Against the Odds. Ben Igwe

back.” Jamike grabbed a long stick and went in pursuit as he always did. The gate was closed. The goat gave him a couple of run-arounds, racing and galloping all over the compound and kicking down a clay pot of water in his path before jumping back into the shed with speed. There was water everywhere. Jamike followed the errant goat into the shed and gave a good hit of his stick.

      As the headmaster got up to leave, he said to Jamike,

      “I will talk with your teacher on Monday. I will introduce you to my family. Obi is in the same class with you, though you are much older.”

      “Sir, I know him. Is there nobody who doesn’t know the headmaster’s son?” Jamike said.

      “Yes, everyone ought to know the son of the headmaster. If the headmaster’s son is not known, whose son will be known?” Uridiya joined.

      “Come to me if you have any problem in school. I don’t expect any but do not be afraid to come to my office or my home. I will introduce you to my family.”

      “Jamike, did you hear him? Everything is now in your hands. The headmaster said you are now his son and a member of his family.” Uridiya was pleased.

      They all saw the headmaster off to the road. He mounted his white bicycle and they kept looking at him until he rode out of their sight. Akudike asked Uridiya if the headmaster said that the fees should be repaid. He wished that would be the case.

      “ I watched his mouth to see if he would say so, but I did not hear him say that.”

      “It must be free then. This is your own gift from God for the year. My son, Jamike, rejoice because your brain gave this to you.”

      Uridiya left late for the market, remarking that what God had given her through the headmaster she could not get on her own even if she sold herself a hundred times over. She asked Jamike to eat the leftover plantain porridge they had the previous night and to be sure to fetch some firewood.

      After his meal, Jamike went out to play soccer with his age-mates along the dirt road. They were envious of him because the headmaster came to their house. They did not believe him when he told them what the headmaster said. Later he went into a nearby bush and quickly got some firewood. Uridiya had warned Jamike about that particular bush, because the owner swore to put some evil charm in it against intruders searching for firewood. Jamike did not worry about that, because he had seen the farm owner’s children enter the same bush too to pick firewood.

      Another person who played a role in Jamike’s education was Reverend Father Thomas Murrow, Aludo’s parish priest. He was a tall and thin Irishman who walked with a slight stoop. Villagers liked him because he was very kind to them. But they wondered why he remained thin if he ate all those large quantities of eggs, fowls and other food items that female parishioners donated every week. The Catholic mission gave Jamike the scholarship that enabled him to attend Teachers’ College for four years after primary school and later employed him as a pupil-teacher in the parish. It was Bishop Kelly’s policy to send the top three students of the graduating class in each elementary school in the diocese to Teacher Training College. It was his way of preparing future teachers for the Catholic mission.

      Jamike was already eighteen years of age when he arrived at Bishop Shannahan Teachers’ College to begin his four -year teacher’s training. On the successful completion of this course, he would become a trained teacher. It was the first time he would leave home for another town.

      Life began to change for Uridiya and her son during Jamike’s first year at the teachers’ college. The little stipend he received from the parish priest enabled him to help his mother with food money. At first Uridiya refused the offer, because she did not think Jamike had enough for himself. But Jamike insisted. For Easter he bought her some cheap new clothes. Uridiya thanked her son and commented that she could not remember the last time she wore new clothes. Villagers could see a gradual difference in Uridiya’s clothes and behavior while her son was a student.

      Jamike completed the four-year teacher-training course successfully, scoring merit and distinction in many subjects. As was the practice, after teacher training, newly graduated teachers were employed in their respective parishes as trained-teachers in the primary schools. Father Thomas Murrow employed Jamike as an elementary school teacher at a new school in the village. He taught Primary Standard Four and soon became popular as Games Master. Life for him and his mother would never be the same again.

      The headmaster continued his mentoring. At his urging, the first project Jamike embarked upon was to add a two-room house next to Uridiya’s. It took less than two weeks for the mud walls to reach roof level. Jamike’s class pupils fetched water needed for mixing the mud. His age-mates spent a Saturday helping him to put the bamboo roof and thatch. Attached to the sidewall of his mother’s house, Jamike’s house was higher than other houses that dotted the compound in a semi-circular form.

      In three months, Teacher Jamike was settled in a two-room mud house. The frontal side of the outside walls was plastered with a thin layer of cement, an achievement for that time. Headmaster Ahamba gave Jamike the whitewash that was painted on the cemented surface. Uncle Akudike marveled at the sudden turn of fortune for Uridiya and her son. Some people in the village felt proud of the young man, others were envious.

      While Jamike was having his two-room addition built, he also turned his attention to other matters he had vowed to address as soon as he began to earn money. He wanted to get back a couple of the farmlands and fruit trees that his mother pawned to put him in primary school. Surprisingly, Jamike did not have any problem in regaining the three pieces of land involved. One particular person who it was feared would not return the land Uridiya pledged to him was Mr. Ngere, a petty businessman in the village. He had money by village standards and was known to put difficulties in the way of debtors who wished to recover any property pawned to him.

      Despite his meanness, however, he was the last resort, the lesser of two evils, for villagers in dire need of money. Mr. Ngere sometimes took them to court or threatened to do so if they did not pay his exorbitant interest when it came time to recover their property. Because these debtors could not afford court costs, some abandoned their property or farmland to him. Mr. Ngere accepted back the money Uridiya borrowed from him and returned their farmland to Jamike without difficulty. Some villagers believed the reason he quickly gave back the land was because his son had been a pupil in Jamike’s class or because he feared he might be challenged if he contemplated appropriating Uridiya’s land.

       Four

      It was during his second year of teaching that Jamike met Paul Laski when he went to play tennis on the secondary school lawn. Laski was a member of the American Peace Corps who was posted to Aludo’s new Saint Silas Secondary School where the town’s parish priest, Reverend Father Thomas Murrow, was also the principal. Father Murrow had almost given up on his request for a science teacher when the Ministry of Education sent Laski, a man in his late thirties. Laski had a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles and was teaching in a high school in Richmond, Virginia, when he joined the Peace Corps. Africa fascinated him, and while at the university he decided to join the Peace Corps upon graduation. On his application form he indicated he would like to be sent to any English-speaking country in Sub-Sahara Africa, and he was glad to be sent to Nigeria.

      Laski was a fitness addict who enjoyed lawn tennis. Jamike learned to play tennis at the Teacher’s College where he was engaged in various sports. Saint Silas Secondary School was not far from Jamike’s home, and he always went there to play tennis, often playing with novices he taught the game. After watching some tennis games one evening Laski identified Jamike as a good player and invited him to a game. They enjoyed playing each other, as both were good at it though Laski had more experience.

      Jamike became Laski’s tennis partner and they played on weekends and some evenings. Jamike’s tennis partnership with the American grew into friendship. Most evenings, after a game, Jamike would go to Laski’s house located in the secondary school compound to refresh and talk. He asked many questions about America, some of which Laski found funny or even silly. Jamike wanted to know many things about America because