This archive report was first published on 11 January 2020.
As I watched my four-year-old daughter start her first day of school, memories of my own first day 33 years ago flooded my mind.
It was a day filled with drama, and one that I still remember vividly. My mother had negotiated with my father to let me go back home with them because I was 'too young' to join school, but looking back, it was not my age that was the problem, but a series of scary experiences.
One of the main reasons I struggled was the language barrier. I had only learned my mother tongue at home, and when I started school, I was surrounded by students who spoke English fluently. I remember sitting in class and watching the teacher's lips move as she communicated in English, which I didn't understand.
I only memorized one line that everyone else seemed to have mastered: 'Please teacher, may I go to the toilet?' This line became my lifeline, and I would use it to ask the teacher for help whenever I needed to go to the bathroom.
But it wasn't just the language that was a challenge. The school's washrooms were also a source of fear for me. There were huge lion and elephant sculptures outside the washrooms, which I was convinced could come to life and eat me up. This fear made me surrender my bladder to nature, and I would often wet myself in class.
My mother had to resort to using nappies to save the day, and I would often sit at the back of the class and munch on my packed snacks during lessons. I tried asking my classmates to help me open my lunch box, but none of them understood what I was saying since I was speaking my mother tongue.
One time, I wasn't able to open my lunch box, and I started to wail. The teacher rushed to me and asked what the matter was, and I yelled out, 'Teacher, na na na na na na container chamo!' as I pointed at my lunch box. Luckily, the teacher understood my dialect and helped me open the tin.
Today, my siblings still make fun of me by mimicking the 'na na na na' bit, but we laugh about it. As I watched my daughter start her first day of school, I was reminded of how far I've come, and I wished all the children a peaceful term.
