TALES OF EVE. (student/teacher) Not Edited.

chapter twelve

Chapter twelve. (It is all about school)

Today was the first day of resumption and i was a bit nervous, wearing a locally madeAnkara, i stood in front of the human length mirror and smiled happily, i would finally have to go to school. I pulled my unshaved black hair that had grown longer over the days without me shaving it, into a ponytail. My new found mother, mummy tutu told me my hair was like a naturalIndiahair, standing in front of the mirror i looked at my reflex ion for the last time and walked out.

  

      There was nothing unglamorous about my dressing, i had small silver earrings that looked like tiny bulbs, the necklace of lucky charm my grandma gave me and pair of black slip-on shoes, i neither applied lip gloss or massacre because  i had no use for it. I was contended to be natural and i stayed natural.

   Stevens’ parent accepted me the way i was but we had no close contact, the only time we came in contact and spoke was when they came back from the airport, but i was told to avoid them by my new mother because they were proud and arrogant, especially the superstar actress mother, while the father was much more humble like his son he could be cranky at times. I could barely contain my excitement as i entered the car and Steven drove out of the apartment.

    Nigeria practiced a system indirectly called capitalism, i am not a government student but i studied any book i came across with, which gave me vast knowledge, sometimes, i wish i was born in states like the united states, united kingdom, china and other developed countries because i believe there would be God fearing citizens that cared more about the poor and homeless rather than building houses all over like there was no tomorrow but, i have never been to all those places so i don’t know what life is like over there.

      I could see various school children in luxurious school buses and some of those who had missed the bus waited for the commercial ones, i wondered what my new school would be like, the one i attended at the convent had well qualified teachers but hungry, as they were not well paid. We hardly have space to sit because the small classroom were always crowded with poor ventilation….once the school wrote a petition to the government concerning the dilapidated classroom; nothing was done to assist the government owned school.

   Whenever rain fell it was horrible because the roof would leak, one can imagine over one hundred children in a small flooded class. The government does not care because we were children of the minorities, we were nobody in the society, children of farmers…beggars, and some of us were even orphans like me. Not everything inNigeria was bad; it was only unbearable for those who don’t have money, because we were the victims.

    ‘The rich would be richer and the poor poorer.’ Is the normal capitalist slang that i hated with passion?

My new school was something i had dream of when i was a student at the convent school, a school with a reputation for academic and sporting excellence with a conducive learning environment. An head teacher can earn anywhere between £25,000 and £80,000 a year, depending on the size of the school which was pretty much when converted to the Naira we spend in Nigeria. School children in various sizes filed out of the luxurious buses, and some from their personal cars…but that was not my concern it was the smart uniform that appealed to me and i felt like an outcast with myAnkara.

    ‘We are here.’ Steven said bringing me back to the fact we were still in the car.

He adjusted his shirt with bold blue and yellow stripes at the edge and got down he never tucked in his shirt in his jeans which was odd but very cool to me.

   We went to the administrators’ office and from there i got my textbooks, notebooks, school uniform and the writing materials, the private school system was so different from the public school concerning the writing materials. I was asked to sit down while they create my school record and Steven discussed with the school secretary.  The school was owned by his mother so he had every right to feel relaxed while i burned inside from phobia.