Urban Vibe

Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Student Voices

Benjamin Tanui is a first-year nursing student at DMACC, and upon graduation he hopes to work as an ER nurse. In this story, Benjamin recounts his life as a ten-year-old swimmer who - along with his friends -encounters an unusual visitor to their neighborhood swimming spot.

It was a cool summer morning in the city of Kitale, Kenya. Those were the days you left at dawn and did not come home until dark. My brother, Elisha, and I met the gang at the old acacia tree about a kilometer from home as we did almost every day. We always met up with Kiprotich and Kimutai for a fun-filled day of playing at the river. This is the one day that I will never forget. My mother had packed us some fried termites. So we sat around eating and talking about our upcoming year at boarding school. We loved summer so much because during school it was all work and no play. We would not be home for months at a time.

After eating the perfectly salted crispy termites to the last leg we walked towards the river. We were running, horse playing, and throwing twigs and pebbles at each other on the way. Kiprotich was the joker ornery one of the group and was throwing rocks and trying to hit birds as they were flying by. Elisha was so mad he tackled him to the ground. We all ended up in a tangle of arms and legs. When we were done messing around we raced off to the river side.

As soon as we got there we stripped down to nothing and jumped in the river. The cool water felt so good as the hot sun beat down on us. From where the sun was sitting it had to be getting close to noon. Time meant nothing to us in the summer days. The air was filled will laughter and joyful screaming and we swam and jumped around in the water.

It was all brought to a halt when Kiprotich screamed out that something had his leg.I swam over as fast as I could to see what was going on and give him a helping hand. The water was very murky so I could not see what was under water. I dove under to see what was happening as Kimutai and Elisha sat and watched. I found his leg but didn't feel anything. He held my head down and when I came back up he was laughing and mocking me for believing that something had truly had a hold of his leg.


I was so mad at being made fool of that I rushed out of the water dragging Elisha with me. I demanded we go home and leave the others to do what they wanted; I was too embarrassed to hang around. As I struggled to quickly get my clothes on, Kimutai and Elisha began to swim in. Kiprotich started screaming again and I yelled at him to stop mocking me and shut up. I looked back to see him thrashing around in the water.

Continued...

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