After learning the alphabet, counting and drawing in the lower grades, “serious” learning started in standard four. We had a “thick” book called Safari Book. They started with Safari Book One for standard four pupils, Safari Book Two for standard five finishing off with Safari Book Four in standard Seven. That was our introduction to English Literature. The Safari books contained short stories which gave us practice in reading English and the discussion that followed tapped into our critical thinking and interpretation. That was tough.
I remember one story that was titled BIRTHDAY. I remember our teacher turning black and blue trying to explain to us what a Birthday was. Picture this, you are teaching kids who have no idea when they were born. Forget the date or the month, most of us did not even know which year we were born, and our parents who should have known or kept those records, were completely ignorant of such important details of our lives. I guess their attitude was “who cares when you were born, you are here now, that is all that counts, right?”
I only learnt of my birthday because my older sister was a teenager when I was born. She remembered coming home from school one day and her mother had a baby girl, which happened to be me. But that information only came to light much later in my life when I needed to apply for a National ID, and everybody was trying to figure out if I had reached the qualifying age of 18 to get a National ID. At least I got to know when I was born.
But it was too late to start celebrating my birthday at age 18 when I was already completing my “A” levels, but that took me back to my Safari book One story back in Munyeki. I finally understood what my teacher was desperately trying to explain to some wide eyed clueless kids who had no idea what he was talking about.
