More than a decade and a half ago, in the hot streets of Kabati estate in Naivasha, I was in primary school with two best friends with whom I spent most of my time. During the weekends we would go for Mzururo in town, sometimes to the train station to see the trains, sometimes to those sides of Esther He Githeri (EHG), cereal board, Naivasha Sports Club (I think) and etcetera. We knew almost very corner of that town.
Sometimes we would go to that downtown road where there’s this hotel that tourists used to frequent (I forget the name) and we would do our best ‘how are you?’ to see if they’ll give us a few coins. Anyways that was back when I was in class five.
With time, we realized other ways of having fun, like going to the KWS swimming pool. It was a really nice place. First, I learnt how to swim. Secondly, I enjoyed watching the older guys playing scribble and chess. Thirdly and most importantly, I discovered kusafisha mecho.
I especially enjoyed the accidental ass grabbing, where I could spot a girl, dive inside the water, swim towards her, and ‘bump’ into her. Then, while grabbing her ass or waist, come out with my eyes closed tightly (to appear like I don’t even realize it’s an ass I’m holding) and gasping for air like I would have drowned were it not for the ass I was grabbing! Like my life at that particular moment depended on my hands holding her ass tightly. Hehe those were the good times. In fact, that was the first place I saw a guy take his slices in the water. The boner almost tore my shorts! Couldn’t come out of the pool for sometime.
Anyways, the problem was that KWS charged Ksh.30 for entry and that was a lot of money. Not to mention one needed at least two mandazis to maintain energy for the entire day. So, ballpack, one needed at least 40 bob.
Of course, my mum wouldn’t fund me every Sunday, because; one, under her rules of equality, she had to give my sisters 40 bob each so they can have fun their own way; and two sometimes I was on probation for some mistake I had done.
Nevertheless, on one fateful school day, in the process of buying ice after lunch, my boys and I chanced upon one of the most brilliant idea of getting funds for Sunday swimming. Coloring the one-shilling coin! It was a stroke of genius. Now, if you remember, before we had these silver, shiny, one-bob coins, we had some copper ones (is it copper?). They were green.
My boys and I discovered that if we colored the one-bob coin with a HB pencil, and handled it the right way towards the sun/light, it shone like a ten bob coin. We did our first trial with the guy who sold ice after lunch. He had tens of pupils surrounding him and because the after lunch gong was always nearly ringing, he sold in haste. We took advantage of the confusion. I gave him the ‘ten’ bob coin and ordered for one ice: change, was 9 bob. It worked!
Although we enjoyed free ice for some time, the trick didn’t work for too long. The guy discovered it soon after because some other pupil, instead of using the HB pencil, used a shade of cheap pencil, which was easy to detect. So, we moved to the shops especially those with dingy lighting and for a few weeks earned our swimming money before the shopkeepers also discovered the trick and started being careful.
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