Salome welcomed Gillian when she was posted to the same school—a day school in the middle of a rural village. Gillian hadn’t taught at a mixed school before. This was her second posting after spending the first decade of her teaching career in a girls’ secondary school.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about the transfer, but she was glad it came with accommodation at the school compound. It was much easier to raise kids in a teacher’s compound and cheaper. Salome introduced her to people in the village.
Gillian quickly grew fond of the community. It would qualify to be in a Hallmark Christmas movie because everyone knew each other and was very welcoming. Salome and Gillian’s friendship grew, too, and Salome even invited Gillian and her family over to their place, where Salome’s husband, who was a pastor and a volleyball coach, was.
Teaching in a girls’ school was very different from teaching in a mixed school. Gillian found that one of the core duties as a teacher in a mixed school is to try to prevent teenage pregnancies. A measure of success was having fewer or no pregnancies.
A year had passed since Gillian had joined the school. A lot had happened. She had cemented her place in the community and was still close to Salome. Then the rumours started.
“Have you noticed a change in Nancy?” One of the female teachers asked.
“The one in form 3A?” Gillian responded.
“Yes. She has become reserved. Something is different,” said the first teacher.
“I also thought something was off. She’s usually very active in my class but she’s been silent,” said Gillian.
“Madam Salome is her class teacher, right?”
“Yes. We should alert her,” said Gillian.
A few days later, an angry mother showed up in their offices. After causing chaos in the office, Salome was asked to join them.
“Mwalim, I have come here very angry and confused. I don’t know what to do,” said the mother.
“What is the problem, Mama Nancy?” Salome asked her in the presence of the deputy principal.
“Nancy is pregnant and she has refused to tell us the boy responsible for it. We have done everything to get the truth out of her but she refuses to tell us,” said the mother.
“Oh, a few other teachers and I had noticed she was not okay but we didn’t know she was pregnant,” said Salome.
“I just want to know who is responsible for ruining my daughter,” the mother said, in tears.
The deputy principal suggested that since the matter was delicate, Madam Salome should talk to her in private.
Nancy’s mother left. Salome hurriedly informed Gillian and the other teacher of the development.
“Nancy’s pregnant and the mother wants to know which student is responsible,” she said.
“Oh no. That will set her back quite a bit,” said Gillian.
“It feels like all the counselling and talks we have with these kids aren’t enough, especially when a good student such as Nancy gets into such a situation,” said the other teacher.
“A rotten potato is just rotten. This one even attends our church but couldn’t follow the teachings,” said Salome.
“How can she be helped?” Gillian asked.
“Is there anything else to be done? She’ll get the child and then they’ll decide if she will resume her studies,” said Salome.
“She’s so young to be a mother,” said the other teacher.
“She shouldn’t have been engaging in adult activities if she didn’t want to be a mother,” said Salome.
Salome had sent for Nancy, and she arrived as they were having that conversation. Gillian had another commitment, so she left them.
Salome turned her attention to Nancy. She asked her about the child’s father. Nancy started crying, but still didn’t reveal his identity. She also looked fearful of Salome. Nancy’s reaction agitated Salome, and she raised her voice. At some point, she threatened to parade her in front of the other students if she didn’t tell her. The other female teacher intervened.
Nancy eventually left without revealing the father’s identity. The other female teacher called out Salome’s approach.
“These ones need you to be tough one them otherwise these are the consequences,” Salome defended herself.
“Even so. That girl is living through a nightmare and the worst is yet to come. This makes a bad situation worse,” said the teacher.
Later on, the female teacher looked for Nancy and spoke to her. After minutes of breaking down, Nancy finally opened up to her.
“Madam Gillian, do you have any other classes today?”
“No. What do you need?” Gillian asked the female teacher.
“I need to talk to you about a delicate matter,” she responded.
They took a walk to the field where they were alone.
“I don’t even know what to do about this information,” said the female teacher.
“You’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” Gillian asked her.
“I spoke to Nancy because I didn’t like how Salome handled the discussion,” the female teacher explained.
“Okay. Did she tell you who’s responsible?”
“Yes, she did,” the female teacher replied, her look spelling disaster.
“Who is it that has you this worried? Is it another teacher’s son?” Gillian asked.
“No.”
“A worker here?” Gillian guessed.
The female teacher nodded her head.
“Who? A teacher? Oh God, don’t tell me it’s a teacher,” Gillian gasped.
“No.”
“Then who?” Gillian asked, frustrated.
“She said it was Madam Salome’s husband,” the female teacher finally said.
“Eh! What? Ebu rudia,” said Gillian.
They stopped walking and stood in silence.
“What? How? What else did she say? Could she be lying?” Gillian asked.
“If it’s a lie, what could be the motive?”
“I can’t think of any but that’s Salome’s husband, pastor, trusted volley ball coach and respected member of the community,” Gillian said.
Suddenly, the sun outside felt too hot, but they couldn’t get themselves to move from where they were standing.
“Actually, there have been rumours about him over the years but nothing conclusive,” said the female teacher.
“What? Does Salome know about this?” Gillian asked.
“She must have heard about them but we’ve never talked about it,” said the female teacher.
They agreed that Gillian should talk to Salome after school, as the female teacher talked to the school head. Once the secret was out, it spread like wildfire. The whole village was filled with talk about Nancy and Salome’s husband. The church members didn’t know how to react.
At first, many people accused Nancy of lying. Salome defended her husband, saying he denied having such interactions with Nancy. For a few weeks, it looked like Salome’s husband was falsely accused until a woman came out. She was no longer living in the village, but her family was still there. She narrated how Salome’s husband had preyed on her while she was part of the youth volleyball team he coached.
She was already labelled a ‘bad girl’ and a rebellious kid, so she figured that nobody would believe her. She discovered she was pregnant, and one of her older cousins helped her terminate the pregnancy. After that, she never played volleyball again and couldn’t wait to finish high school and leave for college. Her mother didn’t know about it, but she always suspected something had happened.
Once the first one spoke up, more girls accused him of flirting and groping them. The news was also in the school. Salome couldn’t show up at school. Gillian visited her.
“How are you holding up?” Gillian asked Salome.
“The devil is trying to destroy my family,” Salome told her.
“Those are too many girls for all of them to be lying, Salome,” said Gillian.
“This is just the nature of men. Hakuna mwanaume wa mwanamke mmoja,” Salome told Gillian.
“What do you mean? These are children not women! He is a pedophile!” Gillian expressed.
Gillian sat through a few minutes of Salome, trying to claim that some of those girls were known for their immoral behaviour, and they must have seduced her husband. She eventually left her because she was angry at her for defending him.
“This is a man I let near my children,” Gillian told the female teacher.
“And the number of parents who trust him with their children in church and in the volley ball pitch. How can Salome even trust her with her own children?” The female teacher asked.
“Don’t even get me started on Salome. She defended that man and blamed the girls and the devil. I can’t get past that,” said Gillian.
Salome and her husband thought the saga would die down, but it didn’t. The authorities were involved, but the situation was complicated by interference from Salome’s husband, part of the church, and a few influential people who were friends of the pastor. Salome and her husband had to leave the village because even their kids were affected.
Nancy changed schools and went to live with her aunt elsewhere. When she came home for the holiday, she was no longer pregnant. Some speculated she’d had an abortion, while others said that the stress from the whole saga led her to lose the child. They could neither confirm nor deny because the villagers wanted to forget the whole ordeal.
Gillian and the other teachers had to rethink their approach to managing the kids, but the community became more involved in safeguarding them.
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