high school

This is the place where you had an interesting mosaic of friends. All of you were fighting rapid fluctuations in testosterone levels, the hormone which convinced you that you are wisest bunch of geniuses the world has ever seen.

So this time you had a boil in the ear. A boil. In the ear. Not on the earlobe. In the ear. Deep inside where those things biology teachers used to fuss about hold conferences to determine your hearing abilities. The cochlea most likely chairs those conferences.

Ordinarily it was pointless to go to the school nurse because whatever your ailment, she would scribble something on a notebook and give you pain killers and malaria tablets. If you were near dying, she would recommend that you go to a local dispensary where the local doctor, Sianki, would give an injection irrespective of your disease.

It is only if you proved beyond reasonable doubt that you were really dead that the school nurse would recommend that you be taken to Chuka General Hospital, as it was called then.

This time, the nurse lit a small torch and looked inside your ear. She said it was impossible to reach the boil and squeeze it, so she would put medicine in there to make it burst, then she would clean the ear. So she squeezed some liquid drops inside the ear.

On the way out, you met a friend, and told him about the boil.

“Hata mimi nilikuwa na auntie alikuwa na boil kwa sikio” he said.
You were excited. Finally, a success story. You wanted to know what she did with the pain, so you asked:

“Alifanya nini?”

“Alikufa” the guy replied with a straight face.

:slight_smile:

Mimi sikuenda Highschool