When we attended nursery school and were about to graduate, there was no guarantee we would be accepted in Munyeki (thukuru nene) the senior or advanced school. We had to meet a certain criteria to qualify. With our parents being illiterate or semi illiterate, none of us knew when we were born, and our parents were not interested in that subject.
Most of us were born at home, therefore, there were no birth certificates issued upon our entry into this world. Our newly independent government was in its infant stages establishing programs and departments that would have issued us with birth certificates.
So, with a bunch of wide eyed children, some short and fat, others tall and skinny but none of them knowing how old they were, the school system had to establish a way of determining who qualified to join Standard one. Each child had to raise their right hand, stretch it over the top of their head and bend it to touch the earlobe of their left ear. Whoever told them that was a fair system should be flogged in public at high noon.
But, that system worked in my favor, so I am not complaining. I was always tall for my age. Tall and thin. I happened to be in nursery school with one of my brothers who was short and stubby. Guess what? My long thin arm flew over my clean shaven head, touching my left earlobe and way down to my temple. I was headed to Thukuru nene. My brother was not only short and stubby, he also had a big square head to boot. Years later, it turned out he had more brains in that big head than I did in mine, but who is asking. Point is, his short fat arm could not go over his Sponge Bob square head, the furthest he could reach was the tip of his rabbit ears. And with that, I proceeded to Thukuru nene in January and he stayed behind in nursery school for another year.
Goes to show you, nobody can have it all and everybody has something that can put them ahead. What my brains could not do for me, my unusual height did.
