THE VILLAGE TEACHER – FULL EPISODE

Episode 1

When I was just about to alight from the bus, I was
welcomed with a smile from a young woman.

 I took the smile as a sign of bad luck because of the colour
of her teeth.

She requested to help me carry my
luggage but I rejected her offer.

I introduced myself to her as a teacher posted to serve in their community.

She smiled a second time, and I gave a fake smile back
because her smiles bored me.

She insisted and I finally agreed to her offer.

She called some kids
to help carry my luggage to the chief’s house.

The chief introduced his wives
and children to me at the chief’s palace.

The eldest among the children was a lady with an age of about twenty (20) years.

Although the chief mentioned the names of all the children, my
mind picked only one name, and that was the name
of the eldest child, Abiba.

I was shocked to have been told that the lady who welcomed me at the station
was the third and most loved wife of the chief.

I moved into my room and relaxed on my single-sized mattress because
my journey was a tiresome one.

He had three wives and seven children of which two were males and the rest,
females.

As I lay on my mattress and was laying curses on GES for posting
me to such a deprived community, I heard a knock
on my door…………….

Episode 2

I responded to the knock. It was Abiba, with a big bowl of TZ and soup.

She said that was my welcome meal.

I asked her to put the food on the floor and promised her I would eat the food after taking some rest.

She told me to feel at home and always call on her when I needed anything. I thanked her, but in my mind, I was like, “can you provide all my needs?”

I was given a room at the palace. The chief ordered for my
items to be sent to my room.

She left my room and I faced my first meal in the village. I was just wondering how to call Abiba to come back for the bowls when I heard a knock again. Guess what, it was Abiba again.

She told me she had put a bucket of water in the bathroom for me to bathe.

I asked her to pick the bowls out of my room and promised her I would bathe very soon.

I took my bathing apparatus and tried to move to the bathroom.

On seeing the population in the compound, the “shy boy” in me pushed me back into my room.

On second thought, I moved out to the bathroom with confidence because there was no way I could dodge the bathing.

From the bathroom back to my room, all eyes were on me like 2Pac.

With a nervous smile on my face, I walked straight into my room without looking into the eyes of anyone. As my room was responding to the darkness of the weather, there came Abiba, with a kerosene lamp.

I took the lamp and wondered why it was always Abiba who rendered all the domestic services I needed. Was she chosen by the chief to do that or she was doing that voluntarily? I wondered.

By 7:30 pm, I hardly heard any voices around. It meant everybody had already entered their room. I lay on my mattress all alone thinking of what my new school was going to look like.

I made a lot of imagination about the school, the teachers and the pupils. My imagination gradually turned into a night’s sleep.

Just about two hours into my sleep, some new friends tapped me and reminded me that I was supposed to sleep under a mosquito net. Guess who those friends were.

I quickly responded to the reminder and removed my mosquito net from my bag, but I couldn’t have nailed and hung it that night, so I covered myself with it like a cloth.

At dawn, the following day, I regretted ever covering myself with a treated mosquito net. I had a burning sensation all over my face.

I took my bath and made Abiba lead me to my new school since she was a student at that school. On our arrival at the school, I saw a young lady seated under a tree, whom I presumed was a teacher at the school. In my mind, I was like, “thank God I have gotten an enlightened person to live with”.

I took my books from Abiba and asked her to enter her classroom.

I was left alone with the young lady. I introduced myself to her and asked her to always call me Galaxy. She smiled and told me she likes my name.

I smiled back and in my mind, I said, “why don’t you say you like me instead of my name”.

This statement was a simple one I could have said to her hearing, but because of my cowardly nature, I had always said such emotional statements in my mind. She introduced herself as Kate.

I said, “wow, what a sweet name!”, meanwhile ‘Kate’ is not among the names I admire a lot, but just because I wanted her to feel that I appreciated something about her, I had to give that impression about her name.

I was just having a nice introductory chat with Kate when I saw a young gentleman walk towards us.

I presumed he wasn’t also a native of the community according to his looks. I said to myself, “I just hope this young gentleman has not been having nice times with my newly found Kate”……………

Episode 3

………..I quickly questioned Kate to find out who the
guy was, before he arrived.

Kate told me he was
one of the only two teachers they had in the school.
She added that the guy was an SHS graduate who
was picked by GES to serve as a “pupil-teacher”.

