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"I tried my first cigarette and had my first taste of alcohol in form one" began this writer and for the next slightly over one hour, kept the boys of Nairobi's Pumwani Secondary School alternately sad, thoughtful or laughing with his story of how this simple and apparently innocent beginning with these drugs to impress the girls, began his harrowing 27 year trip to through hell.

He told them of the thefts, and of missing out of his university education as he drunk each day away while in India until finally he landed back in Nairobi with nothing but the clothes on his back. "No degree, no luggage, no passport - nothing!" he astounded the listening young men.

Of lost jobs which his father and later mother managed to get for him through their 'connections' until they too gave up. Of the daily drinking and brushes with police, until finally he was forced to look for help after developing a scary skin rash.

Ogot explained how he finally ended up in the correct rehabilitation center and there was bluntly informed that he was an alcoholic. There he painfully learnt that his problem was not with the sixth or tenth drink but with first. It was here that he learnt that he had a disease - but one that could be managed. All one had to do was "abstain from drinking any kind of alcoholic beverage". This was the way he thus now lived his life one day at a time he concluded.

Then came the extremely interactive question and answer session in which Ogot for the next forty odd minutes answered questions the boys had on alcohol and other drug use, sex and other related issues. "Have fun enjoy your life," he constantly emphasised to them "but avoid trying things which have irreversible consequences and end up altering your life completely. In my time there was for example no HIV/AIDS. But you guys now have it. So one short momemnt of pleasure and you easily end up with a death certificate. That's it. Then you die, your parents will cry a bit and then life continues.

You will become a statistic for people's talks just as you have heard me talking about some of my friends who died. I now merely use them as statistics. Sad, but a fact of life. "For in the big scheme of things, we are tiny cogs in a big machine. We don't really matter much. If I drink now and die my wife will marry someone else. All places I got sacked from didn't close down, they employed someone else. If you guys die your parents wont kill themselves too. They will cry a bit and then life goes on.

The Director of goinghomedotcom explained to them how like his late friends "that but for the Grace of God would have been my fate." But the choice was entirely theirs. "In life you go through several stages. You were babies, then in primary school, and now you are here. Many did not make it to high school, but each and every one of you has a talent and a purpose in life if you choose to use it. When you are now at this age you are undergoing radicall changes voices breaking, beards and off course intrest in chiles (slang for girls)" he told them amid laughter. "You want to sag your trousers, wear earings, braid your hair fine. If you feel you have to. But before you try certain things ask yourself why you want to do these things."

"Why do you want to smoke alcohol or smoke cigarettes?" he posed causing laughter as he said "I am definately not going to to talk about drugs like cocaine or heroin if you are crazy enough to have gone there, but on alcohol and cigarettes ask yourself why. I told you I started to impress girls and there was nobody to tell me of the ill effects. But today I have told you. Now you know there is no way of telling whether you are alcoholic or not until you start drinking and by the time you find out it will be too late."

The keenly listening students were informed that since they in common with most young people always felt they were indestructible and thus never looked or overlooked long term effects of use of some of these drugs, they should then consider the short term effects.

Indiscrimate use of alcohol for example often led to irresponsible or casual sex. This could lead to HIV/AIDS with you being awarded your "death certificate" or you becoming a father when only in form one. "Ha my friends" Ogot laughed "and that is when your time of having fun will be cut short. That is when you will learn a completely new set of fun things like changing nappies, trying to quiet wailing babies and all the other joys of fatherhood. And what if the girl goes for an abortion you are thinking, well let me tell you, she could easily die and that my friends, that will haunt you forever." he informed the now sombre audience.

There is a time for everything, enjoy each stage as you go through it and discover yourself, who you are and what you want to do in life. There is a time for sex later. "Don't kid yourselves that sex is love. Sex is sex. The cows do it, dogs do it but it is just sex!" Ogot pointed out amidst uproarious laughter.

He concluded by reminding them that their lives were in their hands. Life is fun and you can really enjoy each stage as you go. Alternatively it can be hell chaguo ni lako (the choice is yours.) "I had no one to tell me what was involved over two decades ago when I took my first sip and my first puff of the consequences. You people cannot say that for I have told you. If you really want to show you are adults then you have to take responsibility for your life. And this is shown by the kind of choices you make. Don't just do things because every one is doing it. When your leg is amputated because of cigarette smoking, it is your leg which is chopped. Not mine, not your teachers, not your parents but yours!. So go out there have fun and enjoy your life remembering that it is your life.

I have done it all for you. Gone through to hell and back. But if you don't believe me and want to try it for yourself go ahead. If you are lucky and don't die, or end up paralysed, or maimed in some way and you survive the next thirty years and if God willing I am still alive too, I will come to listen to you as you stand at some school telling them that 'thirty years ago...another mzee (old man) came to our school to tell us about alcohol but I did not listen...'. Gentlemen, thank you for your time and for listening to me!"

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