Torn between my Fiolina and getting a promotion

Once Skastina, Mwisho wa Lami Primary School’s new “female headmaster” reported, it wasn’t long before she started having my ear on most issues and consulting me before making important decisions.

Most of my colleagues were jealous of this, naturally, but any right thinking observer or pundit will tell you that the HM did not have much of a choice.

As the brightest, most educated and most travelled teacher this side of the Sahara, I clearly was the only person a new HM keen on success would seek to work with.

Add that to the fact that I am tall, handsome and the best dressed teacher, and you can see why Bensouda, as everyone calls her around here, chose to work with me.

WOMAN HEADMASTER

This got people talking and it came up one day as we attended evening classes at Hitler’s.

Present was Saphire, Kwame, Lutta, among others.

“How did you people accept a woman headmaster?” asked Rasto. “How can you work under a woman?”

All my colleagues spoke ill of Bensouda, saying she was not even qualified to head a school. I disagreed with them.

“She knows what she is doing and the school is now headed in the right direction,” I said.

“Which direction is this that no one else knows apart from you and her?” wondered Saphire.

“Skastina has a three-year strategic plan for the school,” I said.

“Kwame, as the Deputy, do you know of this strategic plan?” wondered Lutta.

Kwame said that he stopped being the Deputy HM the day Bensouda arrived.

“She decided to work with her own people but I don’t mind as long as the responsibility allowance comes to me.”

“By the way is Bensouda married?” asked Kizito. “The way she likes Dre, kuna vile…”

I protested

“Ask Dre, may be the two have a strategic plan,” said Saphire.

“I don’t know as we only discuss work issues,” I protested.

“Huyo mama amekunock down,” said Lutta.

My assertion that I had only one wife fell on deaf ears as everyone insisted there was something between Bensouda and I.

“Sawa tu Dre. But if Bensouda asks you, don’t disappoint her,” said Kizito. “Ni kitu smart.”

We moved to other stories and forgot about it.

PARTY INVITE

Early December, Bensouda called to find out how I was doing. She wanted us to meet on Jamhuri Day but we did not as I was held up.

Shortly after she also called Fiolina, the laugh of my life, and wished us well.

A few days to Christmas, I received several missed calls from Bensouda. I did not have enough airtime so I flashed her. She called back immediately and was in a jovial mood.

After finding out how my family was, she asked me: “So what are you doing on Boxing Day? I have a party that I want to invite you to.”

I told her that I had other engagements on the day and could not make it. She sounded disappointed. “What about 31st? How do you plan to vuka mwaka?”
I told her that I didn’t have any plans.
“So can I invite you for an end-of-year party we are planning with some of my friends?” she asked. How could I refuse? I had never attended an end-of-year party so I agreed to attend that. The venue for this was at Sweet Waters, a restaurant at our sub-county headquarters.

Apostle Elkana, the spiritual superintended of The Holiest of All Ghosts Tabernacle Assembly (THOAG) had also planned for a kesha on 31st and Fiolina and I had been invited.

Fiolina had been pushing me to attend but I was not keen on it. As far as I was concerned, Elkana’s business with us had ended with the wedding. He had no right over our lives.

When I told her that I would not be attending Apostle Elkana’s kesha but would instead go to Skastina’ party, Fiolina hit the roof.

“We should begin the new year in prayers, not in a bar,” she said. I, however, stood my ground that I would not go to THOAG.

But come Monday, Fiolina started speaking negatively about Apostles Elkana. She then announced that she would be going with me to the party.

When I tried to discourage her, she wondered if there was anything I was hiding from her. I agreed to go with her.

PARTY SPOILER
Nyayo carried us to Sweet Waters on his bodaboda motorcycle at 5p.m., and we agreed that he would come back to pick us at the time I would call him back.

The party had already begun when we arrived. “Karibu sana Dre,” Bensouda said when she saw me arrive. She then stood up, came towards me and hugged me.

She then asked me to sit next to her. Fiolina sat some distance from us, quiet, although I suspected that she was seething with anger. I do not know if Skastina had seen her.

“Pea Dre chakula,” Bensouda ordered the waiters. The waiter brought me chapati and beef and I pointed to the waiter where Fiolina was seated, and asked him to also give her food.

“Take what you want,” Bensouda told me after the waiter returned to take my order.

With drinks being paid by someone else, I could not take cheap drinks like Keg. I asked for something expensive. “Nipe Allsops mbili moja moto ingine baridi,” I said with confidence.

Bensouda and her friends, who had arrived earlier, seemed to be ahead of us and were already a little toxic.

“DJ, nichezee wimbo inaitwa Diamond umeimbwa na Platinum No 1,” shouted Bensouda. The DJ complied.

Bensouda stood up to dance and asked that I join her on the dance floor. I tried to resist but she insisted. Her friends taunted me for refusing to dance with her.

“Kwani wewe ni muoga hivi Dre?” teased Mboya, a teacher at St Theresa’s. Not one to look shy in public, I stood up and went to dance with Bensouda.

The next song was one I heard never heard of, but which everyone else around seemed to know. We got closer as we danced and the HM was singing the words aloud as she pulled me closer to her: Hizi ni zako, hizi ni zangu, hizi ni peremendes,”

The language changed with every stanza but the words seemed the same. By the fourth stanza, the HM was holding me close to her, and singing happily. Almost everyone was on the dance floor.

Just then, someone pulled me away from the HM. It was Fiolina.

“Hii ndio umenileta hapa kuona?” she asked me, and then looking at the HM, she said. “Kama hauna bwana wachana na bwana wangu.”

MARRIAGE OR CAREER?

“Wewe ni nani?” Bensouda asked. I don’t know what Fiolina answered, but before we knew it, the two women were after each other’s necks.

We quickly separated them and the party had come to an end. I called Nyayo to come pick us up. On our way home, we did not talk as Fiolina was seething with anger.

The next day I met Mboya who told me how my wife had messed my career progression. “Bensouda likes you and she told us that she wants to promote you, but Fiolina spoilt all that.” He wondered why I had come with Fiolina.

“If you want to grow, then Fiolina must stop interfering with your friendship with the HM,” he went on.

“If she does not, then forget about any promotion as long as Bensouda is still around.”

To be honest, I do not know how I will handle this, as I really need a promotion. But I also want my marriage to work.