Jesse Musinguzi, Grade 12
UWCEA Moshi


“Yo! Is your toast done?” Something you will always hear way past curfew in Kisiwa dorm. The stench of burning bread. The heat from the water boiling on the stove presses against your face. The bad pieces of bread lying on the counter just hoping to be eaten. Puddles of blueband, jam, and honey all over the counter just waiting to get stuck on some random teen’s elbow. The multiple sandwich combinations that are formed during these times are sometimes mind-boggling. They range from the classic PB&J, to jam and blueband, to blueband and honey, to honey and jam ,to instant noodles on bread, to pasta and sugar, to drinking chocolate, just plain sugar, and, on rare occasions, coffee powder on a slice of bread. The combinations are limitless. One cannot have after curfew tea without the  hustle for a plate on which to place your pieces of bread. On a good day, there are plates; that is, if the room on duty hasn’t hidden them along with practically every other piece of cutlery in the dorm. They’re not wrong for doing that, though. Cleaning duty can be a pain when people don’t wash their own stuff. Your new “plate” could be the kitchen counter, or the chopping board, of the saucepan, or even your hands if you don't want to fuss. On the counter lie many, many crumbs of bread, as if a tiny civilization is thriving just before they are swept away by the natural disaster that is the broom. But let’s not forget the tussle for those very slices of bread.
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I’ve become exceptionally good at hiding loaves of bread for the sole reason that I’ll have something to munch on after curfew while I catch up on the work I chose to procrastinate doing. My favorite hiding spot must be under the couch right next to the window. I see people sleeping on the couch, unknowing that there’s a juicy loaf of bread under there, and when I pull it out, everyone is confused by this unorthodox hiding spot. Eventually, people will start to know that I’ll hide it there. That means that I need to have a bunch of other hiding spots, which I do. I like the challenge, so I’ll never hide it in my room, I’ll always hide it in the common room. When chowing down on our meals, we like to indulge in conversation about random topics. I remember one time, we were talking about conspiracy theories. We talked about the moon landing, aliens and whether they are in Area 51(which is real), and then Bigfoot. 
While sometimes the conversation can make absolutely no sense, other times it can be very deep and make one think about their life. This was a tradition with my previous D2s, and now that they’re gone, I hope to continue this tradition as a D2 with my D1s. Stuff like this not only makes boarding school fun, it also creates so many lasting memories.
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Image Courtesy: https://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/760253/signed-original-early-20th-century-english-antique-still-life-oil-painting-afternoon-tea-scene-bread-and-dishes/