Chapter 3

Four years ago I a sat for my primary level examinations. Now yet again today I get to sit for my secondary level national examinations. I set the bar pretty high last time so I know this time I have to do a lot better to maintain the same standards. I was the first in my country during my primary national examinations and whatever happens this time too I have to maintain the same position.

I have always been a hand working person so I know I will perform excellently. Today we have math paper one and English paper one. Math always came naturally to me without having to struggle but English I had to work a lot harder for that. My favorite subjects had always been Math, Chemistry and History.

Just like any other day I left home at 6:30 am so I would be in school by 7:00am. The exams begin at exactly 9:00am so I had at most 2 hours to through a few formulas. Most of my classmates didn’t like math and were a lot nervous. I had spent time tutoring Joy so for her she quite confident. I went through a few formulas and made sure I got each one right before heading for examination hall at 8:50am.

In my school every examination began with a prayer and as the Christian chair person I lead the prayers .And at 9:10am we had all began our examinations. For every paper we had 2 hours. I knew every question in the math paper and even managed to finish with an extra 20 minutes in my time. We were done by 10:10 am.

We went for tea break before coming back for English paper one at 12:00am. English was little bit of a challenge for me especially when it came to writing. So I began with the questions that I was absolutely sure then took time to do those that seemed a little bit of a challenge. Eventually we were done with all the exams for the day.

That was just the first day and we still had three more weeks to go since the secondary national examinations took a lot more time compared to the primary school national examinations. The examinations went on quite well until the last day when we had Chemistry practical. This one we did it in the lab. Chemistry practical had always been a walk in the park for me but today it was a whole different story.

Since our school did not have much resources while using pipet during titrations we would draw the liquid from the beaker using our mouth but be careful not to drink the liquid. Unfortunately this time I found myself drinking a whole mouthful of the liquid. It was good that the liquids were ensured to be safe if consumed. And as if that was not bad enough when using the burette at the point where the liquid were supposed to change color for some unknown reason mine did not. With no data to do my analysis for the first time I found myself really nervous in an examination room. However I knew I had to come with something really quickly. I remembered our teacher Madam Mercy telling us that with the correct calculation one only lost one mark for wrong data.so I quickly checked at the person directly in front of me the point their liquid had changed color and guessed a possible value which I used to do the rest of my calculations. That day was the first time ever I found myself really scared in an exam room. Eventually that was over and now it was time to wait for the results. I kept praying for a miracle because I knew it was the only thing that would save me in my Chemistry exam.

So today I got a new phone and for the first time I own a phone. My mom promised that as soon as I finished secondary school then I would be allowed to own a phone. So I used all life savings to get a phone. Well even with all my savings they were still not enough so I got a little bit of help from my mom. Scratch that it was actually a lot of help. My savings could barely suffice for half the cost of the phone. but don’t blame me I didn’t have much money growing up and whatever I had I used to buy some lady staff which my mom didn’t consider to be of much need . She is not bad she is just a little bit traditional.

So I got myself a nice android phone. It may not be an expensive iPhone but it was mine and I totally loved it. I honestly I couldn’t wait to start creating new friends. I never had much experience with touch screen phone since my mom just owned a featured phone and well my siblings never allowed her to touch theirs. Before I forget I am the youngest of all my siblings.

I make sure I am done with all my evening chores. That is milking and making sure all the farm animals are safely locked away in their sheds. I started milking since I was nine, because my mom had a lot of trouble getting someone to help with the farm after my dad died. I hated to see her struggle so learnt farm work at a really young age. But I really enjoyed the work, actually I loved it. In the farm we have cows, sheep, chicken and we also grow crops but for just subsistence use and in case there are extras we sell them for an extra source of income. I enjoy the food here especially because I know it’s all organic. However the cows are our main source of income. We sell the milk to a daily and any other animal born male to a slaughter house.

So when I open my phone and see many apps that are already installed. Most I am familiar with. I already bought myself a line and credit which I use to buy bundles. Back here at the farm we don’t have Wi-Fi so to use the internet one has to use airtime bundles. So I scroll through my phone, there is Whatssup, Facebook, Instagram and many other apps. I decide to go through Facebook since my classmates talked about it a lot. I create my own account and some of the people I see I am familiar with since I have their contacts. However most I have no idea whatsoever who they are.

Just while am scrolling through, my attention is caught by this one guy. He is wearing light blue shirt and some dark blue pants. His profile is a half portrait and therefore impossible to see the rest of his legs or shoes. But what actually caught my attention is his face. He literally is the most handsome guy I had ever seen. He is light brown with a well-proportioned face, large luminescent eyes with rounded thick eyebrows. And his lips, well they looked luscious and delicious. I scroll down hoping to see a few more photos but unfortunately he had not posted any more photos. I just stare at him for a few more seconds.

I am a person who prefers to use logic instead of emotions while making decisions. I also I never in my whole short life ever gave attention to boys. I am sixteen by the way. I skipped a few classes that’s why I finished high school quite young compared to my peers. I was always too focused on my academics to ever notice any boys. Before I forget this guy’s Facebook name is Caleb. Caleb was the first guy that I found myself ever attracted to. I send him a friend request since I don’t see any harm in doing so.

It is already late so I sleep hoping to find his response the next day when I wake up. Little did I know that this would be the start of a long journey between me and Caleb.

The next day I find that he had accepted my friend request. So I quickly send him a text asking if he would like to be friends with me. A few hours later he responds telling me that he would love that. He gives his phone number and soon we started chatting on whattsup. I learnt just like me he just finished high school. For him unlike me he had grown up in a town. He loved swimming and travelling. His favorite was color was blue and his favorite food was chicken and pilau. And before I forget he wore a turban. My parents used to wear turbans too but they had left it to me and my siblings to make our own choices on whether or not we wanted to wear a turban.

People who wear turbans are actually common in my country. They are still Christians but only they dress in a quite different way. They are usually referred by the name ‘Akurino’.

Soon I realized that I really enjoyed talking and chatting with him. I realized how I often looked forward to his calls and his texts. Talking and chatting everyday became a habit for us even though we still had not met yet.

It’s been a month since we finished our exams and today we get the results. This exams meant a lot more than the primary national examinations since they decided the college or university one was going to join. The results were aired on Radio and television. This year the minister of education was changed. And this one was a lot more strict the last one. In the past few years the cases of exam malpractices had been increasing steadily with every year. For instance during last year’s national examinations questions which were in mathematics paper one had actually been seen circulating in the news before the day of exams. But during this year’s examinations there was not even one single case of examination malpractices. Security for the exams had been doubled. Usually it took three months before the results were released but this time it only took one month.

Once again I didn’t let my mom down as I was yet again announced as the leading candidate in the whole country. I managed an A of 85 points. That meant that I didn’t just score As in all my subjects but that I also managed A+s in some of my subjects. Caleb managed a B which was actually good enough to take him to university. My friend Joy managed a B also which meant she would be join

ing university too.