Sister-in-Campus
J
oyce a begotten child of a pastor joins the university after passing excellently in her secondary education. She has been brought up well according to the best christian standards till she loves participating in church activities without having to be forced by anyone. In the university she is immediately appointed a praise and worship leader in the christian union a position which makes her popular within her first year.
One day she invites some of her notorious admirers to her room in an attempt to evangelise to them hoping she can get to change them from girl admirers to christians. Her christian union collegues she had invited fail to turn up as they had promised a mistake that is utilized against her. What follows is a painful event after event occurrence of Joyce trying to cope up with the tough results. Will she be able to stand up to the faith she has grown up confessing? Will she face the public boldly or not?
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raise the Lord
Sister Joy!” Someone shouted out to Joyce who was passing by the student mess
from the classes singing a familiar Christian song “Liseme, liseme.”
“Amen my bother”
Joyce replied cheerfully to the greeting. Another “Praise the Lord Sister Joy!”
followed from someone a little ahead among a group of men sited along the walk
way. Before she could respond another one “Praise the Lord!” followed from
someone in the same group. Joyce decided to stop and shake the hands of the
group of five.
“Yesterday I was
blessed with your song at the ... Sagini Hall!” One of them managed to say.
“No in the CU
church” another one corrected him as the other laughed at him for saying
something he was not sure of.
“You mean at the
Sunday service?” Joyce asked him to which he nodded. “Though today is Wednesday
and I never sang last Sunday.”
He looked away
shameful as his friends laughed at his poor attempt to lie to a devoted CU
member like Joyce. He was saying something he had heard some students in his
Hostel saying as they praised the fiery first year lady.
"You didn't
have to tell him the truth Joy" Another added as they laughed again.
"No its okay
my brothers" Joyce assured them. "My brothers when the spirit of
truth enter you, you will lie no more nor will you use lies to extract the
truth."
All this time one
of the students was lost in examining the long dress which Joyce wore. The
dress was big and long enough to sweep through as she walked. When she climbed
the staircase she had hold it on one hand to avoid stepping on giving the
impression of a bride.
"Would you
mind introducing yourselves please since you already know me" Joyce asked
them politely.
"I am Jaymo,
he is PK, then this quite one is Oti, this one is Joe and the one who greeted
you first is Galgalo" One of them who appeared to be elderly introduced
them all.
Galgalo was not
even a Christian as he was trying to portray himself. He was Muslim who liked
the company of spoilt brats like Oti, PK, Jaymo and Joe. He liked to take the
advantage of his friends whenever they met at lunch time or even after classes.
Whenever a lady passed by them he was the first to attack her with whatever
phrase came into his mind. On this particular day he happened to hear someone
who was definitely a devoted CU family shout "Praise the Lord" to a
first lady whom he didn't know. Fortunately enough the person included the name
of this beautiful lady and his mind could not help relate the name with a story
he had heard about her. Some two first years had been talking last week about
how some 'Sister Immaculate' was making CU serviced lively with her songs.
Jaymo who seemed to be like the leader of the group remained quite most the
time and often spoke when the rest could not talk on behalf of the group. While
Joe became active when money was the subject of a discussion, Oti who had
bulging muscles because of the body building exercise he took daily liked
talking about fights while PK was a politician and a skimmer.
"It was nice
to meet you brothers" Joyce said trying to show them she was in a hurry.
"Wait!" PK said quickly. Then he stood up from his seat with one hand
in the pocket and another adjusting his untacked shirt faced Joyce. Joyce could
not find any clue from his face.
"What is
it?" She asked. PK opened his mouth but said nothing.
"PK I know you
want her, just take her number and you can Whatsapp her later." Galgalo
quickly suggested when PK seemed like he had run out of words. Joe and Jaymo
laughed softly.
"Who asked you
for your opinion spoilt kid? Am trying to confronting Woman of God and here you
are suggesting silly things" PK protested angrily.
"What is it My
Brother" Joyce asked tyring to look understanding though she was getting
impatient.
"I want to..
to... to..." PK kept Joyce waiting like he could not say the whole
sentence.
Jaymo took out his
phone and turned to Joyce "Sister Joy your number?"
"What do you
want it for?" Joyce asked sharply.
"So that
Brother PK can contact you later to tell you what he wanted to tell you"
Galgalo chipped in.
