This is a real-life story from my childhood journal. After a long holiday, schools were re-opening for the first term of the year. Wamaitha attended a boarding school called Tetu Girls’ Primary School in Nyeri, a town not very far from the farm. Unlike other schools, Tetu Girls’ School had a unique school opening day, which was the Sunday before the official opening day for all other schools. Wamaitha, like all the other kids, had her school box (a storage for school uniform and other necessities) already packed by her mum and her clothes ironed by her brother. On that day, Wamaitha’s mum went to church, knowing that Wamaitha was ready for school and all she needed was to get ready for her journey to school.

At around 11.00am Wamaitha’s dad was ready to drop off Wamaitha to school, but Wamaitha was still dilly dallying around the house. “Wamaitha,” her dad called. “Yeeeees,” she answered. Wamaitha’s dad walked to where Wamaitha was and asked her to get ready, but instead, Wamaitha said that she would get ready when she was done eating a snack. One hour went by but Wamaitha was still not dressed for school. Wamaitha’s dad stormed into the living room with his belt and whipped Wamaitha for wasting time. Wamaitha screamed so loud that the other siblings got so scared and ran away to hide.  Wamaitha took off very fast to the tea plantation but before she went far, her brothers ran after her but they didn’t catch her. Wamaitha was born a very brilliant girl who is a quick thinker so how could it be possible to catch up with her?

Wamaitha jumped across a stream that borders her father’s farm with other neighbors’ land. She ran up the hill on the other side of the village, waved at her brothers and shouted, “ĩ niĩ ũyũ”, meaning, “Here I am”. The brothers ran up the hill, but Wamaitha being clever hid in a nearby bush and waited for them to pass then took an alternative route towards a different neighborhood. Wamaitha’s brothers were almost sure that Wamaitha had ran towards their grandmother’s home to seek refuge. They were wrong, Wamaitha spent the rest of the day hiding in the tea bushes at her uncle’s farm. Wamaitha’s brothers went back home exhausted and hopeless for not finding their sister at their grandmother’s home. At around 7.00pm, Wamaitha showed up at home but got into the house through the kitchen door. She knocked on the door and Mũthoni answered letting her in. Mũthoni made her feel secure by hiding her in the bedroom. Mũthoni was very kind and loyal, so she tiptoed to the living room to inform Wamaitha’s mum that Wamaitha was back but hiding in her room. Wamaitha’s mum strategically went to the bedroom asking Wamaitha to be calm all was well. Everybody was happy to see Wamaitha back. Dad’s little girl was dropped off to school on the next day and it was business as usual.