Before I proceed allow me to distance
my conscience from a contradictory understanding of this article. It is not in
my diary to spread propaganda or discuss promiscuity. Not even a minute. It
will be a failure to me and a letdown to followers to serve them materials that
tend to distort understanding and promote noise which the world is closed in.
But I understand that for crops to flourish, a farmer should spot and uproot
weeds. The intention here is to enclose a deviation and with a desirable
magnitude revile it so that the delinquent sons and daughters of soil may lever
to live dignified lives and the naive spared from the mayhem that awaits them.
This is the story.
We arrived in Mtwapa an hour to
midnight for accommodation from Nairobi, Kenyatta University. We would then
wake up for a field study in South Coast the following day. In all the nights
that we spent the accommodating facilities became freer towards the days of parting.
It was but a week and such is a long period to be away. Fewer students
reportedly slept in their allocated rooms compared to the previous day. The
reason? There were better places to sleep in.
Many institutions prefer to
reside in Mtwapa during their vacations or field trips to the coast. Mtwapa is
loved due to a wide range of reasons like a 24-hour economy, low-priced and
good rooms for a middle class person. The town is near the pirates’ beach,
Bamburi industry and on the way to Malindi, places that are pleasant to visit
before going out of Mombasa. Swahili people say ‘hakuna zuri lisilo na doa’. And
so Mtwapa also offers the flesh what it certainly desires. Students worship
this.
The sighing and whistling when
the bus cuts into Mtwapa past open air clubs in the night whose toy women are
as beautifully exposed as real damsels warms up the blood of innocent
Nairobians and other long travelling students like folks of MMUST. The ones who
had previously been in the place desire for a stop and disappear just to be seen
in the morning for the day’s lessons. No one has influence to question them for
that. Maybe a redundant lecturer.
Primary timers do not go out on
the first night. They still held strong to their innocence. They would first
want to seem stylish and unpolluted. A behind schedule arrival will see them
yearning for some sleep to quench the agony of the long journey where buses
cannot rush past eighty kilometers per hour. The warmth and new taste of the
air will make them first uneasy in the new environment. But their love and longing
for this environment will keep their horns crawling out of skulls to face it arrive
in the sun.
There is no colourful and scarcely
looked for moment like the chance of a nearing trip down to coast. For some life-size
time, the travelers slot in fantasy talks. This eats up most of their time and
for first goers this is the time to be illusioned by the aura of coastal
stories and imaginations of a vast unending mass of water. In high school I commit
to memory cursing the deputy principle for getting me out of the coast bound
bus in the last minute. I had as always booked a seat in the music team to be
their journalist and report all to the rest of the school during a come-back.
The moment did not bear forth and the poor son could not be prevented from
crying. I survived the distress though William laughed at me in the face.
Our journey began at noon and as
usual the start is epitomed by a late arrival of the buses and the drivers.
Allowance is quickly distributed to prevent the lecturers from silly questions
of students who then get the guts to ask. In classes they are forever dump. Or dizzy
with open eyes. Bags are placed in the internal carrier. More bags are squeezed
below the seats. The boots are dirty and have traces of charcoal bought in one
of the trips. Maybe a lecture’s doing.
When I was filling the medical
form in one of the dispensaries in Huruma happy that I was joining an
international acclaimed university the doctor read my frame of mind and decided
to offer free advice. It must have been his social responsibility to do so.
‘Kenyatta University is not a good campus to be in.’ He was referring to the
already spread news that it was leading in HIV/AIDS prevalence learning
institution in the republic. He added to the already many warnings I had in my
mind. I promised him to be cautious. It was a promise and breaking it would be
as effortless as making it.
In the bus, couples distance
themselves from the rest of single ladies and immature boys. Can we call them
couples of the trip? Those who could travel by air, paid by their clandestine
in advance were already at the coast waiting for the rest. Parents have been
conned to believe that they are funding the trip and the absence of a
day-scholar is not disturbing. The student who was on holiday and living around
the campus gets a free trip and allowance. The lecturer cannot master everyone.
Freedom and money go hand in hand. For a week or so, they are in surplus and
this motivates even more. New bonds are created from the positioning and
sittings.
