FGM – the aftermath (1).

FGM – the aftermath (1).

By Clifford Oluoch

There was a familiar creak from the old rusty door, which allowed a draught of the cold July wind to slowly waft into the class and send shivers down the class.

Instinctively all the 42 heads in the class rose and shifted their gaze towards the end of the class for the longest time possible. At the door was one of the strangest sights the class had ever seen, a tall thin and emaciated girl standing at the door. Her lower lip dangled loosely, a few inches from her chin with an old ugly scar on it showing that the girl had been involved in either a serious fight, accident or both.

What caught everyone’s attention, though, was her eye, or lack of it. The children were not sure whether or not there was an eye in the socket or just a black hole. Then the girl focused her gaze towards the class and they all looked away. Some even shivered. Even Mr.Kuria, the class teacher, stood rooted at his desk; though, he eventually composed himself and welcomed the girl.

“What’s your name?” Mr. Kuria, known for his lack of courtesy gathered all the good manners he could.
There was a tense moment of silence as the whole class waited to hear whether her name matched her looks. The girl hoarsely replied, “Jioni”. No second name was mentioned and the class looked disappointed that whatever they were expecting did not come.

She had no uniform, no shoes, her clothes were tattered and her body was full of small swellings, possibly scurvy. She was quite a sight.

“Welcome to std. 5P,” Mr. Kuria continued in his fake sweet voice. The class chuckled trying to remember if they had ever heard their teacher being so courteous. Mr. Kuria cleared his throat loudly and the whole class got the message. He proceeded to show Jioni her seat, sharing a desk bench with the unwilling Njeri, but one look from the teacher was enough to convince Njeri that the cane was not very far away.

There was deathly silence in the class as the students continued stealing glances towards Jioni, while Njeri tried her level best to make sure that their bodies did not get into any contact. Even the naughty duo of Otero and Menjo the great bullies of the class were quiet for the first time in a long time, wondering what possible mischief they could play on the new girl to officially welcome her to the class and school.
The rest of the lesson was uneventful, most students dying for a break to run away from the weird girl or to pull some practical jokes on her.

The break bell rang, saving the tense situation as the children rushed to either go for a short call or join their friends in playing. The relief on their faces was just too evident.

“You will have to go outside and play with the others,” Mr. Kuria was at his worst ordering the lost looking Jioni out of class. The girl attempted to say something and then changed her mind and slowly walked out of class to join the rest in the playground.

There was loud screaming as children played all manner of games, chasing and dodging, weaving past their classmates obviously enjoying each moment of their break time.
Jioni walked towards where her classmates were playing and as she did so, the pupils squealed and fled away from her. Even the girls ran away from her.

Jioni sighed. It was always the same wherever she went the children always called her names, making her life miserable. Even in the estate the other children never wanted to play with her. “Kajicho, one-eye” they called her, referring to her ‘eye’

The bell signalling the end of morning break rang, bringing an end to the children’s fun. There was more noise as the students walked to their classes and settled in. Still Jioni had not talked to anyone or made any friends. It was after break that Jioni realised that her only pencil was missing from her desk. Menjo and Otero had made their mark.

“Teacher, someone has taken my pencil,” Jioni told Mr.Kuria in her husky voice, making the classical mistake of interrupting the teacher’s Math lessons. If there’s something that really annoyed Mr.Kuria, it was two things: someone interrupting his lessons and a student without a pencil.

The class waited tensely for Mr. Kuria to explode, but the teacher this time decided to introduce Jioni to the class in a formal way and have his revenge on some of the naughty boys. Mr. Kuria turned and faced the class and addressed Jioni, “Feel free to search the class.”

There was instant panic in class as Jioni focused her one eye on the whole class. She slowly and methodically moved towards Otero and Menjo, the two class bullies. She hissed as she moved from her desk to theirs. Every eye in the class followed her graceful movement, the excitement leading to bubbling and murmurs in the class.

“Where is my pencil?” Jioni asked the two bullies, as she bent down to search their desks. The two boys sobered up immediately went ahead and produced not only Jioni’s pencil, but many more stuff that they had taken from others in the class. There was uproar from the girls in the class who were very pleased that for once the two boys had been tamed.

