This archive report was first published on 8 January 2020.
Published on January 8, 2020, by LOUIS MUIRURI, a Nation author.
My high school days at Manyani, a former detention camp for captured freedom fighters, were marked by extreme cold weather conditions.
The school's location at the slopes of the Aberdares Ranges, smack in the fog migration corridor, made it a cold and wet place.
Water from the taps flowed at negative degrees Celsius, and food came in small rations, weakening our bodies and making it difficult to withstand the cold.
One of the strategies we used to keep ourselves safe during the cold weather was to bid goodbye to showers until the sun returned from its annual hibernation.
When the cold season ended, and we showered, we lost weight and turned as white as an Eastern European.
Other bad things happened to us during the cold season, including drying our clothes and used towels under the mattress, which led to mould, a horrendous smell, and decomposition.
Our school uniforms would take forever to dry, and it was not unusual to wear a shirt that was still slightly wet with the expectation that the body heat would do the honours of drying the garment.
Private developers amongst the student community would often convert loosely lying uniforms into their personal use, prompting us to lock the shirts and shorts with a padlock on the drying lines.
One incident involving the private developers that I vividly remember was when a student took off with my sweater while I was using the pit latrines.
I calmly finished my biological assignment without creating an unnecessary fuss and later saw the culprit wearing it, but I did not dare raise any alarm.
