Boarding school diaries - An Accidental Legacy!!

I arrive on my first day at boarding school one sunny afternoon with my uncle who had been asked to deliver me there by my parents. As we go through the school gates, I see a plantation of trees to the left and to the right as walk along a gravel road with lots of shade. We arrive at the admin block and sit outside waiting for the head master to see us. 

About 30 minutes later, a big guy walks out of one office and I immediately deduce that this is the Head Master. Tall, very dark in complexion, a Charles Bronson mustache and overall has a no nonsense demeanor.. “MWELA!!!” He shouts, just as I was gathering my thoughts. We stand up, walk into his office and I sit down. “Why are you sitting?” he asks. “Stand up and find your manners! This is not your fathers house”. I quickly oblige, I stand up and allow my uncle to sit. This by the way, despite the fact that there were many chairs in the office but clearly that wasn’t the point.!

“Your father was a very good goal keeper at this school. Did you know that?” He asks. I immediately laugh while I say “no I didn’t”. “No I didn’t SIR” he corrects me with a stern voice.. Oh Lawd!! my life was about to change forever!!

“Angel...” the Head Master shouts. And quickly a short man pops his head into the office and answers “sir”. “Call George and ask him to come here”. “Yes sir” Angel responds and off he goes while I stand there thinking “wow.. this is power”. 

George arrives and it turns out he is a prefect. Smartly dressed, wearing a red tie and shoes so polished that I could see my face in them. “Sir” George immediately says. “George this is Mwela. His father was a goal keeper at this school many years ago. We played in the same team and we always won. Look after him” the Head Master says as he signs a few things and sends us off. 

As I leave the office, the Head Master assertively calls my name while picking up a black cane that was on his desk. “Mwela”!! He exclaims while hitting this cane on his desk. “If you make noise in class’ I’ll cane you; if you fight in school, I’ll cane you; if you are caught outside school boundaries, I’ll cane you! Understood”? “Yes sir”, I responded and off we went to start my boarding school life. 

Now boys being boys, there obviously came a day when the itch to rebel against the rules crossed my mind. On this particular day, one of our erstwhile colleagues who we called Dealer, came bearing good news. “Gents!” He exclaimed, while Tom Soya and I sat bored and playing chess. “I have found a river with hot water not far from the school” he said. Immediately Tom Soya, who added Soya to everything he ate, lit up! Fascinated by this discovery, we plotted and that afternoon we were on our way to go and confirm what our “David Livingstone” had just discovered.

After going through a bushy path and walking for about 45 minutes, we eventually arrive at this river. This place has stunning views, the river is gushing with water and there are big rocks in various parts of this terrain. Quickly we all change and jump into the water. To our absolute amazement, the water is hot, as in really, bathtub hot!! As we make ourselves comfortable, Dealer begins to praise himself for this big find and expects us all to thank him.

Now as Dealer rambles on, Tom Soya, our “intellectual, chess playing “I’m from the big city” colleague, is standing on a big rock and is preparing to dive and show us that he can swim. As I look up, I spot him about to do this stupid thing and immediately I think to myself “this may be painful”. Before I could say anything, Tom Soya is in the air, and two and a half backflips later he is fast on his way down with the help of the unforgiving gravity and SPLASH!! He hits the water head first..

The immediate reaction from the group is loud cheers and whistling for this brave soldier but this quickly turns to “where’s Tom Soya”? Unless he had just turned into a dolphin and swam away, holding his breath this long could be a problem. A few bubbles come up and very quickly we realize there is a problem and we dive in to go fetch him. He had dived in head first and hit a rock at the bottom of the water. As we drag him out of the water, he has a big cut on his forehead and needs to get to the hospital... slight problem though, we need a note from the school to get to the hospital. 

To cut a long story short, Tom Soya landed up at the hospital and as a result we got caught and we landed up with a punishment that changed my life forever. Digging a borehole!! 