I became happy inwardly for knowing that the guy
was a ‘nobody’ when it comes to professionalism.
At least Kate could tell the difference between fried
rice and wasawasa.

In this situation, I was the fried
rice. I was still in my rivalry thoughts when the
guy arrived.

He greeted me with a handshake and with my palm still interlocked in his,

he introduced himself as Ken but said I could call him Star boy.

I once again said to myself, “this boy must not take
advantage of the K, K in his name and that of Kate to
form a ‘Mr and Mr’s theory”.

On the other hand, he said his nickname was star boy, and mine was
a galaxy, which meant he was still my subset.
Because so many stars form a galaxy, I thought.

I smiled at him and he innocently smiled back without
knowing what I thought about him. Before I could
say a word to introduce myself, Kate chipped in
with her melodious voice and did the introduction.

I added something she left the out-my level of
professionalism in GES.

Kate and Ken took me into the various classrooms
and introduced me to the pupils.
In every class that we entered, the usual “class ten” was said to make
the pupils stand up for greeting. I became an
automatic headteacher because Kate was a
National Service Personnel whiles Ken was a ‘pupil
teacher. We went back to our staff common tree to
plan how to reschedule the classrooms for
ourselves. We were busy with the discussion when
a lady with a protruded Tommy appeared. She
greeted us and asked Ken to give her some money
to prepare their lunch. My little knowledge about
love and its related matters told me the lady was
not just a wife to Ken, but a pregnant wife for that
matter. “I have now gotten the Achilles’ heels of this
dude”, I thought. All that while, I failed to understand
that my primary reason for being in the community
was to train pupils and not to build love
relationships. While I was thinking of how to
question Ken about the lady, he (Ken) remarked,
“My brother, it is not easy to be a landlord ooo”.

I quickly buttressed his statement by saying, “in fact
ooh”.

I was quite sure Kate would not like to go for
somebody’s husband, so I quickly raised a point to
print a picture that Ken had no reason to go for
ladies again.

I was surprised he supported that idea
and it gave me a feeling that he had nothing to do
with Kate.
We shared the classrooms among ourselves.

I was made to handle classes 5 and 6.

Kate was given classes 3 and 4 whiles Ken took classes 1 and 2.
We did nothing serious that day. When it was time
for closing, Abiba came and took my books and we
went home together.

I never even asked to know where Kate was residing.

When we reached home, I ate my lunch and then relaxed on my mattress.

A boy came and told me the chief wanted to see me.

I rushed to his quarters and my anticipation of
meeting the chief alone turned out to be a meeting
with the chief’s family.

I was also shocked to have seen Abiba in the middle of the horse-shoe-sitting
arrangement of the family, with the chief on a stool
facing the horse-shoe-sitting arrangement.

Guess what, the chief told me with a smile on his face and
smiles on the faces of everybody except me, that
he had given Abiba to me as a wife.

He added that a grown man like me needed a wife for survival.

I got an instant fever on hearing that. He gave so many
reasons why a grown man must have a wife but I
heard none of the reasons because my mind was
busy formulating something to reject that offer.

An idea dropped into my mind. “I have a wife already”, I
said. The chief laughed out loud with his damaged
throat that produced a horrible sound, and told me,
“a man with a single wife is just a bachelor.

Can’t you see I have three wives”. At that point, I was
confused and developed a sudden fever. “Abiba, my
pupil.

Episode 4

 As I moved from the chief’s quarters to my
room, the emotional department of my brain was
busy debating ideas to face the love virus the
the chief had injected into me.

I gradually moved from
brain-talking to speaking out loud my feelings. After
minutes of thinking, I had gotten a plan.

Since Abiba was my student, I would accept to take her as a
wife but a “play” wife.

I would assume she was a kid, although she was physically grown even
beyond adolescence.

I still held the view that she
was a kid on the ground of schooling because she
was in class six. I would take her as a TOC
(Teacher’s Own Choice), I thought.

“But come to think of it.

Abiba is a good and caring girl, although
she has some village ingredients in her pot of
beauty.”

I soliloquized.

I still had to put my libido under check if not for any
reason, but the Noble Profession.

I had been trained to impart both academic and moral values onto my
pupils.

I had wished the chief reasoned along the
same line with me. I became my own counselor
because I had been given some guidance and
counseling lectures back at the college.

No sooner than later did darkness overshadow daylight.

My heart had begun to palpitate based on one reason. It
was no other reason than how I was going to face that
a night with my new partner in matrimony.

