The Invisible Culprit Responsible for Making School Boys' White Uniforms Dirty

The Invisible Culprit Responsible for Making School Boys' White Uniforms Dirty

After all these years, this question remains unanswered: Whose idea was it to make secondary school boys wear white uniforms?

I don't know o.

I know though that when these boys go to school in the morning, their uniforms are white and clean.  But, by the time they return home in the evening, all sorts of strange stains have attached themselves to the same uniforms.  Needless to say, bleaching is a daily routine for any serious uniform washer.

Since I can't get an answer to the first question, I decided to temporarily abandon it and instead, ask another one: Where do all these stains come from?

My suggestions:

• Dusty desks and lockers
• Some other type of dust borne swiftly on the wings of the cold, dry Harmattan wind
• Fellow classmates
• Rolling around on the floor in a deliberate attempt to make the uniforms dirty
• Charcoal from the Blackboard (in schools where those fancy white boards are nonexistent)
• Sand or dirt from the football field
• Food
• Sitting on surfaces that were never constructed for human relaxation e.g. window sills

But, I have left out the most important potential dirtier of uniforms: a creature that is invisible to the naked eyes.  It waits at the school gate with the tool of its trade in one hand: a dirty duster.

For the boys who are finicky about personal hygiene and physical neatness / cleanliness, and manage to avoid all the factors listed above, this creature is their nemesis.

For the day students, as soon as they leave through the gates, the creature dusts them and ensures that the bleach at home does not go to waste.

As for the boarders, the creature waits for them in their dorms. Or near the taps.

This creature does not have a name, but it will get blamed anyway.  

... And that is how white uniforms get dirty.

How do you think white uniforms get dirty? What would you add to the list?

*Image Credit: Bella Naija