Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day; with memories

St Patrick's Day. Daaaaamn man. I don't even know where I'd start. This day is a special one. Very special to a certain species of human beings. It's a special day recognized by them saints. It's a special day for a Patrick. It's a special day for every St. Patrick's High School - Iten old-boy. (Alumni if you like.)

The first thing that hits me on this day is a whole collection of all the crazy memories I ever made in St. Patrick's High School - Iten. Commonly known as "Saints", we usually made a set of crazy memories. Year after year, every final class would make crazy memories, imprinted on their skins, hearts, minds etc. It was a time for us to make our own coded memories. It was our turn.

I remember the mahindi choma fest at the farm. That was a crazy day. Before we go any further, ever felt like whatever you simply did in high school requires a lot of weed or alcohol in the current world? Yeah, me too. Anyway, we visited the farm, found some mahindi 'mbichi ya maziwa'. Best mahindi choma. We roasted them and ran for our own lives away from the farm. Not because there were snakes or anything but because of being discovered by some teachers.

I remember eating special on all St. Patrick's Days during my stay at Saints. Year after year, we would take a break from the normal ugali + cabbage + coffee + avocado and eat something special. I have to warn that there are different definitions of special. Our special meal was rice + beans and maybe pork. That's a special meal for every 17th March. And we loved it. (Don't judge!) We ate & made stories. We talked for long, laughing at each others pork piece. We looked for those students with allergies and couldn't eat pork. We hunted for their pieces and quarrelled over their share. It was a crazy night every year. We would then go to sleep, happy to be a Saint.

I can't really say Saint Patrick's High School made all of us better but it built us from little kids to a family of brothers. Brothers that would live in peace. Brothers that would fight. Brothers that would unite & work. Brothers that would unite & sneak. Brothers that would be divided by academic performance. Brothers that would be united by football talk. We were true brothers. We were one family.

Just wanna wish y'all a marvelous St. Patrick's Day. Long live the green army.

Follow me on Twitter & Instagram: @theRonaldRotich 

1 comment: