The year was 2003. I was in a boarding school not far away from home. Our then class teacher had just left our class, it being a Wednesday when we’d have a class meeting and have a chance to socialize with the coolest teacher in school. His name was Mr. Gatei. We may have been kids then, but every girl in school sure had a HUGE crush on him.
Mr. Gatei had just let us know that there’d be no classes that day since the girls were going for an out-of-school social event.

I had never been to one, but sure knew what it was all about. Over the past years I had seen the older girls leave in the morning and return late in the afternoon hiding packs of sanitary towels and colourful pamphlets. And did I mention they used to have the highly coveted bread and soda for lunch?
It was finally my chance. I being an ‘older girl’ and in Upper Primary…
Selection was simple.
Anyone who had started their period stepped to the right. All my friends and classmates did.
Next, anyone whose bosom had started showing. So many others did, including the much younger girls in lower classes.
Everyone else, myself included, was asked to go back to class.
The laughter, the jokes, the welcome backs from teenage boys sent me running to the staffroom and let the teachers know there’s no way I was going to be the only girl spending an entire day with a pack of males.
It wasn’t till I was in Form 2, at 14-15 years, that Aunt Flo finally started paying me a visit; just a few years after my stunted mosquito bites of breasts had started showing.
Over the years I’ve come to learn that girls started hanging out with Aunt Flo way back; back when they were 9 or 10.
Recently, I’m realizing that it’s still the same. 9 -10 years is the age. That means 9 year olds can become mothers!
But, there’s definitely a But.
All these early bloomers, same as it were back then, are residents of big towns and cities. Village girls are still enjoying their girlhood without the constant trauma of bloating and cramping and body aches and mood swings and fear that there may be a smudge of stain at the back of their tunic.
And it’s not just about hitting adolescence.
Kids growing up in towns and cities become sexually active at a much earlier age unlike ones residing by the countryside.
It’s no debate that they are less healthy and physically fit too. Ever seen an obese villager?
Above all, they are more prone to all kinds of diseases and allergies.
It’s shocking how almost every middle-class parent residing in towns has a pediatrician’s private number on speed dial while those in villages don’t even know who a pediatrician is.
So many kids are on restrictive diets and everyday medication for conditions and allergies that are non-existent in the village.
As much as it has a thing or two to do with overbearing and overprotective parents who don’t let their kids be exposed to anything risky (read Risky, not Dangerous) thus making them prone to all kinds of diseases, a lot has to do with pollution.
Pollution by air, by water, and by the foods either grown on raw sewage and over-contaminated with all sorts of pesticides and chemicals, or GMO imported foodstuffs that city folks can't do without.
So, if you ask me, I’d tell you, towns and cities are no places to bring up a family.
They'll inhibit your little one’s immunity, turn them into unhealthy weaklings who mature far too early and steal their innocent childhoods far too fast.
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