“ Wettin man no see before? What can come, can come.” I
built self-confidence to console me and to
prepare for the sweet mistake that was on the way.

I soliloquized “yes” to my self-confidence and it
coincided with a knock on my door. Guess who! It
was Abiba, my wife. She had come in with a bowl of
fufu with chicken-light soup.

Her care had graduated to a higher level.

She sat on the floor and asked me to wash my hands in a bowl she held.
Although not addressed with their tradition, I believed
her action was a symbol of respect from a wife to a
husband.

In my mind, I was like, “if not because you
are my student, I will eat this fufu and………… hmm”.

While I was in my thinking mood, I heard,
“Master, please eat. What are you thinking?”.
“Hmmm, nothing” I responded. I was humbled with her domestic care and respect.

For the first time, the ghetto boy who used to eat with a
bowl in the palm with other niggers was then being
treated like a prince.

The meal was indeed a ‘honeymoon’ meal- I enjoyed it.

My wife picked the bowls out and came back in 30 minutes with a mat.
“kooooiiii, is it really true that this girl is now
married to me? I thought it was a partial joke or
partial seriousness.

The Pope must hear this”, things were knocking things in my brain.

She went out again and I heard her talk with her mom. I stood
up and tuned my ear to their conversation and it
was that she needed a pillow.

I heard her footsteps sounding back to my room, so I quickly jumped onto
my mattress like a cat pouncing on a mouse.

She knocked again and came in. she called my name
and requested to lock my door. I asked her whether
she wasn’t going to move out again and her
response was, “yes”.

In fact, her response gave me a feeling similar to getting a referral in Teaching
Practice. I then said to her with a feverish voice “ok,
you can go ahead and lock it”. “kprap!”

The door was locked.

Episode 5

……… Abiba spread her mat parallel to my mattress.
Her behaviour was as if she was given a letter by
GES informed her that I would be posted to that
community to marry her. “See me, see wahala!”

I thought. The worst part of it all was that she tried to
leave no gap between my mattress and her mat.
Meanwhile, a mattress and a mat are not the same.
The only similarity is the “mat”.

There is a difference in “tress” in them. I hate temptation,
especially when the temptation comes close to my
‘magnetic field’.

I built a room around my mattress with the
mosquito net. At least that would help reduce the
degree of temptation.

I entered my ‘mosquito net’
room whiled my wife was left outside the net. What
a wicked husband I was! I had wondered what
Abiba would be thinking about me.

While on the net, I peeped to see whether she was sleeping or not.
Each time I looked and our eyeballs met, she
sighed, “hmm”.

This happened severally until a time I looked and saw ‘light out on her face.

“Thank God, I think I can sleep now”, I said to myself.
The next action I saw was carrying Kate on a
motorcycle.

We were cruising on the principal
streets of a city. She was well dressed in white
dresses.

Her beauty was magnified by the symmetrical arrangement of her teeth.

We soon got to the birthday party of one of her friends.

Kate and I were given a separate table with a variety of drinks
and food.

We sat opposite each other and my entire
attention was on her pretty face. Kate’s beauty
could make any man with aesthetic eyes
terminate his flight trip to have a nice time
with her.

I considered myself lucky to have gotten a
beautiful angel like Kate. Her smiles never stopped.
“Let me use this opportunity to propose to this
lady”, I thought. Before my thinking landed, I said to
her, “Kate, please, will you marry me?”.

She gave an optimistic smile, stood up from her seat and
moved towards me.

She got to me, went down on her knees and gave me a tap on my shoulder.
I received three strong taps on my leg with a call,
“Master! Master! Master!”.

“Yes,” I responded and opened my eyes. “What is the problem?” I asked.
“Mosquitoes are biting me”, she responded.
“hmmm!” I sighed and asked her again, “So what do
you want me to do?”. “I want to sleep in the net”,
she said.

This girl didn’t know how annoyed I was
with her. If she had known she had spoiled my best
dream ever, she wouldn’t have been asking to sleep
in my net.

At least she should have waited for Kate
to respond to my proposal. Maybe, she (Kate) would
have even kissed me to confirm my proposal.

With an angry heart and mind, I asked her a
question, in the language she would best
understand, “are the mosquitoes biting you plenty,
plenty?”.

She answered with a naughty voice, “yes,
sir!”. With my mature mind, I told her, “but my
mattress is too small for two people to sleep on,
or?”.

