Going to boarding high schools helped my brothers a lot. They realized other people bathed every day and washed their clothes after wearing a few times, sometimes only one time. This must have been a shocker for these Nyandarua boys.
Talk of culture shock without traveling to a foreign country. But they came back different. They started using bed sheets instead of sleeping between blankets. They had always used the excuse that bed sheets were too cold for Nyandarua chilly nights. They claimed bed sheets did not warm up fast enough and did not retain the warmth like blankets did. Now, they started making their beds every morning, leaving their Maskan looking neat and organized. They even asked for bed covers to make their beds complete, like their beds in high school. Most of all, they asked for pillows to lay their heads on when they slept at night, instead of using a pile of clothes to rest their heads on like they had done for years.
Mother had tried telling the boys over the years to do exactly what they were doing now, but they never complied. Here they were now, acting like they just encountered a new revelation with flashing bolts of lightening and claps of thunder – a miracle from above. Mother had screamed her head off for over a decade reminding them that blankets cannot be washed as easily or as often as bed sheets, that is why they needed to put sheets on their beds. She stopped inspecting their cubicle because every time she did, she ended up getting so frustrated to see unmade beds and dirty clothes hanging on a sisal rope over the beds. Her screaming did not yield much results in changing the way the boys handled themselves and their living quarters. They never listened; until some Dormitory Matron of a High School somewhere in Central Province and beyond told them so.
Goes to show you: You may defy your parents for a while, but there is a wider world waiting for you out there. It will straighten you out whether you like it or not, and if you resist, it will break you. Just stay prepared.
