Woe unto you if you came home during the rainy season. We all knew the rain patterns of OlKalou. The rain usually started falling in the late afternoon, the likely time of your arrival from Nairobi, and we knew it did not stop until the next morning. There was no point then in sheltering under shops (kwiyuwa mbura) because the rain was not going to let up any time soon.
The best option was always to power through the muddy roads as you got soaked from head to toe. Your leather shoes that were nicely polished when you left school earlier that day, were now a muddy mess from heel to toe with a few pounds of mud caked on the soles. Every few hundred meters you must stop and scrap off the mud against some rocks or using some sticks, meaning you had to put your metal box down, then heft it again, hoisting it on your already sore shoulder. The socks were soaked and the inside of the shoes sloshed with water with every step you took.
After battling that situation for some two kilometers, four kilometers or more for some students, depending on how interior your farm was in the Settlement Scheme, the sight of your home with its mud walls and bare earth floors, made you feel like you were approaching a castle. Aaaah, You were finally home, and this time you knew your family was home sheltering from the rain. It was a good homecoming.
