The refectory had a stage that served two purposes: the seminarians ate and flogged students on the stage. Once a student was told to mount the refectory stage, lashes would follow. I was assigned to Table Thirteen. Unlike the hostels, where each class had its allocation, the refectory table allocation was mixed.
The first few days were tough for me. I tried as much as I could to avoid being flogged. Once, I witnessed a senior student receiving twelve strokes of the cane in the refectory and didn't flinch at all. The senior didn't move until the twelfth stroke met his buttocks. One of my classmates started crying when he saw the seminarian whipping the senior, who appeared not to feel the pain.
Each time we came to the refectory to eat, the two SS3 students at our table would take eating plates from any junior students because most didn't have plates. They scooped as much food as they wanted onto their plates. The SS2 boys at the table would follow; that's the order.
Of course, SS1 boys would reach out for the pot, and before it got to our turn, the food would have finished, or only a small amount would remain. I quickly noticed that students who repeated JS1 class engaged in an activity called "eat and wash". Eat and wash involved targeting senior students who had plates and offering to wash their plates for them in exchange for leaving a little food for us, like one or two spoons.
It worked because it was deemed as stinginess for a senior student to be washing his plates when there were junior students readily available for that. I also devised another plan of willingly offering my plate to the senior at our table anytime he came to eat so that he would leave some food for me.
I had to hustle and eat to survive. I would never joke with my stomach, so at the end of every meal, I usually had up to seven plates to wash and return to the senior students who owned them.
Another thing I did to help with the hunger was gather palm kernels. Every Sunday afternoon and Wednesday night, we ate rice with ofe akwu. It only took me three weeks to figure out that the cooks disposed of the palm kernels in the school compost.
JS1 boys had no problem jumping into the compost to remove the fresh palm kernels. The compost was well over 5ft deep, so it usually took more than one JS1 boy to retrieve the palm kernels. Kanda did not hesitate to partner with me the first day I asked him to help me get the palm kernels. I would be the one to jump into the compost and throw out the fresh palm kernels to him while he stayed up and picked them.
Afterwards, he would drag me out of the compost since I couldn't climb. That was the deal. It was a smooth business, and I ate a lot of palm kernels. Sometimes, if we were late to the compost, some other boys would have cleared out the palm kernels, so it was all about hustling and grace.
Our morale was boosted when ITK reported to the auxiliary that boys were eating palm kernels in the hostel, and the auxiliary did not see it as a crime. What more could we ask for?
We could not stay hungry.