Jioni had made her mark, though through making enemies. Menjo and Otero had also marked her. She was going to pay dearly.

**********
If Jioni thought that the day before had ended in her favour, she was wrong and was not prepared for the onslaught on the second day in school.

Atieno, one of the girls in the class, was talking excitedly to three of her friends. There were talking about Jioni. “My mum knows her aunt. Jioni has that disease called AIDS and if she touches you, you can die! Look at her skin, it has ugly spots.. uugghh!”

Jioni, on her way to the class, heard her name being mentioned and stopped and hid behind the wooden window to hear what the girls were discussing.

“No, no!” retorted Mwikali, one of Atieno’s friends. “My mum says that Jioni comes from a family of witches. Her mum was a witch and so was her grandmother. When you turn two, one of your eyes is sacrificed.”
“Did you see how the she looked at Otero and Mwenjo, and how the two boys were terrified?” asked Atieno again.

Jioni did not want to hear any more of it, so she slowly walked to the pit latrines and hid herself, waiting for the bell to rescue her. How was she going to face the class and tell them that yes, she was HIV positive and that it was not her fault? How was the class ever to realise that she did not have long to live with the AIDS virus? Who was ever going to listen to her, just once and let her tell her story to the world that AIDS is not only sexually transmitted?

She had changed schools more than once, hounded out from one school to another. This was her third school in as many years, and this time she was determined not to give in.

The bell rang and Jioni walked out of the latrine and slowly trudged towards the class. There were small groupings in the class as Jioni arrived and they were all discussing the writing on the board. In big and bold were the words “AIDS KILLS” and beneath it were the words, “ so does Jioni.”

Jioni walked in and read the writing on the board. It stung her. Though she had AIDS, she was completely harmless. Who said that she killed? She had to do something about the misinformation, running away and keeping quiet was not going to help. Sooner than later, she would have to talk and explain to the class and school about herself.

Jioni was just about to speak and defend herself when her actions were interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Kuria. Students scampered to their seats, ready for the day’s action.

Mr. Kuria read the message and scowled, “What is this?” he asked as he turned his fierce gaze towards the class, especially Jioni and the two mischievous boys, Menjo and Otero.

“I didn’t do it,” Jioni whispered, her one eye focussed on the teacher.

“Don’t look at me like that,” the teacher hissed, obviously uncomfortable with the one eye look, and then went on to lecture the class about HIV / AIDS.

“Who knows how people ‘catch’ AIDS?” Mr. Kuria asked, his gaze sweeping across the class. Feet shuffled, there were a few giggles and there was tense amusement as someone volunteered an answer, “When a man and a woman do bad manners.” The class erupted in laughter, only to be brought back to sanity by the clearing of Mr.Kuria’s loud throat.

Jioni felt a pang of pain as the laughter died down. She knew that AIDS was not a laughing matter and she was going to tell the class about it. Unfortunately, Jioni did not gather the required strength to talk and Mr. Kuria went on with his lecture.

When the break bell rang, Jioni was relieved to leave the class and wander anywhere. She found herself heading towards the pit latrines looking for elusive peace. Her search for peace was not rewarded for she heard some voices and she was going to walk away when she thought she heard some muffled scream coming from a nearby bush. She ran as fast as her thin legs could carry her and found herself face to face with Otero, Menjo and a group of three other boys. The two boys were twisting Nyota’s hands, and she was trying her best not to scream.

The bullies were shocked to see Jioni who ran straight at them, breaking the ring that had been formed to shield the girl.

“You will leave that girl alone!” she commanded the boys with such authority that they had no choice but to leave Nyota. Menjo hesitated, but the look on Jioni’s face and her trembling finger and lips convinced him that things were very serious.

Menjo wanted to have the last word, “You will pay for this!” he told Jioni as he walked away, ashamed that twice Jioni had humiliated him in front of his gang.

“Thank you for saving me,” a very appreciative Nyota told Jioni, as she ran away, obviously not wanting to touch Jioni.

Jioni sighed. She wanted friendship, at least one person she could talk to and share girlish secrets with. She thought Nyota would be one, but it turned out that no one was willing to be near her.