It was a wet September morning. Al and I were on our way to the village where we were expected to begin our working lives. No vehicle plied that route at that time of the year lest they get stuck in the mud. We therefore had to walk the entire distance. The sight of puddles on the path leading to the village scared me very much as much as it did Al. We stood motionless starring at the pool of water. After a tortuous ponder I took off my shoes, folded the legs of my pair of trousers to knee level and stepped inside, albeit cautiously. Al did same after some hesitation and we began to hop from one patch of dry ground to the other through the puddles towards the village…