The school had just embarked on a project to dig a borehole and needed some labor. Rather than cane me as the Head Master had once promised, he chose to make us cheap labor and cut some costs on this project. Win win right? 

Now in digging boreholes there is basically a big drill that rotates (usually powered by a machine) and goes deeper into the soil as this rotation continues. In this case, we had been volunteered to be the machine that would power this drill. As this day begins, we get up early and the drilling starts. There are about 20 of us, this thing is set up like a “round about” and we are pushing it clockwise and going around in circles.. literally! 

At about 2pm that afternoon we eventually hear the sound of water gushing up towards the surface and slowly we begin to see the ground around us get muddy. Minutes later and Psssssssshhhh!! We have found water!! Muddy water then comes gushing out with aggressive pressure and immediately we stop pushing and have a moment of intense “we have made it” celebration... whistling, cheers, applause, dancing... it’s all happening at this point. 

As we get carried away with this celebration, I look around and no one who knows this game is celebrating with us but instead they are looking at us funny as though to say “you have just started” and true to that look, this was just the first milestone. Apparently we had just hit the water table and this was just the beginning. This drilling goes on for at least another day before we get to the required level of depth to guarantee clean useable water and a sustained flow through out the year. 

Although there are so many lessons that I can pick out from the various characters from my Uncle who dropped me off, to the Head Master’s confusing welcome, Angel the messenger, Mr smart Prefect George, Dealer the life changing adventurer and the borehole experts, for the purposes of today, I’ll focus on our intellectual chess playing swimmer from the big city, Tom Soya, and the life changing borehole digging experience. I’ll then introduce the other characters with their lessons as the boarding school series develops. So here goes.... 

Many times in the process of building our careers and in life, we are all guaranteed to face defining moments. These moments often call for us to take a leap of faith, to take a risk, or like Tom Soya, to dive into the unknown head first. When these moments present themselves, resist the temptation to play to the gallery, to seek the applause, the short lived moments of fame and the peer pressure that builds up as the masses shout Soya!!! Soya!!! Soya!!.. Why? Because when you jump, you’re on your own and the consequences that follow are yours to own and live with daily. 

Before you jump, assess the terrain, understand where the rocks are, check how deep the water is and most importantly, apply your mind to what the potential consequences of this jump will be, not only to you, but other people around you as well. If all else fails, ask Dealer, someone who has walked this path before and probably understands it more than you. 

To this day, Tom Soya still has the scar on his forehead but to his credit, he wasn’t timid, he wasn’t indecisive, he didn’t just talk about it, he didn’t threaten to make a move, he actually jumped!! 

So what about the borehole then? Most people’s careers start with a dream, a destination, an ambition of some sort but somewhere along the way we settle, become content, we stop trying, we stop caring and we stop growing... In short, we give up!

While you build a career or even a business, there are many times when you will feel like you’re going around in circles without seeing results, when you will feel like cheap labor, when others will walk past you, make fun of you and wonder what you’re doing, when those who supervise you will refuse to acknowledge and celebrate your initial signs of progress, like that muddy water from the ground, and when you will get so tired that giving up will be something you consider a viable option. 

In these times, bear in mind that progress is not always what is visible on the surface, bear in mind that depth is the key to sustained growth and bear in mind that time spent acquiring this depth is never time wasted. Keep digging by studying further, keep digging by learning new things outside your daily job, keep digging by always being inquisitive and wanting to know more, keep digging by failing, getting up and trying again, keep digging despite the appearance of slippery muddy water on the surface that may trip you up and make you believe that you’ve arrived.. 

To this day, the school uses this borehole and somewhere on it is my name strategically scratched on the cement stating the obvious.. “Amasi was here”. What was a painful punishment for us at the time has gone on to serve many generations after us. The moral of the story? Dig until your depth can sustain more than just your generation and your name can never be deleted from history. That in itself is how legacies are built. 

What others lessons can you pick out from Tom Soya and the borehole?