Monday 31 August 2015

The Good Old Days...

Hi everyone! Wie geht's? So, a brief sortie from my German bunker to talk about today's topic.

I have a rare day off on this wonderfully sunny Monday, so I decided (as you do), to waste some time on Facebook. And luckily too, because I saw that I had been tagged in a conversation about our old secondary school days. And my God, was it a (bad)trip down memory lane! 

Ok, for those who may not know, I went to a Unity school in Nigeria. They are the equivalent of the British Grammar school, or the French's Grandes écoles, but at secondary level. You usually have to take an entrance and score above certain cut-off marks in order to make the list. You were then "randomly" allocated a place in one of the Unity schools anywhere in the country. These schools were heavily subsidised, with respect to the quality of education they provided, because the idea was to train a selection of "gifted" children, while at the same time strengthening each child's Nigerian identity (they were established after the horrible civil war of the 60's). All the ethnic groups were mixed, and as you could be sent anywhere in the country, many of the students were boarders, as many lived far away (mine was about 6hours away for instance). We had three terms, with holidays and mid-term breaks, as well as monthly visiting days, but you effectively spent a huge chunk of your life at school (from about 11-17). So with that quick explanation out of the way, today's Facebook conversation was about SOME of the scary things that happened to us. I'm just going to put up a few snapshots of the comments, keep in mind that they were actually a lot of replies and almost everyone experienced something strange. Anyways, here goes...





"Great" memories of exciting times indeed. Can you imagine this stuff happening anywhere else? A rampaging (or several) paedophile(s), snakes, owls, Bush babies (Galapos), not to mention the evil senior/older students and teachers in a school of about 2000young girls (no parents!!!). I still wonder how we survived, and who chose the idiots that were our caretakers?! Still I guess that's why we are all so independent, adventurous and fearless today. I mean when you experience all these things as a kid, it becomes hard for anything else on earth to faze you. So guys, especially the Nigerians in the house, any "strange" or usual boarding house/school experiences you care to share with us? Please go ahead!

6 comments:

  1. Abuse. Is the word I'd use to describe most of experiences of Nigerians who attended boarding school.

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  2. Abuse. Is the word I'd use to describe most of experiences of Nigerians who attended boarding school.

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  3. @ "The snake got confused from all the shouting and started going all crazy" hehehehhehehe now that was Epic... :D

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  4. Exactly why I wouldn't send my kids to boarding school or away to school. I need to know what the heck is going onnnnnnnnnnn. Omg pedophiles are all over the place. I don't know how people can even think of letting their kids go far away. I would lose my mind if I let my kid go off to school and found out these things were happening.

    I'm glad you made it out alive Clara.

    XOXO,


    La Deutsche Diva — The Denglisch Blog
    ♥ German ♥ English ♥

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  5. Hahahaha! I went to a unity school too, FGGCS The fear of 'skirt and blouse' was the beginning of wisdom. Very vicious insect. Good times :-)

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  6. Ha ha ha :)
    We can look back and laugh. I remember lady koi koi in my school. We would wake up at night and hear footsteps as if someone was walking in high heels (hence the name), but when we looked, there was no one there. Spooky!

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