Icons- The Regina Pacis Experience (4)

Some SS 1 Red girls

“Finally, I can now wear earrings in RP.” That’s what I thought when I got into SS 1, until Princi came along and spoilt my show. She said everybody should start wearing earrings including junior girls. Why did she have to make such a rule when I was just starting to live the life? Princi eehhnnn, mstchewww… Red house girls stayed in Dominic’s Hostel when I was in SS 1. Kelechi Okoroafor was my corner mate and Gladheart Anumudu was my side mate. Kelechi was almost a perfectionist. She hated when things when in disarray or when people scattered her bed. When my friends visited, I always had to ask them not to go close to her bed. Sometimes I wondered to myself, “what kind girl is this sef? Why can’t she just take a chill pill for once?” well, as I came to realize, Kelechi was (and still is) a very principled person. I tried to walk in her footsteps sha, but I could just say i was not created like that. I still remember all the times I had to sneak out before night prayers were over so I could run to the hostel and keep a bathroom space. I used to do this because, I usually wake up late and there was always terrible traffic in the bathroom esp. for SS 1s  we were allotted just two bathrooms. How did Matron Victoria expect about 40 people to bath in 2 bathrooms in 30 minutes? Especially when all the SS 3 girls were chancing us. After I kept a space in the bathroom the night before, I always had this inner assurance that even if I wake up late, I could just walk straight into the bathroom and bathe without being asked any questions. Sometimes, Kelechi would wake up first, take her bathe then come and wake me up. SS 3 girls even started sending me to keep space for them the night before. Then there were my hostel worker days. All SS 1 girls were supposed to clean the hostel as morning function. It was so annoying. The refectory was not any better. SS 3 girls always sent us to wash up their plates, pots and clean their tables because we were the juniors in senior ref. To worsen it, the ref door was beside their tables, so it was always very hard to escape except for the door downstairs, which the refectorians (can’t remember their names) hardly ever let us pass. I still remember the day I pretended to be choked by yam because I was trying to dodge chuking. My friends thought I was almost dead. They were massaging my chest with different ointments. My matron even insisted that I should remove my clothes o, so that the massager could massage my back very well. I even acted as if I fainted. I must give myself thumbs up sha. I put up a first class act that day… After I ‘fainted’, they had to carry me to the sick bay. After like 20 minutes, I regained consciousness and they took me back to the hostel. I even told them to read Psalm 91 to me because it looked like I was going to die. The gist now went round school o. All the SS 3 girls stopped sending me because of that. It was more like an added advantage to me sha.

SS 1 Red was not bad after all. Goodness Egem-Odey was my frontie. She used to claim to be a Mexican. Hilda Adekpe was Goodness’ sidey and Hauwa Dauda was my sidey. Mrs. Ezeikoha was my form mistress. She made us memorize Psalm 121 and always made us bring our bibles for class assembly every Thursday. How can I ever forget Mrs. Ogbonna? The teacher who turned all her students to teachers. Whenever we wrote a test, she would bring our books to the class after the test, so that we could mark it for her. The worst was when she even made us mark our notes by ourselves and help her record the scores. I can bet that there were some shady deals going on in the system.  I also remember when I used to bully Judith Anyaba. Lol… Not exactly bully sha; I just liked looking for her trouble. Then there was calm Betty and Zino Iroro who was always getting on everybody’s nerves, except me sha. I was the very nice one who liked making new friends. I remember Odinchezor Obingene, the intelligent and very scattered girl that never had complete notes. Mrs. Ezeikoha was always after her. Then Shunanum Shamaki, my youngest role model. She transferred into RP in SS 1. She was so calm, had an excellent carriage and she was lovable. Shunanum was somebody I always looked up to from my SS 1 till my SS 3. I remember the drama we wanted to act for the school in Independence Day. In the drama, Ruth Ideva was Phoebe, the woman who killed Goodness Egem-Odey, her daughter because she liked Goodness Udebuani, one boy like that and I was Detective Jacinta, the Detective in charge of the murder case. When we got on stage to act, it was a disaster. Till today I still thank God my part did not reach before we were bounced from the stage. At least, nobody knew that I was involved in such a play. Valz day in SS 1 was not so bad. I remember Ruth and her choko Chinwe ‘Ass Up’ Uche (I wonder how Ruth managed to accept such a choko). Ass up still tried for her during valz o. She bought Ruth correct gifts eehhnnn. I was shocked to my bone marrow. Meanwhile I can’t remember Ruth liking her as much as she liked Ruth. *sighs*. Then I joined African Chorus with Winnie, Jaachy, Ewhoma and the rest. Mr. Ralph told us that we were chosen for the group because we had like the best voices in the choir. We practiced o and decided to perform during open day. We flopped big time and were booed out of the stage. We still performed for grads sha and it was not so bad. Then there was Sister Perpetual who used to hold solo rehearsals in her office after night prayers. She helped quite a number of us groom our voices well. It was in SS 1 Red that SS 3 Red girls started to form the bond that existed and still exists between them.

Kelechi Okoroafor

Shunanum Shamaki

Episode 5, The Regina Pacis Experience----- COMING SOON!!! LOOK OUT.