Recalling the chilly and cold baths of Tandala Primary School

Like in all countries in this part of African it has of late been raining cats and dogs. It is also worth noting that, apart from perhaps Kigali, in Rwanda, other cities in the region – Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam and many others - have suffered serious floods leaving thousands of poor East Africans helplessly wallowing in murky sewage-strewn waters which literally swallowed their humble homesteads.

Government authorities in all these countries could only mumble some words of consolation to the hapless masses and prayed for the rains to somehow go away.

Ironically during all this, water taps remained very dry notwithstanding the deluge. Indeed East Africans are united in many ways including calamities.

Comparatively Arusha city was spared the extreme forms of the floods which afflicted other urban areas in Bongoland and the neighbouring countries. Perhaps this is on account of the city’s steep slopes and the many forested areas. Anyway this again is a story for another day.

Worth noting, however, is that early this week the rains seemed to dissipate from the skies of Arusha. In its wake Arusha was soon engulfed in an unprecedented wave of frosty weather. Some chilly breeze seemed to engulf all parts of this hillside city.

To be more precise I woke up on Tuesday morning with some serious symptoms of flu and cold bordering on going down with pneumonia.

This affliction propelled my now sickly imagination to go way back to the mid 60s, during my boyhood days at the then Tandala Lutheran Church Upper Boys Boarding Primary School, straddling some chilly valley on top of the Livingstone Mountain ranges in Njombe.

Among other shortcomings, the school did not have piped water. In their innovative ways, the school authorities forced us to dig a trench to bring water from a spring some five or kilometres up the higher forested parts of the nearby mountain.

This we did and indeed we had water flowing through our school complex into a collection well for domestic use while the rest was used to water our vegetable gardens.

This was a welcome development to all of us at the school. Among others we could now, notwithstanding the cold weather, enjoy some very watery baths, luxuriously scrubbing our tiny bodies like some Lake Tanganyika sardines being scrubbed before being dried.

This exercise, however, was short-lived. Between May and August the weather became so chilly that the stream and the water in the well froze, and in some instances even snow fell and covered the ridges of Kingaland.

We therefore had to devise new ways of ensuring that, notwithstanding the weather, we still had the water every morning to wash our tiny bodies. For failure to do so the legendary lashes of our Head-teacher, one Mzee Mwangoma, would not spare our tiny bottoms.

We noted that the stream and water from our well froze from between 10pm and 10am We therefore collected water – before it froze - in our calabashes and kept it under our beds till morning when we used it. Woe unto the pupil who would fail to do so for surely Mzee Mwangoma’s vicious lashes would warm his bottoms the following day.

The weather was so cold that before going to bed every pupil was forced to put on some more clothes including sweaters on top of those one was wearing.

From what I have experienced this week I wonder whether that would not also be the case the Arushans would face during this year’s wintry months. No trepidation I am ready to guide them.