"If he can't
say what he wants to tell me here let him keep it. Am not giving out my
number!" Joyce said firmly. She started to walk away. PK made like to hold
her hand but Oti pulled him back.
"Leave sister
alone she still has her village boyfriend and CU! She can't be your
future" Oti told him sarcastically. Joe laughed at him and spoke for the
first time "I can help you. I take you to my friend Kimani to lend you a
suit which you can use to attend a CU service where your crush will be
impressed."
"I will not
buy your idea Joe! I was going to get saved then ..." PK defended himself.
"You got a
blackout" Galgalo chipped in as they all laughed.
"For someone
like PK to get saved it will need rain in North Eastern Kenya!" Jaymo
added and they all laughed again.
Joyce was totally
pissed off with this group of five. She was already late for lunch and that
meant she had to go back to class for a BCom block lesson in Dr. Sagini Hall.
Meeting in Dr. Sagini meant if you got in late you had to sit with the noisy
back benchers and even if the lecturer used a public address system it would be
a miracle to be attentive. She got into her room and was going to pick her
other books for that lesson when she noticed a man's shoes next to her room
mate's bed. That bed had a curtain on it which literally meant engaged or user
busy. Curiosity would not help here. Of all her three room mates Hazy was
notorious with bringing boyfriend into their room whenever time she liked even
if it was week day or class time. That meant they had no privacy for them as
ladies. If one wanted to dress they had to do in the next room or lock the room
from inside supposing Hazy dropped in with her man.
Two months later in
the first semester she was not liking Hazy of all her room mates. Abby and
Daisy had their boyfriends too but they often came visiting on weekends or some
evenings maybe to take them out but not stay around like Hazy's boyfriend. Some
days someone like Daisy spent most of her day close to her man who happened to
be in the same class as her. Joy could not picture how you can be in a
relationship with someone in the same class let alone in the same institution.
Even as she took her books from her closet she could not help asking for
forgiveness for her room mates in a short silent prayer. She had failed to go
for a lunch time prayer at the fish pond like she always does because of some
five spoilt brats.
She managed to get
a sit somewhere in the middle since she had not got any of a friend to book her
sit. She had few close friends since not many ladies and men liked a lady who
kept talking about spiritual things. While others had had their friends reserve
sits for them she was there struggling on her own to get to a sit in the
middle. It was not easy to get there especially with all her long dress and the
squeezed spaces between rows. Her real friends were in the CU where she now a
praise and worship leader something that was rare for a first year like her.
The older members in CU who were mostly in third year and fourth years were
looking at her as a promising CU chair or vice chair.
A new text dropped
in Joyce's xTigi feature phone and some of her neighbours frown at the
unpleasant ringtone they had just heard. Most of them had Android smartphone
whit a few with iPhones. Joyce had forgotten to put her phone in silent mode.
She quickly turned her mode into silent mode by long pressing the hash key
continuously. She was visibly happy with the text from Brother Petro as she had
saved him like that on the contact list. She returned the phone to her laps
promising herself to read the text after the class. The lecturer didn't not
take long as he took almost thirty minutes discussing politics about the Kisii
county government and boda boda riders yet he had come in late by twenty
minutes.
After the lesson as
others were busy taking selfies, Joyce hurried to her room to settle do her
assignments. Today being a Wednesday she had to be in praise and worship
practice by six o'clock at the same hall where they had just left. The CU
service on Wednesday would run from eight till ten o'clock and a meeting for
the group leaders would follow up to around half past eleven. No one was in the
room when she entered. She remembered to read Petro's text lest she forgets
about it. It read "Praise the Lord my precious sister! It's long since I
heard from you. About two months ago you left home for Kisii University and we
felt like holding onto you more. I hope you are fine in the Lord as I am. We
miss you so much in church and look forward to the day you will come for
holiday. God bless you and don't be quite like that again!" She was
already smiling sheepishly.
As Joy was about to
check mpesa and buy airtime her phone which had been warning of low battery
finally gave a last warning "low batter shutdown". She had to charge
it for at least thirty minutes before she could use it to call. She checked the
socket under the table for a charger to plug in her phone and there was none.
It was used by everyone in the room since it fitted on all their phones. She
checked her closet for her own charger but there was no charger. So someone had
taken her charger without her consent. A number of things were not in her place
anymore including the beautiful dress she was planning to wear tonight for the
Wednesday fellowship! This was sure a receipt for trouble.
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