Back in high school, we used to take rice and beans for Wednesday lunch, a delicacy. One Wednesday noon, we were from a not so friendly Chemistry paper. We arrived in the dinning hall late. We used to serve meals the table system, where almost equal food portions are served on tables, and each table assigned six individuals. It was a rule never to set foot out of the hall with food. However, that Wednesday, we braked for lunch very late, hence we could not afford to eat while seated on the benches inside the hall. The dinning hall prefects saw it wise to release us to eat on our ways in order to save some time. We all spilled out of the hall, each person balancing his plateful of rice.
From our first opening since the corona break, I realized the school administration had erected several hand washing sinks at various points across the school compound. Most of the sinks were attached on the sides of the dinning hall. When I immediately stepped out of the Dinning hall that Wednesday, I realized a person had used one of the taps and forgot, or deliberately refused to close it. Considerable amount of water was going into waste. I suddenly remembered the Principal's speech in the Monday assembly. He was lamenting on the high costs the school was incurring in pumping water daily. He further urged us to do our best in conserving the available water.
I did not require a second thought. I had to act fast. Other students passed by, scooping spoonfuls of rice into their mouths , too busy to notice what was going on. I paused briefly, and turned to the tap to close it. The sink had some leakage at the bottom so the cemented area below was slippery wet. I was balancing my plate of rice in one hand as I stretched the other to close the tap. Then out of nowhere, I slip and fell. To date, I don't know what happened. I only remember stretching my arm, then the next minute I was seated squarely on the wet cemented area.
My rice and beans mixture had spilled mercilessly out of my overturned plate. My spoon was not spared too, it had been thrown meters away. I checked over my shoulder from where I was seated, and confirmed that I had closed the tap. What added salt to my injuries, fellow students emerging from the hall would pass by, pity masked on their faces. They would then proceed to ask those who stood by what tragedy had fallen me.
"Ameanguka akifunga tap." He fell while closing the tap. They would then all burst into an uproarious laughter. They passed by in numbers and they laughed until tears appeared in the corners of their eyes. I felt like crying but I could not. I instead found myself laughing, I don't know at what.
The writer is a former student of St. Mary's School, Yala.
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Highschool