HYBRID. COM

12.orientation

Have you ever witnessed a child,trying to nurture her doll,the eagerness with which she craves to know how to put a diaper on it or clothes ?
Have you also witnessed a child trying to walk for the first time,she crawls and finds something to hold on to then she stands up and tries to walk again only to fall down again.
She stumbles for a long unspecified period of time until she can finally master stability to walk that's called 'positive energy'.
On the famous orientation day positive energy was the motto of the day. In order to perfect the art and language of being a paramilitary, one had to overcome and persevere a lot, the only question was:

Did we have it in us?the willingness,the guts,the grit?

call it anything you want as long as you understand what i mean  or i'm trying to say.

believe me when i say that being a paramilitary as a beginner is no joke,you learn the hard way ,they call it tough love  in their term ,the second  motto of the camp is TRAIN HARD FIGHT EASY. orientations are done practically .you do them as you learn. you are guided like a baby the only difference being that there,s no one to soothe you or baby sit you even.

at 5.00 am our orientation day officially began,we had to attend something  called (BX)-morning run as you,d call it in a layman's  language ,for today  we were allowed to do it late because it was our first day but from there hence forth it was to be done at 3.00 am as was the norm. we wore our track suits and sports shoes and followed our pace maker out of the camp  silently. all  one could hear was the uniformity made by our feet's,its like we were all stepping with the same foot at the same time. as we were  about two miles back  to the camp we made an abrupt stop ,madam Maggie took her time to teach us the slogan song of the bx:

soldier ,soldier,wake up now*2 ,take your rifle and follow me*2 ,and if i die in the battle field*2,tell my mum that i did my best*2.

Maggie being our soloist sang each part as we repeated harmoniously. after being satisfied that we had memorized the song she ordered that we resume running on our way as we sang our motivation morning song up to the camp where we directly headed to the dispensary for the head count and there we found our cc already dressed in her track suit as well waiting for her flock. she was sweating profusely. one look at her and you needn't ask if  she was from the bx too. 

after the head count the cc  congratulated us for attending the bx  all of us,she said that with time she hoped that we wouldn't have the tendency of skiving from the first program  of the day. i wondered what she meant by the word skiver but since i couldn't ask ,i only had to wait for the day i would know,as long as i was learning i was sure i wouldn't miss its meaning with time.

i thought that after bx we would go to the bathroom straight away and later for breakfast,but  the program  as she had called it had a different approach. we had to make our bed ,wash the barrack and dress the beds .and by dressing them i mean align them in a way that you could see the last bed  standing from the first ,the dressing was done using a straight string from point A to point B,after that we had to wash the slabs using stones  and trim the grass in our compound  using our bare hands,then head to the bathroom where after taking the bath we had to clean the ablution block .

after we were done with cleanliness the cc thanked as for fatigue well done  and ordered  us to form two lines so that we could be served breakfast by two volunteers who had already been shown their way to the mess and procured us breakfast.

after breakfast we were summoned for an urgent girl talk where we learnt the meaning of a few terms that we had to be conversant with.

1.Bx-morning run  performed everyday at 3.00 am in the morning.

2.BARRACKS-our dormitories.

3.FATIGUE -cleanliness matters  including washing the barrack ,toilets,windows,trimming the grass  etc.

4.DRESSING-aligning the beds in a straight line,or putting common things in uniformity e,g towels and stationery.

5. PROGRAM -time table to be followed by the whole camp.

6.PT-physical training.

7.CLASS- a place where the recruits take lessons e.g first aid,fire fighting etc

8.DIVISION-subdivision of barracks both men /women to ease the program .

9.MANYASI-the first training ground for recruits before they perfect all programs

10.FOOT DRILLS- matching steps used when doing matching.

11 .KINDARUMA- the main dumping site.

12.MESS-the main kitchen.

13. SKIVER- a person with the tendency of sneaking from programs.

14.ALLOWANCE -monthly  pay.

15.DIAS-the main parade ground that's only stepped on after perfection from manyasi.

16. TATTOOING- close relations between men and women.

17.PLAYING GOLF-  perfect  use of  the slasher when trimming the grass.

18.MAMA SHUGHULI- pace setter during pt for females.

19. NGIRI- pace setter during pt for males.

20.HEAD COUNT- counting the no of heads available at the ground.

21.PARADE STATE- counting the no of head to  allocate a ratio to.

22.DRY RATIO

23.THE NYS ACT- act that involves code of behaviors and the limits.

24. BONOKO- cane used to whip servicemen.

as we were being taught all this  we were in at ease mode and when the sermon was over we were  commanded to stand attention. later on we headed to the formation area where we were ordered to head back to the barracks and bring our personal basins.

i wondered what we could do with them.

my curiosity didn't last long though ,we were ordered to present our urine and pass it to the nurse in charge,to my surprise the cc had to watch us urinate personally ,so that we couldn't cheat our way in,by that i mean if you had successful won your ticket to the paramilitary being pregnant and undetected the first time ,this time you had to be caught,.

to my surprise again   ten out of the thee hundred among us ,lost their ticket that way,and as it occurred to me later the people who use back doors when entering the service bought those tickets and joined us through training, the best news being that despite them having bought their way in,they never got any special treatment ,just like the rest of us they had to train hard.

the rest of the day was spent  at the store collecting our various uniforms both the green one and the ngoroko(ceremonial uniform) and boots accompanied by socks and blankets and two sets of bed sheets ,pillow and pillow case .one thing that caught my attention though was:

do not label sign on the sheets.

how would one know which was which in the hanging line?

but all the same it was government property at the end of the day,and after one was through with being a paramilitary ,he/she had to return them to the store. as for the  remaining paramilitary  terminologies ,we were going to learn them a day at a time. six months was a long time for that and many more unmentioned programmables.

can't say the day was as bad as i had expected it to be ,it was awesome since it ended without a bonoko  whip  at my back. and i couldn't be more happier, the only problem was i kept smiling oblivious of the fact that i had to keep my teeth in my mouth to avoid being rid of 'uraia'(stupidity of laughing or grinning unnecessarily).

Being serious and keeping your teeth in your mouth was part of the deal,I didn't know how I was going to survive without smiling,or getting rid of any emotions from my face,I had learnt to display them all my life,now I had to train to get rid of them by maintaining an emotionless status.

I had to become a walking zombie sooner or later ,if I was to survive in this environment.