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The examinations were to be held on the thirteenth of
September 1951. I knew I was well prepared but of
course there was no way of knowing how well the oth-
ers were prepared, until a er the examinations. We had
to start at seven thirty in the morning and finish by
eleven. The results would be announced by four in the
a ernoon.
For weeks before the actual day, I had been dreaming about how I
was going to get up at four in the morning to catch the bus to Nicosia
and then catch another local bus to the school, which was about three
miles from the city centre.
On a number of occasions I woke up sweating with fear, having had a
nightmare in which I missed the bus, or in which the examiner, in the
form of a giant, chased me with a cane for not preparing for the ex-
aminations, or that I got lost in the big city, or even worse that some
strange power had abducted me for daring to leave my village.
Most of my sleep during the few days before the "big day" was in short
periods mainly during the day. In the summer period, not much is
done during the day in Cyprus, because of the high temperature. The
temperature in our village was sometimes in excess of forty degrees
Celsius. Most people took a nap from midday until about four in the
afternoon. My preparation became spasmodic with periods of study-
ing interrupted by periods of sleeping.
Day dreaming was my other big problem. The exciting prospects after
finishing high school were too numerous and voluptuous not to dis-
tract my concentration. The idea of becoming a clerk at the mine of-
fices was very appealing indeed. The rich old man in the village who
gave me the daily newspaper was also a clerk. He hadn't studied at the
high school, but he was able to read and write. The people in the vil-
lage respected him as much as they respected the priest and the
teacher. The teacher was highly respected in our village even though
he hadn't been born in our village. For myself, the thought of becom-
ing a teacher was far too ambitious to contemplate.
My day dreaming had built up my hopes to such an extent that if I
failed to obtain a scholarship, I didn't think that I would be able to
stand the strain of disappointment. Eventually I was looking forward
to the "big day" more out of anxiousness than readiness.
The priest promised me that he would wake me up at four the fol-
lowing morning. He didn't have to. That was probably the first night
in my life when I didn't sleep even for a single minute. Gazing at the
sky as the stars went by, it was easy for me to know the time. That's
something that most people in the village could do with reasonable
accuracy. When the seven bright stars of the Plough reached the top
of the adjacent olive tree, I knew it was time for me to get up.
My mother lit the primus paraffin heater, made me a cup of tea and
boiled me a couple of eggs to take with me for lunch. She was sobbing
continuously and had probably done so all night. This was the first
time that we would be separated; she was afraid of what might hap-
pen to me. She kept asking me if I had everything I needed: pencil,
rubber, ruler.
As the bus came round the bend, it slowed down. The driver knew
that this was the "big day" and slowed down in order to stop outside
our house.
My mother was now crying loudly, drawing deep breaths, unable to
talk. She took her gold plated cross from her neck and put it around
mine. "God be with you my son" she said and nearly fainted. "Mother"
I cried out aloud. "Go" she said to me, "Go, I'll be all right".
I had been on a lorry before, but not in a bus. The front section of the
bus had room for ten to twelve passengers, whilst the rear was
crowded with around twenty lambs and a couple of goats. On the roof
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