The noise crew is sitting at the
back. One takes out a cigar, lights it and puffs. When it spreads to the middle
part, some complain. Not even a student can correct a mate. The lecturer warns
the smoker and walks towards them. He realizes that their shirts are
unbuttoned. Cheap liquor is smelled. He has experiences such cases before. But
what about this when the bus is not even past Emali? He decides not to do
anything stupid though convinced that something should be done. He has enough
allowance to keep quiet, swallow sour saliva and in brief think about the
blurry future of the young chaps. Windows are opened to let the smoke out. A
born again folk curse from inside.
Casorina, Funfun, Lambada and
Lollipop are the trees in the garden of Mtwapa. They offer anything man can
buy. Students are too poor to afford a few drinks here. Some can afford because
parents are largely extravagant in giving out money so that they do not engage
in Al-Shabaab kind of moves in search for capital. Maybe the students have unceasing
needs to be attended to. The guardian may not be aware the amount of rent being
paid and how much it is to photocopy a handout. These are not the only clubs in this zone but
at least they are near and known for their fame in what the purists could call
hell on earth. Sons and daughters of stronger rationalism stands walk in.
What happens in there is more
equal to what transpires on the double-decker beds either in Nyayo Hostels or
Mboya in UoN. The ones who could not exchange rooms in the hotels for classmate
to classmate free enjoyment cannot be seen around. The two male lecturers are
also humans and in the long travelling hours they failed not to identify their
pray. The female lecturer will seem to have controlled herself in the best conduct
possible. The problem is there is no student-man willing to keep her in coastal
mood of whispers and fairy touches. Maybe she is aged. In all of the remaining
hours and days the story is about what time the day’s activities will break to
give them instant for another moment of pleasure.
The young queens are allowed to
extend time in the swimming pool by just a procure of one bottle or so. Though
it is running late in the midnight drunkards are not perplexed but keep
enjoying the free cinema ahead of them. The young university-tag ladies are a
good sight to see. They may be thinking they are as green as the bikinis on.
When one decides to pay for more discovery and real cinema, he knows best.
Sex is as cheap like the vendors
themselves. The amount is even said in terms of coins. The month is in its
middle stage and Mtwapa is too hard for its inhabitants. More creative ways are
sought. Students who operate in groups for reasoning, laughing, messing and
feeling good together have an option. One is proposing to serve them all as
they wish in a moment. They take this in with open minds. There is no time for
thoughts. There is no more money to secure a one-stand move room. Any bending
corner is adequate. No, the time of day works for them. Anywhere there is
darkness. The one who will start by the mouth, the one behind, the other in
front and the rest wherever. When they are tipsy, they say, they care less.
The morning of departure comes by
shock and was it otherwise they would pay their way back to school for one more
day in the area. Reason dawns that it would be useless to stay around without a
belonging part. These are fellow students whom they now request to be told when
the bus is prepared to leave. They will later be picked on the road, near the
clubs to be seen as heroes. Yes they had all bend over moments and time flowed
so quickly. They are hungry for sleep. It is their wish that the day went a
little bit some hours less and enjoy even better. This is a one-in-time chance
and should be exploited as best as it should.
In the innocence of sleep, where
nobody is talking they recall the fun. The bus breaks, goes over a bump in
Changamwe and startles the sleep. How one was aided to swim at the pirates’
beach and while far from others was asked for sex. She could not refuse. It was
good though and better than doing it with a foolish class commoner. She
remembers how the salt caused itching. The coconut fresh drink is not as good
as the fermented one. It is for the saints. Or rather the pretenders. She
throws the husks outside in the moving busses. It misses falling on an
overtaking speeding car.
When one begins a recall story, a
dumb sign is soon adopted and the mouth hisses to stop the talkers. What
happened in Coast remains in coast. This is how bad memories and hangovers are
taken care of. The filth anyway is with them and no amount of bathing can stop
it. It will not be of surprise to stage a strike after Liverpool VCT announces
the results of prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. The administration
will be looked at with a hateful eye as if they were around when inner wares
were lowered.
Our trip was fun. We want another
one just like the other one!
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