Icons- The Regina Pacis Experience(3)

From Top Left: Ezime Oteri, Chioma Igwe-Kanu, Jaachy Okafor, Winnie Ukwunna
From Bottom Left: Chioma Ohammah, Sewanu Ajose, Ijeoma Nwadiaro, Jemimah Eitokpah, Grace Iroagalachi

Jss 3 was da bomb…. It was like the best part of junior school. In first term, I was in the same corner with Chioma Igwe-Kanu, Chukwufunanya Elumeze and Mary-Ann Abin. Jemimah Eitokpah, Imabong Etukudo, Grace Iroagalachi and Nkemdirim Ihesiaba were in the next corner. Then, Jemimah used to tell me stories about herself. They were always very funny. I still remember how tiny our corners were. All the seniors on our row used to steal from our rat hole space. Chukwufunanya, my bunkmate was a transfer student. We used to call her Gagool (The witch in King Solomon’s Mines). Our jolly good times came to an end when Princi said we all had to stay according to our houses. Gbam!!! I was back to Okoye again. Things were even worse this time. Precious Onyeachu was my bunkmate. I was like “WTH?” She told me that I had to wash her socks and uniforms every Wednesday and Friday and clean her shoes every day. She also said I should never sit on her bed. Please was I supposed to clean her shoes from my bed, on top of the bunk? Anyways, my corner mates, Chidinma Oraekwe and Nene Urua were the nicest people. Nene was very homely and Chidinma was accommodating. Then, Chiamaka Umeh and Ehi Ekoja used to come to my corner all the time. I never liked them until they became my corner mates later in third term (after SS 3s went home).

All Hail Jss 3 Red girls!!! That was the second best class (after SS 3 Red) in RP. When they pasted class list in Jss 3 Red, I secretly prayed that Winnie Ukwunna would not be in my class again. As I was going through the class list, I was almost happy that I did not see her name until I got to No. 32 and I saw her name. I was mad eehhnnn. I wanted to die. But over the months, I got used to seeing her again for another year. Don’t get me wrong o, Winnie is da bomb. She was just too hyper active. In Jss 3 Red, Kelechi Okoroafor adopted the nickname “Pawpaw Baby”. Funny right? One thing I can’t forget is the song Chioma Igwe- Kanu composed for Ezime Oteri. “Singing (using fall in love tune); Zim Square you don make me fall for you (2 x)”. Lwkmd. Aaahhhh… when jollof rice was the worse food in RP, I always exchanged it with Anita Omoruyi for garri and popcorn. There were times when we dreaded night prep in Jss 3 because Kelechi Obikaonu was prepping in our class. There was time Joy Agwu flogged my whole class because she was our ‘prep prefect’. For almost 3 days after the flogging, we used to go to SS 3 Gold for prep because of her. Then I also recall our ‘chuk chuk ‘alert signal. Whenever any of us saw a senior who wanted to send us emerging, she would say ‘chuk chuk alert’ and we would all run away before the senior approaches. Funny right? Ezime Oteri should remember this. She was my sidee in class. The days when we used to forge Miss Igbokidi’s signature in our signing book to submit to. We would forge it whenever she did not come to class so that Mr. Ike wouldn’t query her. We liked her so much and she used to think that Ann Arinze and I were twins. We even used to wear the same bathroom slippers. Rotfl. There was also Inter-house sports. The only one Regina Pacis ever hosted. Up Blues…they came first and fiery red came second. White house girls came last. We yabbed them for days after that. Aaahhhh… I forgot Eucharia Alozie, the taleteller. In Jss 2, when Eucharia arrived RP, she used to ‘prophesy’. She even said Ann-Marie Akaatenger was going to be SP in our set and as naïve as we were, we believed. Only for Ann-Marie to change school after Jss 3. She fell Eucharia’s hand big time. Then there was the great order from the marching squad commander. Our dear Eucharia informed us that she wanted to become a marcher. In RP, being a marcher was a great accomplishment. You must have been a superb marcher. As Eucharia was marching in the field downstairs, we heard a loud cry, “Eucharia, fall out”. The cry was so loud that the people in Jss 3 Green heard it and rushed out to witness the falling out of Eucharia. I joined the Marian Voices Choir in Jss 3. I joined alongside Chioma Igwe-Kanu, Nkem Ihesiaba and Winnie Ukwunna. The yearly routine of the choir was to conduct a screening test (more like auditions), for all the new members.  The probationers are usually screened according to voice and character. Normally, the whole choir would assess you and rate you from A to F (just the way WAEC is rated). The year before, Winnie had tried to get into the choir, but the choir rated her “F” and told her to try again the next year. She came back to class very sad and moody. But when we got to the choir in Jss 3, we were screened favorably and allowed to join the choir. I would say that the first bouncing from the choir improved her character tremendously. She became a great choir Icon…. Winnie the great!!!

The last part of Jss 3 was when we were planning our class party. We even wanted to act Mo hits Kpere, but we changed our minds and decided to do the popular Cinderella drama. At first, we told Mary Adeleye to act the Cinderella then Deborah Ehanire and Goodness Egem-Odey, the evil step sisters. Along the line, we realized that Deborah was a better Cinderella than Mary. When we told Mary, she started crying o. she did not want to act the part of the evil step sister which actually fitted her more, partially because of her height. Our dear Winnie was the Prince; Ijeoma Nwadiaro was the King, then me, the queen. When it was time to dance, there was trouble o. Some members of the class wanted to stomp, instead of dance. This caused a little division in the class. People like Chioma Ohammah and I, could not take any sides because we were singing for the dancers and were friends with the stompers. The dancers even ‘hired’ Sewanu Ajose, from Jss 3 Green to teach them some dance steps. Goodness, Mary, Jaachinma and Winnie (again) mimed ‘Fall in Love’. Jaachy and Goodness did the first verse, while Winnie and Mary did the second verse. You should have seen Mary that day. She was just doing grah-grah; even Winnie could not act the part well because of that.

Jss 3 was such a nice class o. I have so many fond memories of that class esp. that Chioma and Ezime’s song. This is when I was supposed to start wearing earrings in RP o, only for Princi to come and spoil my show. Lmao… Look out for Icons- The Regina Pacis Experience (4)