The drunken master

_{Photo by Orkhan Farmanli}

As a child, I was always found amongst the kids who were considered to be good children, and this wasn't just because I enjoyed being a good kid, but more out of fear of what my dad would do to me if he ever saw me doing something I shouldn't be doing, something that was considered bad.

So even when my peers at high-school started consuming alcohol, I made sure to stay clear out of it because back then, my dad gave us this impression that he always knows what we're up to, and after some things that I had seen him discover, I was convinced that he was either a very good man of God that spoke to God regularly or he was a witch doctor, both of which scared the living daylight out of me and kept me straight.

Anyways, I remember the first time I saw someone I knew get drunk. Before then, I would occasionally see people passed out in the street due to excess alcohol but this meant nothing to me because I grew up in the ghetto and things like that were considered normal over there. But the day I saw a classmate of mine get drunk during my high school party was the day I knew alcohol wasn't for me.

I don't know how they got the alcohol, although anyone could get alcohol over here, even a kid. This kid and his friends had snuck it past our gateman and during the party, they had drank the whole thing and then some few minutes later, it felt like some screws got loosen and one of the guys began to misbehave.

Luckily for him, his friends had quickly taken him to the back of the school before any teacher could notice and that was where they tried various methods to bring him back to his senses. As usual, they had given him some garri which is made from granulated cassava. I don't know if it works but everyone seem to buy the idea that giving a drunk person garri to chew will somehow reduce the effect of the alcohol on the body.

Did it work? I have no idea. I had left there immediately I saw how critical the situation was because I didn't want to get in trouble with any of the teachers.

Anyways, fast forward to the present day today, I was upstairs with my friends when we noticed everyone at the hostel running towards the same direction, it turned out a mother of one had gotten herself drunk and couldn't control herself. She had gone into a room where some guys were drinking and had asked for some alcohol but ended up taking more than she could handled and now more than two people were literally holding her down, trying to prevent her from running mad round the hostel.

With the few things that I've seen, I know that there are two types of people when it comes to alcohol, the type that talks and acts crazy when they're drunk and the type that goes straight to bed when they're drunk. Apparently she was the crazy type and everyone had to hold her down.

Watching her act that way with her two year old baby sitted right next to her was heart breaking and more than enough reason for me not to get drunk. I'm not saying I don't take alcohol, I just have a limit for it and would never get drunk to the extent where I start behaving this way.

It's embarrassing.