Primary School Memories

By Oscar Ochieng
Primary school life is one of the most fresh memories that keeps on roaming across my mind. I joined primary school in the year 2005 after being in a nursery school for only one year. I started schooling at Barchando primary school located within North Sakwa location in Bondo sub county,Siaya county.
My first two years at Barchando were very smooth and fine until the year 2007 when I got promoted to class three. At this stage I almost dropped out of school. School was like hell to me. I remember it reached a point that I could even fake some headaches to avoid going to school. There's a day I hid my school shirt and the following morning we looked for it in every corner and it was never found. Well I knew where it was but I could not risk pointing it out because my mum was going to ask some questions which would definitely lead to a war breakout
My plans however got ruined after my mum took out a new shirt which she kept in her room I guess as a "spare shirt" for emergency
At the end of the year my dad came up with an idea, the only idea that made me happy than the happiness I had after receiving new clothes for christmas. By the way by then Christmas was Christmas. I was going to change school.
In the year 2008 I joined Ndira primary school and I repeated class three but this time it was somehow a "beautiful" class three.
This was where I met most of my primary school friends whom I still get in touch with.
Here life was so beautiful and smooth with friends like Joseph Odhiambo (Josi), Bony Otieno(agwata musinga), John Otete(kamusi),Charles odhiambo (Khartoum) Eli Owino ( yakwar jalemo) among others

Bony Otieno

Bony Otieno was a young tiny boy who participated in drama. Here is where he got his new name"AgwataMusinga" when he acted a drama during education day Ceremony. What surprised me is that this tiny boy grew to be a tall Man, currently the Secretary general at Machakos University. People change by day! You see him today you can never imagine that he is the same Bony we were with during the old days
The only problem we have in common is that the hormone responsible for the growth of beards has refused to perform its function in our bodies

John Otete was a special friend though.

We shared almost everything that we had including packed lunch. He still reminds me of the pair of shoes that I gave him  during a health club function which was hosted in our school.

John Otete

Otete became a celeb when he was selected to be a bell ringer, that was in 2011 and almost every class one to three pupils knew him. He's a great friend .
I forgot to mention that Otete was also a great footballer who could not miss in the school team list. All the lower class pupils would cheer him during the sports tournaments but since he was a defender I guess thats why he never scored a single goal.

The journey became a bit tough in class seven. I started developing maths fever. There was this maths teacher by the name Mr.Elvis. Bony can tell the story better than me. He made me hate maths and this made my overall performance to drop.
But with such good friends I found my way back and actually in the year 2013 I was one of the best pupils in mathematics

In my final year in primary school I got another friend, Prudence. This lady I can say made me work harder than I thought I could. She was a genius by the way . she was my group mate.

Prudence Achieng

We were sitting in a group of six. Very hard working and she could top almost every paper that we sat. This made me to work extra hard since I always wanted to beat her. Actually in the final exam she was the best and I was number two. I felt so bad to lose the battle with only one mark. But I was happy for her because since I joined the school that was the first time a girl topped in KCPE exams. She's a great friend and she keeps on reminding of the struggles we passed Through
There's one thing that I forgot to mention. My dad was the head teacher for that school and he was my Teacher of English

Dad(Mr.Mola)

I always remember him with his favorite question "is it a sin to get them all". By this he meant the broken passage was to be free marks. The worst thing you could do to Mr.Mola was to miss a question tag. John Otete can explain to you the consequences of missing a question tag."Otete where is my cane". What a nice experience!