I didn’t know Abiba was that smart. The
village-class-six girl told me I could spread the net
to cover my mattress and her mat. “See me, see
trouble.

Were you already sleeping in a mosquito
net or do you want to capitalize on the fact that you are
married to a man with a net?”, I thought. I didn’t hide
my feeling.

I asked her whether she used to use
a mosquito net, and she said, “no!”. I then asked her
to manage the mosquitoes till the following day.

If I had known, I would have allowed her to share
the net with me, because I was disturbed
throughout that night by the sound of slaps on her
body, which she claimed was killing
mosquitoes.

I had wondered how many mosquitoes
she succeeded in killing that night. If only the
number of slaps corresponded to the number of
mosquitoes killed, then Abiba’s action was too
mosquitocidal.

The following morning, Abiba was the first to wake
up. She tapped me and said she had fetched some
water for me to bathe.

I stretched out the dullness in
me, took my bathing apparatus and then decided to
head for the bathroom.

I peeped through my door
and saw the entire family happily seated in the
compound. I had known I was a part of their gossip

that morning. I had assumed they would think I had
performed some nocturnal matrimonial
responsibility.

I gathered courage and went and
took my bath, after all, I wasn’t guilty. Abiba also
took her bath and got dressed up in her mother’s
room. After we took our breakfast, we followed
each other like we did the previous day, to school.

On reaching the campus, the number of pupils
wasn’t encouraging. Neither Kate nor Ken was
present as at that time we got to the school. My wife
gave my books to me and joined her colleagues to
sweep the compound.

I was left alone under our staff common tree like an isolated witch.

From a distance, I could see Abiba and her friends
exhibiting a ‘hide and look’ on me. I wondered
whether they were discussing me as a new teacher
or a new husband.

Their ‘hide and look’ attitude made me uncomfortable.

I pretended my mind
wasn’t on them, but I was bothered. As I
was seated alone wondering what my pupils were
discussing while looking at me, I heard an adult
the female voice on the other side of the school block,
“hey! Sweep fast and go for assembly”. My mood
suddenly changed from wondering to
celebrating………………

Episode 6

………… I saw Kate in a white dress, walk towards me.

Her dress triggered my mind to remember the dream I had the night before.

“Is this a coincidence or does my dream want to come to a reality?” I thought. “Good morning” Kate greeted. “Good morning, Miss Kate” I responded, with the mind that Kate would give a reaction to the title I gave her.

She never did. “How was your night?” Kate added. “Ooh! I had a good night” was my response. She didn’t know I had a good night with her in my dreams.

I took advantage of the greeting and continued with a chat with Kate. We talked a lot about life in general and later limited ourselves to living in the village.

I got the chance and enquired about Abiba’s lifestyle. Kate told me Abiba was a lucky girl because she would have been the one pregnant for Ken.

“Like seriously!”

I exclaimed. “yeah!”, Kate responded. She added, “When Ken came to this village, the chief said that he (Ken) needed a wife.

So he decided to give Abiba out to Ken for marriage, but by then, Abiba was seriously sick. He then said that a man like Ken must not live even for a week without a woman, so he decided to replace Abiba with her younger sister, Rahi, who is now carrying Ken’s baby.

Ken has regretted impregnating Rahi”. I was shocked by the news I got from Kate that morning.

Kate didn’t stop there, she added, “I am quite sure the chief would say you also deserve a wife.

He may even give Abiba to you. He cannot see a nice-looking man like you and wouldn’t take you as an in-law, now that you are even in his house. Hmmm! I am just assuming oooo”.

I quickly retorted, “Aaah! How can I marry my student? That is only possible over my dead body”. I said all that but in my mind, I was like, “I even slept with Abiba last night in my room over my living body”.

Kate told me Rahi was a student before her father gave her out to Ken, so the idea of Abiba being a student couldn’t prevent the chief from giving her to me. “At least, it is a great honour to have the chief as an in-law, isn’t it?” Kate teased me.

I thanked Kate for feeding me with such information. Kate had advised me to act fast to avoid falling into Ken’s shoes. She also said that if only I had a wife, that could prevent the chief from imposing his daughter on me for marriage. “Do you have a wife?” Kate asked. “No”, I answered.

“Then I advise you to find one before you are forced to marry Abiba,” Kate added. “Where do I find one? I cannot go back to my town to search for an emergency wife.

