Mom single-handedly killed my dreams of becoming a world class goalkeeper. These dreams had been born that first Saturday when our then deputy headmaster, Mr. Somebody Jumba (I forgot the other name) invited us to listen to the football match with him on the school radio. It was bigger than what I had in the house, and somehow more detailed. It even sounded clearer. So all the class six and seven boys gathered around the radio, ears tuned towards the speakers. The class eights were told to go study for the end year exam, though a few occasionally skipped class and squeezed their way into the listening pack, braving the caning that would come with being discovered. Kenya’s Harambee Stars was playing the Super Eagles of Nigeria for some trophy I had no clue about. I was there to listen like the rest. The commentators were Ali Salim Manga and Jack Oyoo Sylvester, and boy I loved their command of Swahili. Throughout the 90 plus minutes we listened to the match, three names were conspicuous; Francis Onyiso, Reinhardt Fabisch and Musa Otieno. My heart was for some reason inclined to the first name, so I made a personal commitment to research into who this Onyiso was. God works in mysterious ways trust me. Would you believe that less than a month since that first radio broadcast my dad came on his monthly visits from the city and he had with him a TV set for us! It was a 14 inch Sony, but full color. He spent the whole Saturday with a ‘fundi’ fixing a lockable wooden box for it, which was then mounted on the wall before another round of hours were blown installing the antenna to an angle that we could receive signal. That box is still mounted on that same wall to date, just that I bought him a bigger TV recently which he still squeezed into it, and it fit! My old man has surprises. Soon as dad went back to the city, I ruled the remote control. The first ever match to watch on that TV was AFC Leopards playing some team I have tried to remember but cannot. This time, the three vibrant names were Mathew Ottamax, Omar Banza and Tom Juma. My research yielded one fact; Onyiso, just like Ottamax, was a goalkeeper. With memories of Onyiso on radio and Ottamax on TV pulling those antics in goal, I knew I was going to be between those sticks someday in future. My mom had different ideas of what a future is . . . (An excerpt from Growing Up in Vihiga by Hillary Lisimba). As usual, for my High School English teacher, Mr. George Masinde.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:16:15 +0000
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