“What do I do?” I thought, “How on earth do I tell this nun that I cannot eat any more food.” Of course I could have told her in my own mother tongue; Rukiiga – that was the only language I knew back then and it was the only language that I could speak.
But that was not possible at that time. I had been moved to this new school – St. Maria Goretti Preparatory School and I had been fore warned not to speak any other language apart from English.
I had been surviving in the new school by merely listening to the bell – this was easy because even in my old village school there was one, and by following the mob, I would then end up in the right place.
But this particular time was different. It was one on one. There was no mob to follow. There was no bell to listen to. The nun was standing on my table and I could see her mouth open and close and hear some sounds – I never understood a thing of what she said, it was all in English.
The nun continued to speak and I saw my fellow pupils finish their food and leave the dining hall. I soon realized that she was asking all pupils to complete their meal and leave the dining hall. I was already satisfied and so I decided to leave the dining hall as well. She shouted at me with a very tough face. I got scared and sat down at once and pretended to eat. That did the trick. As long as I pretended to eat, she never shouted at me.
Soon the dining hall was left with only two pupils – I and some other boy called Nicholas. The nun sat down and was not showing any signs of moving away. Now I clearly knew what she wanted. But I was too satisfied to complete all the potatoes on my plate.
I wanted to tell her that I was satisfied; that I had had enough food; to explain to her that the cooks had put a lot of food on my plate. But how could I do all that explanation in English? I only knew a few common words such as tree, box, cow, dog, cat, fly e.t.c – most of the words I knew in English were actually 3 letter words that I had learnt from my old village school.
I decided to ask the other boy, Nicholas, who was also trying to finish his food. But how would I do it? I could not speak a sentence in English. I resolved to eat the food. I pushed a handful of potatoes in my mouth and swallowed. I felt like throwing up. I knew no one liked that; even home, I was always punished for throwing up. But I had to complete the food if I had to get past the nun.
Then all of a sudden, Nicholas stood up and uttered words in English. The nun replied and then took away both our plates – neither I nor Nicholas had completed our food. I was puzzled.
No sooner had she left than I followed Nicholas out of the dining hall. I went straight to bed; determined to learn English by all means the next day.
p/s:
I met Nicholas recently on the street(hence my posting of this story, the memories of that day in April 1991 when he rescued me all came back in a flash). He works at Uganda House. It was such a surprise - I had last seen him in
1995. He has no clue of the above mentioned incident - and he is not the type who reads blogs.
That day is so vivid in my memory - it was in April 1991 (Actually I even recall that it was raining) so when I saw Nicholas recently, the memories came back - and I realized how far I have come. I got to know later that Nicholas told the nun that we were satisfied hence the nun let us leave the dining room.
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