Apart from the sexual affairs and paternity controversies in Yvonne Nelson’s book, she also shared some captivating childhood and teenage memories that intrigued readers. One of these recollections happened during her time at Aggrey Memorial Senior High School, where she encountered numerous difficulties trying to adapt to boarding school life.
Yvonne described an incident where she was heavily slapped by her headmaster due to her appearance. She explained that during her schooling days, it was forbidden for students to have unkempt hair and this was the reason for her punishment. Yvonne, who was then in her final year, explained that students in her category often kept their hair long so they could perm or braid it after school. She found it challenging to face her headmaster on her last day after completing her WASSCE exams.
This encounter was her worst memory of Aggrey Memorial, according to Yvonne, who stated that she received her worst nightmare from the headmaster on the day before her departure from school. She had been punished for preserving her hair, which was a violation of school regulations.
Yvonne also shared some negative experiences she encountered as a boarding school student.
“To say that the food was terrible is the mildest way to put the situation in Aggrey Memorial, which defies description. I remember the soup we nicknamed “moftoto”. It was either groundnut or palm nut soup. It was so light that if you looked into it, you could see your image. When left untouched for a few minutes, it settled in layers so that the water was on top and the other particles beneath. It was a kind of scientific experiment whose results we didn’t make use of. I still grimace at some memories in the dining hall. A friend once saw a toenail in the kenkey he was eating and another student saw the wing of a cockroach in her food. The stories of boarding school food aren’t pleasant in many schools, but Aggrey was on a different level.
“When our digestive system distilled the nutrients which our teenage bodies needed and we had to discard the rest, it came with another adventure. The toilet and bath facilities were oversubscribed, making it almost impossible to have them in sane and sanitary conditions. Sometimes we bathed outside. And the only way to avoid smelling as if you had swum in the toilet was to resort to what we called “take away,” she recalled.
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