I was not surprised when Mr. Gachogu left teaching and bought a matatu, which he drove himself. He fitted so well with the touts (Makanga) and fellow drivers, you would not think he was once a teacher let alone a headmaster.
For us, his former students, whom he always remembered by name many years after leaving Munyeki, we were always amused to find him exchanging banter with famous OlKalou bus stop Touts of our day Kanyua and Ngiva.
We were lucky to have had Mr. Gachogu start us off on our education journey.
Mr. Gachogu also owned a well stocked clothes shop in OlKalou town which was ran by his wife Ng’endo. Everybody knew her as Nyina wa Njeri. She was a true sales person who never met a stranger. It did not matter if you were entering her shop to purchase something or just passing by, heading to other shops ahead. Whenever she was not serving customers inside the shop, she was always seated on the bench out on the veranda, chatting with passers by and other shopkeepers from the next shops. She also spent a lot of time chatting with Mr. Ng’atho, the tailor who ran his clothes business from outside her shop – more about Mr. Ng’atho next.
Nyina wa Njeri did not only have a sunny personality, she was also very pretty. She had very pronounced dimples on both cheeks. You could not miss the dimples because she was always jovial, her laughter could be heard five shops away. She was also a very fast talker, a quality that served her well in the sales job she was doing. She was a perfect match for the easygoing, never met a stranger, Mr. Gachogu.
Their shop was on the fancy side of town. “Kwa Uhindi” They were the first to bring fashionable styles of clothes from Nairobi and elsewhere.
It was our very own OlKalou Mall.
