Life lessons I learnt at a missionary boarding school

As I have mentioned before in earlier posts, I went to a missionary boarding school. It was the best and worst experience of my teenage life. It was my dream to go to a boarding school, I think it was the dream of most people when we were in primary school. Most of my cousins and all the best students from our school had gone on to boarding school for high school. In my head it was where the best students from middle class families went to school. These were the schools where people who had gone to the sole university in the country at the time had gone. I could not wait to reach seventh grade so I could finally apply to the schools I had chosen from as early as fourth grade. When we were growing up, we used to watch the National High School Quiz on TV and the schools with the best students always won the competition and those were the schools we would short-list. You can imagine my disappointment that the students that used to participate in these games were not necessarily intelligent but those who could cram the most. Cramming works but can only take you so far.

I remember the day that I wrote the entrance exam at Sandringham High School, it was the day that our president had his wedding. I was so happy to have passed the examination and my parents paid a deposit to secure my place. I could not wait to finally finish primary school and go to high school. I was so stary-eyed, in my head high school was going to be a breeze. I think it was the promise of independence that appealed to me the most.

Missionary boarding schools were designed in such a way that the children would pretty much take care of themselves and the school itself, which in turn keeps the cost of running the school low. We had to make our own beds, clean the dormitories (inside and out), do our own laundry, clean the school area and clean up after ourselves. Up-to this point (twelve years old) I had never done all of my laundry all by myself. There was always someone older in our house who would do it for me. In most African households, by twelve most children can take care of themselves and this is in no way abusive in nature. I had to learn fast!

Did I mention that we had to wake up at five in the morning during school days? The first week of school was always the hardest but as the term went on it became easier and sometimes we would even be awake before five to study or finish homework. I like sleeping in, so sometimes I would wake up at 5:30 do my bed, take a bath and put on my uniform all before 5:45 am. Breakfast was at 6 am. I was able to manage this by making sure everything was ready the night before and being organised. If you know where your things are all the time you will be on time.

The best thing for me was the actual educational experience. The school’s motto is “Hard work yields results” something that was always emphasised. I learnt so much in the almost four years I was there that when I transferred to another school I realised we were far ahead. Most of the students were some of the best from their primary schools so there was so much competition for top honours. Competition makes you better! In my form three class there were students who studied because they just wanted to learn even things that were outside of their scope. I remember our first accounting test, I did so bad I got zero. I completely reversed the answers and my classmates laughed at me. I worked so hard that term on accounting I got 98% in the exams. I was so proud of myself.

I did not like the matron, I do not know anyone who did actually. Teenager do stupid things but she was unnecessarily cruel and angry all the time. I think she lowered herself to think like the students. I guess it was for her the best way to do her job.

The absolute worst was the dining room food. Oh my God, yuck! I think the only thing that was done well was jelly  which we got as desert on Sundays. I guess you can not really mess up mixing a powder and water!

Above all, when you are broke, peanut butter and sugar will pass for a snack!