Inside the long holiday

My long thirst for a long holiday came to a halt in October last year after it was finally granted. Ever since I joined Moi University Main Campus in mid July 2011, a long vacation always meant ‘something for the others’ in my mind. It has always been a semester-to-semester transition scenario that posed a great doubt about any possibility of an academic rest. Rumors had it that our 2009 group would never see a long break before that which would send us to our practical attachments and internships, since the University’s double-intake issue affected the normal system.

However, good news came in, two or three weeks before the end of our second year of study, in September 2012 when the official time-table from the Chief Academic Officer, Deputy Vice Chancellor and other administrative personnel revealed something different. According to the time-table, our group, amongst others, was scheduled to break for the anticipated long vacation immediately after the end of semester two examinations. However, it was not so clear about when we would be expected back, with our top guesses hitting February, April, June and August 2013.

Just according to me, the most important thing about the long break was not just to have it. There were several things that I had already promised myself to undertake in the course of the break, so what was remaining was just to fulfill my schedule. As soon as I landed on my home soil, I began to reshuffle my schedule according to urgency and priority of individual activities. My strategy was not only to do what I wanted to do but also to avoid what I did not intend to do. Some of the things that I really tried to keep myself off from were informal political campaign rallies, petty demonstrations such as those usually organized by the Mombasa Republican Council and the likes. My top most aim was to get a peaceful job somewhere where I would earn something for myself.

October came to an end without any good job presenting itself to me. In November, I decided that I should not continue to depend entirely on my family for everything. I joined other village youths in some casual labor works such as digging water pipe trenches and house foundations which apart from getting me tired, gave me something to wait for another day with.

One of the activities that took away a substantial fraction of my body weight was digging a fish pond in a neighboring secondary school in my small village. The Ganze Constituency Development Funds committee had come up with a project of constructing up to thirty fish ponds in different learning institutions that had access to fresh water supply around the constituency. The ponds would then be used to rear varieties of fish, some of which would be included in the schools’ meals and others sold for the benefit of the schools. It just happened by chance that Sokoke Secondary School was selected as one of the beneficiaries of the project on 22^rd November, 2012. A notice was then issued to the area assistant chief to spread an informal advertisement that fourteen healthy men and women from the neighborhood would be assigned the duty of digging the dyke for the pond for a total pay of twenty-five thousand Kenya shillings to be shared.

The following morning, more than fifty people lined up at the venue, one of them being myself, waiting for the selection process. This great number of people threw some light in my mind that unemployment and poverty are still issues that require intervention in my area. I was just there to see how things would work, jokingly rather serious. The selection process began and almost half of the job hunters were knocked out in the first phase of presenting national identity cards. Illiteracy levels and ignorance are too rampant in my area that many residents do not bother about or even realize the importance of applying for such a crucial document. Or is it about awareness being too low? Anyway, twenty-seven candidates and I qualified for the next phase. In a bid to observe gender equity, the project supervisor granted the six women who were still legible a direct nomination because they would not even make half of the fourteen wanted. Now it was time for the twenty-two men to battle for the remaining eight posts. Thanks to the amazing grace of the lord, I made it through by correctly picking a highly folded small piece of paper that was written ‘YES’ instead of ‘NO’ in the inside.

Workers digging a dyke for fish pond construction - Sokoke

Work that had been estimated to take us around three days was completed in six serious working days. Are we giants to dig a dyke measuring 22 meters long, 17 meters wide and 1 meter deep in three days? The ground was hungry for rain. It was so dry and hard that you would wonder whether you were working in a quarry mine or stone cutting site. Digging was not the biggest trouble here, taking the soil out of where your fellow has dag was the smart problem. In the process, blisters developed on my hands until they got bored and stopped. My body ached anomalously but later adapted and saw no need of aching any more.

We did it by team work and although some of us provided lesser contributions compared to others, and the fact that some took longer periods of frequent resting than others, the mission was completed.

James Kombe, inside the completed dyke

At the end of the struggle, I felt exhausted but the 1,785 shillings that went into my pocket on December 2^nd gave me hope and was a major step towards facing the December celebrations including Christmas and eventually New Year parties which I celebrated with confidence and in style.

Ushering in the year 2013 seemed so smooth but the thought of what would happen next always game me rough moments. That is where I consulted my mobile phone book, called some of my classmates in a bid to inquire for a possible opening date but none of them appeared to have an idea and whoever mentioned a date was not any time earlier than April. I was just about to confront one of our county governor aspirants to ask for a position in his campaign team when I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to remain a distant away from political rallies.

Early February presented a small piece of blessing to me. My one time primary school-mate called me in the morning, not just for greetings as some individuals always do, but gave me some good news that one more teacher was required in the private secondary school where he had recently secured a teaching job.
Without any further hesitation, I quickly put my certificates together with the application letter and presented them to the interviewing panel of the school the following day and got the job.
Wednesday 6^th February, 2013 is the day I started teaching English language and Literature in Lakewood Green Olive High School for an undisclosed monthly earning which was obviously far much better than the fish pond thing. My letter of resignation from teaching in that school dates Friday 12^th April, 2013 which was also the official closing day for the first term. After all, I was expected back at Moi University the following Monday for my third year of study.