Visiting day shenanigans

   I don't know about other countries,  but in Kenya the phrase 'visiting day ' refers almost exclusively to boarding schools. It stirs up nostalgic feelings about mom's cooking and an opportunity to finally use a phone after weeks in boarding school. It was that day set aside for your best school uniform. Hair was washed and tamed to submission,  shoes were so shiny an army General would be proud. Nobody ate breakfast because they were trying to save room for home -food.

   Well now, I'm on the other end of the spectrum. My mom and I were up at 6.30am this morning (A Saturday!) to cook because the food needs to be as fresh as possible. Chapatti, coconut rice,  chicken, meatballs, salads. Sigh! You name it,  we made it.  The love is very strong in this house. Then after a quick shower and a cup of tea,  we were off.

   Going to my brother 's school is in itself a road trip because it's in a different county. So one must plan to leave early enough because arriving late,  is a faux-pas on such a day.  And don't forget to pick up some French fries and pizza on the way other otherwise how else wiĺl the day be complete? 

So when we got there there was the actual process of looking for him because it's a big school and all those figures in identical uniform start to blur after a while. In retrospect we should probably have agreed on where to meet.

    Once we sat down to eat, we started asking all these questions:

Are you full? 

Do you want seconds?
Have you really been eating enough?
How is school?
Do you need anything?

But the most surprising thing was how much he'd grown. Mentally and physically. He's properly taller than me now.  And you thank God that this teenager is even better than they were when you last saw them.

   The goodbyes were made grudgingly.  With them (the visitees) making sure you have memorised the next visiting/half term /closing dates. Please don't take this personally when they do this, back in the day my mom once forgot one of my visiting days and it wasn't pretty!

 Getting home,  there's all the dishes that need to be cleaned. Definitely not something that you think about when you're in school.  But then it's OK and the effort is worth it to make sure you loved-one grows wholesomely.

Ciao...

Me and le bro