By the Rivers of Babylon

My mum was a teacher and as a result my holidays sucked big time. Why? you ask, because we closed school on the same day, opened on the same day and therefore we spent the entire holiday together...Every. Single .Day!

This means I spent the entire holiday in the house. I woke up and made my bed like it was a normal school going day and did homework. In fact, I think this is the opportune time and forum to apologise to my former classmates who I wronged for ALWAYS being the ideal student. I finished my holiday homework and got everything right (my mum proofread my work and pinched any place closest to where she was seated if I'd gotten something wrong...it was mostly my mouth because I had to bend and read with her so she just stretched her hand backwards and pulled my lips -  my lips are ahead of my face; and so every beginning of the term I served as an example in statements like - 'unaona  amemariza homework.kazi yako ni kura mutungo na kurara horinday muzima' - that just means ' you lying bastard' for those who don't know Swahili (Btw, that was my Kiswahili teacher speaking)- when they were on lying on the teachers table being reminded that holidays were not supposed to be fun and are meant for taking time to do homework and read ahead of the teacher- for crying out loud its only primary school- but I use to read ahead; coz my mum was a teacher. So please if you are still holding a grudge, its now clear that it was through no fault of my own that I was too hardworking.
Back to the reason my holidays sucked. You see it  also meant that I never went out to play with the estate kids because my mum said they'd infect us with ring worms and teach us bad manners. Therefore, the rest of my day was spent sleeping(mandatory after eating lunch),  and hanging on the rails of our sitting room window watching the estate kids riding their shiny new bikes. The bikes always seemed shiny and new because I saw them from the eyes of an envious child. When people are in love they see things in slow motion(its true), for me, it was shiny new bikes.  

Well, for those with friends whose mums are teachers(I don't know if dads who were teachers did the same) you now know why,

1. we never go out...we were programmed to stay in the house and be boring, 

2. we cannot ride bikes...we saw them through window rails and 

3. we are bright like that...the only solace was books.

I probably come off as a complainer but it was nice hanging out with my mum while it lasted and aki mum, for making sure that I never learnt to do what a million Chinese can do-ride a bike, hauku do poa. Well,  the title has absolutely nothing to do with with the post  but i think Babylon  is the window I use to hang onto watching the estate kids playing.