Food is an essential element in one’s life — especially when living is pointed to. The nutrients foods come along with have enormous benefits for the body to flourish well. Is it not agreeable that hunger deprives the body of necessary nutrients? Being deprived of food one is entitled to is another heart-wrenching situation there would be as far as hunger is concerned.
One of the earliest ordeals I faced regarding hunger was just a day after I got enrolled in Secondary school. Happenings in the school dining hall had always been intriguing. Only was this not my first major experience in T. I Ahmadiyya SHS, it was my first ever breakfast in the school as well.
It was a custom that male students put on their stainless white shirts and trousers with neatly polished shoes on Sundays before even allowed to enter the gates of the dining hall. As ‘freshers’ (newly admitted students), my brother; Jamus, and I had to follow laid protocols to get served for breakfast. We walked side by side with our cups in hand moving towards the hall barely 10 minutes before the stipulated time. After entering the hall, we had to find a seat as students were allowed to sit on whichever table they wished to. I spotted a table that had just two people seated, so I alerted my twin brother then we went straight there. Surprisingly, a lot of the students seated were just awkwardly staring at us. I earlier had a notion that it was because we were newcomers.
When the hall prefect gave the limelight for the Milo beverage with bread to be served, most of the tables had not less than eight people seated although foods on each table were meant to cater for a dozen people. Dotze, the man to serve stood with precision and drew our cups nearer. It was so shocking that the form four (SHS 4) student served Jamus and I the watery surface of the Milo beverage without even stirring first.
He went on to deny us milk as he said it we have not reached the level to deserve that.
What even summed up this sad happening was that Dotse handed all three on the table each a burnt slice of bread and bagged the remaining nine in his deep net. Man could not even eat for I was so shocked that a colleague student could exhibit such wickedness towards his fellow mates. I fully came to terms with those awkward looks on students’ faces when we took a seat by Dotze moments after stepping out of the hall. We are not the first people and definitely not the last this has and will happen to. But this is a very relatable situation all SHS students across the country can attest to. In my case, it was not so much of a problem to cope with this but how many people can?
Although this kind of “food bullying” taught me a lesson of finding my way around situations when the unexpected happens at such a young age. It undoubtedly had serious negative implications on coherence among students. Do we not think this in one way or the other had a tendency of sparking unnecessary enmity among students and prospectively making lots of newcomers lose interest in the boarding house system of schooling if not schooling in general?
Could this not be an avenue to cause disarray and indiscipline among students? In relation to the popular saying, “A hungry man is always and angry man”, escalation of such practices would not only disorganize the foundations of discipline in second cycle institutions but affect individual conducts of students churned out and expected to replicate good moral values in their future working circles.
Peace 🕊️
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