Of courage, kindness, freedom, of tolerance and love... Senior School part 1

 “Hey dudes, this is our school and we love it with all our heeeaaarrtts, remember you’re gonna get where we are and we hope that you love it as much as we do” Sang to the tune of hey Jude. This was one of the lines in our valedictory pool song..

 

Around about this time 36 years ago, our time of being the big kids in the small school was up and now we were set to be the small kids in the big school. Standard 6…High School. Even though the whole school from Sub A (grade R?) to Matric (Grade 12) was called Umtata High School at the time, we were finally starting high school and boy was I petrified!

 

You see back in the day, being initiated was a rite of passage. This initiation took many forms ranging from physical abuse to the even worse emotional abuse and embarrassment or a combination of both. When you entered senior school or any sports or other team as a newbie, you expected some form of humiliation, public flogging, deep heat somewhere. I had heard of many of these tales being regaled but fortunately I had managed to escape them till now. (well except those scary bus rides home when the big boys were on the bus).

 

So here we were, 12/13 years old (10 for Satish right?), entering the big school…That was as exciting as it got. Like with many things, the thought of what could be far exceeded what was. Our initiation or at least my memory of initiation was non-existent. I am not sure if it was because my oldest sister, Nana, was in the Matric class or the fact that I was friendly with some of her class mates through sports or the bus, but other than standing in the quad one break and being interrogated, I can’t remember much of an initiation…either that or it was so traumatic that I blocked I out .

 

Just like the 5 years before, high school was a journey. A different kind of journey, these years were to build on the foundation of junior school and possibly set you up for the career path you were likely to follow. During the first 2 years we did all of the subjects. We were indoctrinated into living this one side of history, where one side were the barbarians and the other brave, courageous explorers who had brought civilization to a land. We learnt about cumulonimbus clouds, stalagmites and stalactites. We learnt to type or make objects out of wood in woodwork. This event of choosing between typing and woodwork was quite profound in that as much as I may have wanted to do typing, I would most probably have been the only guy in the class, so off to woodwork I went. Academically, high school was a continuation of primary school, with my main drive to always be in the top 10 of the class ideally top 5, but I didn’t always apply myself well enough to constantly stay there. Also, I had some smart siblings which helped ensure that I did not fall too far off, cos that would draw the ire of the folks. In standard 8, we had to choose the subjects we wanted to take that would eventually support us in our career choice. I was still not sure what I wanted to do and in one Guidance class, my friends Philip, Garth and I decided we were going to UCT to become chartered accountants. I never found much use in History and Geography as subjects, so we binned those quickly. Armed with 2 languages, maths, science, biology and accounting, we marched on through to the big dance at the end of the school year still with no clear idea of what career path to follow.

 

I applied to all the universities…just in case. The folks were of the belief that the title Dr. in front of my name was my destiny. I on the other hand can’t stand needles or blood, and to top it off the only university that granted me an interview for medicine was the University of Transkei, ain’t no way I was staying in that town, so I kinda messed that interview up. Pops had pulled some strings to get me an interview and I remember the interviewer asking me what I would do once I qualified, my answer…go overseas, honest, but a dumb answer if I wanted to get in. My final results weren’t the greatest. A for biology, shout out to Mrs Butler, C for science, and the rest were D for disappointing. I was robbed I tell ya I was robbed, jokes, I had applied to many universities, even Princeton in the states. Pops was on an academic sabbatical at Boston University and he had this wild idea which sounded cool. So cool that on one weekend, my uncle, Uncle Pee, packed my mother and the 5 of us in his Ford Sierra and drove us to Cape Town (from Mthatha) to apply for our American visas, what a journey that was, break down around Humansdorp, Kanyas (Knysna), broken clutch just as we got into Cape Town…wiild, but the upside is the soundtrack of that trip was TEVIN, Forever My Lady and Cooleyhighharmony…I also applied to all the top English speaking universities in SA for computer science, medicine and accounting. Wits, Rhodes, and university of Natal had accepted me, I could always make a plan to get into UNiTRA but I thought 10 years in that village was plenty. UCT was the one I wanted, but it was the last one to come. In the afternoon, late in January, I got a call from a Derick Msibi, offering me a place at UCT through the Academic Support Programme to become a chartered accountant. A guided path that was hoped to result in more black chartered accountants in South Africa. What that meant was I would take an extra year to graduate, but I cared not, many people took an extra year anyway and the upside was, I could comfortably do a double major, which I did. I initially thought it was one of my friends playing a prank on me, so I was rather dismissive of him in the beginning. Man was I chuffed, I was going to be going to UCT!

 

Socially, I was still an awkward kid growing up. Tall and lanky, able to easily maneuver between different friend groups but so darn shy especially around the ladies and puberty was upon us. I had developed this infatuation with this young lass, I think the whole class knew it. That condition followed me to senior school. Smart young lady, generally quiet and so pleasant, lovely smile. Oh, every year how I hoped she would be in my class. Every afternoon when we took the bus from school I’d hoped her and her sister were on it. Her sister was rather lovely too, but much older than us. I was smitten. But let me be clear my friends, I had less than no chance with her. She had caught the attention of one of the older boys and this young man, one of the cool kids, nice guy but you know the saying, f*#k around and find out, they wrote it with people like him in mind…he was like our version of a jock, good, hard rugby player, here i was in my white shorts and tee shirt swinging around a tennis racquet. (not even suggesting that this was my only handicap) oh no no nooooo. BUTTTT… 

This would not deter me, any opportunity to get her attention was taken. I have 2 great and dear friends Dave and Edward, both so far advanced in our youth when it came to the fairer sex, one was a masters student at 12 I’d say, that man imparted much knowledge, or at least he tried to. Let me illustrate what type of a joker I was. She lived close to where Dave and Ed lived, on several occasions I would take a route that went past her house on the off chance that id catch her getting into the car to go somewhere or in the garden, I doubt it ever came to pass. Guys, this was a commitment, cos the detour was pretty wild given the freely roaming, crazy dogs that terrorized us in our hood. Old me could learn much from young me, here I was risking my life for love. One school holiday I had convinced my friends to go and visit, let’s call her Reindeer. They knew my uselessness, but they agreed to go anyway. We strolled there, rang the door bell, she came to the gate and what do I do? I spend the whole visit riding a skateboard somewhere in the background and kicking stones. What a wow!! As you can see, my game was supremely tight! Oh wait and there was another one….

 

To be continued!!!

 

This month 2 of our educators left this realm. Thank you, Headmaster Webber and Mr. Friend. You sure had an impact on our lives. Here is Mr Webber's funeral, listen from about 23min onwards https://www.youtube.com/live/Pgf3pSvyc0c?si=0Qzt8S1j9ggx3a1U.