I don’t also want to marry any village girl.” I remarked, with the hope that Kate would suggest herself for me. Kate also remarked, “hmmm! I don’t even recommend a village girl for you to marry. You are too expensive for a village girl.”

I was flattered by Kate’s remark. I had expected her to add something like “….at least a girl like me is ok for you.” But she never did. That would have been a good starter for me.

I thought of reporting the matter to the District Education Office. I didn’t want to pass a second night with Abiba-something could happen.

I was scared of falling into the shoes of Ken. I then suggested to Kate the decision I took. She seconded the idea but told me she would miss me, in case I was transferred from the community

. “Here! You would miss me”, I thought. I quickly told her she could visit me in the district capital. “But I cannot be seeing you all the time” Kate replied. “This lady is gradually endorsing me. But I must still report the case to get myself released from the community.” I thought.

Without wasting time, I took my books and left for the house to embark on my journey to the district capital. I went and told the chief that I needed to send some documents to the District Education Office.

The chief told me there was no lorry travelling to the district capital that day because that day was not a market day. “So what do I do? Because I must present the documents before tomorrow”, I told the chief.

He suggested he would get somebody to pick me with a motorbike to a nearby community where I could get a lorry. Two hours later, I was at the District Education Office. I presented my complaint and every officer in the office was astonished.

“You mean we still have such a primitive attitude in this 21st century?” one officer asked rhetorically. The officers asked me to go back to the community while they worked things out. I told them I wasn’t ready to go back to the community because I would be made to sleep with the chief’s daughter. I added that I had already slept with her the day before.

“What! Is that how serious the matter is?” one female officer remarked. The director asked me not to go to the community until they investigated the matter. I was very happy with the decision. The only worry I had was that I was going to miss Kate.
Two days later, an officer went to the community and came back with his findings, which confirmed my allegations, true.

The officer said he tried convincing the chief to change his attitude of giving his daughters of school-going age out for marriage, but his plea wasn’t taken by the chief. The Director felt bad about the development and decided I would not go back to the community.

He ordered the Deputy Director to repost me. I felt like I won the lottery, upon hearing that I was to be reposted. At about 5 pm that day, I went to the Deputy Director’s house to pre-appreciate the reposting he was to give me.

My pre-appreciation made him repost me to a school in the district capital. I was so happy. My only worry then was how to get my items from the community, and how to get the chance of seeing Kate again.

I thought of not going back to the community to pick up my items because the chief would suspect I was leaving forever. ‘Kate’ was the only reason that could send me back to the community.

“I must link up with Kate to visit me in the district capital”, I thought. The following day, I was en route back to the village and I was warmly welcomed with a hug from Kate like a girlfriend who had missed her boyfriend for ten years.

It was then I realized Kate was also emotionally attached to me. She told me about how an officer came to the school and later went to the chief’s palace to investigate my case. I told her about how I was reposted to a school in the district capital. Kate was so happy for me but told me she was gonna be missing me badly.

I also told her I was back to see her and wouldn’t mind having her visit me in the district capital. She agreed to my request and promised to visit me over the weekend. I was so happy that I didn’t bother going back to the chief’s palace to pick up my items. I quickly joined a vehicle back to my town with the hope of seeing Kate during the weekend.

I went and gave my room a new look. My room was then made dust-free. The only beverage one could get in my tabletop fridge were sachets of water. But because I was expecting a special guest, I managed to stock my fridge with a pack of Don Simon drinks and two apples.

I had locked my fridge because of my hungry niggers who could come and drink the drink before the arrival of the intended drinker.
The following day, which was a Saturday, I went to the lorry station very early in the morning to welcome Kate like friends and family members go to the Airport to welcome a relative from Mecca.

I looked forward to seeing Kate alight from a lorry, but my anticipation failed. Kate never came that day. I got bored. “Anyway, it is not bad to devote one’s time to what he much desires”, I said to myself. The next day, Sunday, I was with hope that there was no way Kate would not come.

I went to wait for her at the station, as usual. Guess what, she never came. I was highly disappointed at Kate’s disappointment. “What could have made this girl not come? Was she just pretending she had me at heart?” I asked myself.

I went and organized my guys and we enjoyed the Don Simon and apples together. They were shocked because they had never seen such a drink in my fridge. I told them I was celebrating my reposting.

Now the question is,

“HOW MANY MALE NEWLY POSTED TEACHERS CAN SURVIVE THIS TEMPTATION?”

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