6 Mercury, 6 Jupiter, hmmmm. I learnt a lot about leadership in my last year at primary school; I was selected the Compound Prefect (
democracy had not dawned in my school yet, :))and informed in a crazy manner, by the headmistress. Allow me to tell you something about that headmistress:
Back-flash: Mrs. RO was feared by everyone in the school; even the teachers, though they pretended not to be. No one dared walk on the same veranda with her. She had a perpetual frown on her face and can often be seen pacing up and down the veranda with a cane. We heard that she had given one teacher some lashes with that cane; it could have been true; I did not witness it. I had an encounter with her the first week in class 6. I did not notice her coming up on me while I was standing in front of my class. She punished me for not being in class by making me stand out in the sun for about an hour. It seemed longer.
Imagine my surprise when I was called to Mrs. RO's office. The thoughts running through my head were not too pleasant; I wondered whether she had discovered that I sometimes go out of school during lunch to go to the Ghana Library Board and get back almost thirty minutes after lunch break?, had she been told I hide storybooks under my desk and read during lessons?, did she know I sometimes ate in class while hiding my heading under my desk? I went to her office, greeted her and listened to her grudging response. After I had waited for 'eternity', she peeped at me atop her spectacles and said "You have been made the compound prefect. Do you accept?" without bestowing a smile. I said yes, then she said I could leave. I heaved a sigh of relief; was that all she wanted to say? Whew!
I was the class jump rope champion till a new girl came to join the class and beat me in the jump rope competition during a PE period. I must say, I was pretty jealous and tried to get over it by
manipulating for arranging another competition, but she won again, then she became a friend but I could never get her to teach me her technique.(
Darn it! lol)
There were four work groups named Guggisburg, Mensah Serbah, Nkrumah and something (
I cannot recall the fourth one; maybe it is on account that they were always the last in any competition.) We held spelling bee and mathematics competitions every Monday between the sections during general assembly and it was always a tight competition between Nkrumah and Guggisburg.
(Of course, I was in Nkrumah and we always win!)
To commemorate our passing from primary to junior high (JSS), we had a class party; each class member contributed an amount of money, which we gave to the mother of one of our classmates to prepare something for us. It was a wonderful way to end the school year.
(I wonder why I can't remember most of my teachers' names with the exceptions being Miss Addico, 3 Matthew; Mrs. Quaye, 4 Alpha. Try as I can, I can't remember my class 6 teacher's name; he was a great teacher; disciplined and funny.)
