Whilst in kindergarten some bulldozers
arrived and started to flatten a hill on the other side of the playing
fields. We were told this was for a new hostel. One day, my mother
said to me would you like to go to boarding school. My dad thought it
would be very good for me. I had now reached a stage in life where didn't
want to avoid challenges. If everyone was saying to me this is good
for you, I realised they wanted me to do it. I was six at the
time. In due course, the bulldozers left and this square block of
building started to rise. In due course, mother took me to the shops to
get kitted out with a uniform, which was khaki shirt and shorts, grey socks
with a red strip, red belt, grey tie, with diagonal red stripe, grey felt
hat.
Everything was put into a metal trunk with
my name on the outside and I was bundled off to boarding school. I'd
never been to boarding school, had no idea what to expect. I found myself
in a long dormitory with eighteen or twenty beds, covered in yellow quilts with
lockers next to each bed. A mosquito net hung over each bed. They
were white. Matron came in and allocated each of us a bed.
She did her job and that was it. So then, matron came and collected
any tuck we had, such as biscuits, sweet bars. Every mother,
knowing their kids were going to be away for some weeks would give them enough
sweeties to last three months. Medications were collected at the
same time. We all got into pyjamas and into bed. We had earlier
been taken into the shower room, a longish room with twelve shower heads.
We were told to take our clothes off,
whereupon some of the boys started to twist their towels up and flick each
other with the towel. Matron would stroll along and check we were all
using soap. Then we'd all brush out teeth. I remember the ablution
block for the smell of toothpaste. So then, we all went downstairs to the
dining room and we were allocated a table. Ten boys to a table, five down
each of the sides, sitting on benches. Then somebody at the head of
the table would start to serve up food on each of the plates and you were told
to eat it. Then suddenly everyone stood up and a teacher said, for what
we are about to receive, may the lord make us truly grateful.
Everyone then sat down with a big clatter
of plates and started to eat. Then the person invested with the
authority to serve, either a teacher or a prefect, served up the dessert.
Eventually I began to vomit a lot and decided I would have to take steps to do
something about this, so I stopped eating. One day I went into lunch and
the sweets was as an orange fruit salad. I might have guessed it wrong as
I was only six, but I think I worked out I didn't eat for six weeks. At
the end of the meal, we all stood up and the teacher said, for what we have
just received, may the lord make us truly grateful.
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