the teacher live a comfortable and good life. I was further told that I would not have problem getting women to deliver whatever I wanted, most times for free. Then was told of how everybody is beautiful so that whoever ended being delivered to assist the young teacher would meet the requirement for washing my clothes, cooking and anything pertaining to leading a good life. The place sounded like one paradise with the only thing missing being getting naked virgins sent to serve teachers in paradise. I didn’t need further encouragement to take off for Taita.

I can only confirm that Taita women are extremely beautiful. I have never seen a place with so many beauties in one place. It is probably the only place where you go to the market and find all mama mboga looking extremely beautiful and qualified for a date. Not like the mama mbogas of Ngara in Nairobi who may not attract any fresh graduate teacher. But before you accuse me of talking ill of Ngara mama mbogas, let me remind you that the River Road Indians are reported to have admired them and tales of children sired by the wahindi and mama mbogas were in abundance. Stories were told of the mama mboga who went to this mhindi at River Road to sell greens to him. The Indian fellow is said to have been asked if he wanted to buy mboga na kitu ingine. Mhindi then closed the shop and bought the mboga and demanded to also buy kitu ingine. He then laid the mama mboga on the floor of his shop. The woman woke up and shouted in Gikuyu to the mhindi: “Muhindi ninii wakomia thi a ngara ma ya Ngai?” (lying ngara means facing up and she was demanding to know why the mhindi laid her on the floor and laid on her). Mhindi replied: “Mama, hapa si Ngara, ni River Road!”

There also another woman from my village whose third child was a cute girl whose bio father was definitely a mhindi. People complained because the father didn’t complain a lot when the child was born. The woman was said to have visited Murang’a town to buy clothes in a mhindi shop and then the mhindi finding her stark naked as she tried the dresses in one of the room. The mhindi is reported to have pleaded with her to let him get the goods as he argued the case in some broken Swahili, “mama, kama b… amka, hakuna swari ingine” and then later the birth of the girl we just called mhindi. She attended my primary school and was only two classes behind me and everybody wanted to date her in order to have a feel of how Indians “taste”.

I loved visiting Mbololo for picture taking on a Sunday afternoon. The place is reputed to have the most beautiful women in Taita. One would be forgiven to think that he was watching Miss World contestants taking a

walk in Mbololo on a Sunday afternoon. Up to this day I cant believe that I fell in love with a form two girl whose mother was a Kikuyu woman married to a Taita man and was attending school at Mbololo. Unfortunately I didn’t stay in Taita for too long but she was to later arrive in KU looking for me and somebody led her to my department. She was with her younger sister and they had eloped from their parents’ home and had decided to come look for the lost life. They were financially stable since they had eloped with the tuition for that term. My sweating on finding her and her sister waiting for me at the Department of Religious Studies when I arrived from class that afternoon was justified. I remember lying that there were my cousins and it worked well since they said they came from Taita and the sweetheart was Waithera Mwandawiro. Shipping them back to Taita was the most logical thing but God was on my side because their aunt met them on the third day as they toured the city in the sun. She took them and ferried them back to Taita. I have not heard from my Waithera since then.

There were over 40 teachers at Kenyatta High School. Most were males and may be 5 female teachers. It was one of the female teachers who was dating a fellow who worked for the wildlife and was a pilot of a huge military plane. The pilot would come driving all the time and in odd hours. She also dated one of the teachers who lived outside the school compound. The teacher had a bicycle which he rode all the time. The teacher would park his bicycle outside the house and spend some quality time with his sweetheart. He was obviously in love with the teacher. We didn’t know whether he knew of the pilot. We also didn’t know whether he was a pilot but those of us who lived in the school compound know that the teacher had a co-boyfriend. May be nobody ever told the teacher of his co-boyfriend. He was a loner and spent most of the time in the lab and rarely mixed with the other teachers. We new the pilot came on weekends when the cyclist was at home or outside the school. He never landed in school until one day.

It was a Thursday afternoon and the cyclist was in the house with the teacher. Some people claimed that they were having sex. The teacher had left the lab and had decided to see his sweetheart that afternoon. He parked the bike outside the house and was busy in the house when we heard the airplane roar in the sky as it headed to our school. Such a plane was good enough to excite students and teachers. I must confess that I was one of the people who went to wait for the pilot to arrive from the sky. It was rare to see a plane land in school anywhere in our country. We didn’t know that it was the teacher’s pilot on board and she was not expecting him on that day otherwise she would not be entertaining the cyclist with the pilot on his way to his house. I guess the cyclist and the teacher were too busy in the bedroom to come out to watch the plane land or hear the sound of the plane roaring from heaven to Gomorrah. Initially we thought it was Moi arriving in Mwatate as he was fond of arriving in a military helicopter in some remote place in the country. Then the plane started hovering above Kenyatta High School and directly above the teachers’ house. Almost all the students and teacher knew that the cyclist was dating the teacher but few knew that another boyfriend was a frequent visitor. Nobody expected the pilot to be headed to the bed then occupied then by the cyclist. I doubt the teacher expected a successor of the cyclist at that time.

The plane landed outside the teacher’s house (the date’s house). Unfortunately the huge helicopter landed too close to the bicycle and the wind being blown by the propeller blew the bike off, destroying it in the process. It was then that the teacher looked outside and saw a plane outside her house. She ordered the cyclist to dress and take off using the backdoor. Unfortunately almost every teacher and every student was outside her house waiting for the pilot to arrive and say hello to wananchi.

The cyclist was seen buttoning his clothes as he took off. He came from the backdoor as some students and teachers watched and then found the rest of the school near where his bike was lying. He had to face the whole school in the front of the house since his bicycle was lying outside the house, dusty and messed up. Fortunately the bike was ride able. He took his bike and rode off, cycling very fast and too embarrassed since he knew that everybody was aware he was kicked out of the house to make room for the pilot. I guess it was obvious that he was the weakest link and had to leave and make room for a pilot. He rode off then disappeared for a couple of days from school, too embarrassed to return to school. The pilot continued from where the cyclist had left. I can’t remember if he went back to finish off where the pilot may have left.

End.

Kuria