NYSC, My own story II

When I went back to PH, I had a lot of time to think if I should redeploy or change my posting to Ado. It didn’t take so long for my answer to come in a strange way because my dear Jess in Adamawa applied to be redeployed to Delta state again but guess what??? They redeployed her to Ekiti ??????  We decided to remain there since the goal was to be together ( from secondary school to same university, now Ekiti). When it was time to go back, we bought things together felt like dry roommates though we didn’t plan it?.  Before Jess came into the picture, I met a beautiful soul in Ekiti, she got the house I stayed in, we were meant to live together, apparently the best in that village but she relocated to Ado?……. Back to my journey, when we got to Benin, we discovered that the driver didn’t know the road to Ekiti. We started using Google map to locate the road because we kept on going back and forth. The batch A Corpers that were in the bus started giving directions to the man. I was wondering who I offended that 4th January that it had to be the vehicle I entered. Finally we got to Ekiti around 6pm, we took 12hours for a journey of 8hours. Thank God we got there safely, we stayed in Ado that night. Jess wanted my LGA so we could stay together so I spoke to my LGI about it and they happily gave her because they couldn’t possibly understand why someone would willingly choose to stay in a village for a whole year without light or good water. 

“Eventually, all the pieces fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment and know that everything happens for a reason”.

We went to our LGA the next day, stayed in family house till we tidied up our house and moved in. I actually cried very well because of the village stuff.  Tomi, the girl with the beautiful soul and the cute guy I talked about was also there to help out. My compound had about 39 goats, no jokes and in that village they don’t eat goats, they believe goats were their warriors that helped them in the past…..very laughable,

Hmm what was my business except that the goats looked scary and actually acted like humans. They’ll just stroll inside your house as if it’s a bush. Our neighbours were hunters so we saw every form of strange animals like Pangolin, Antelope, Pythons, Okiti( Bush rat I think),etc. By force I learnt how to draw water from the well, I became used to it after 6months. 

The indigenes were quite strange. They had market just once every 5 days and that market day, they come around 7am and close by 11am whether they’ve sold or not?. If rain should fall, that’s public holiday for the community because they won’t open again. By 7pm all shops are already closed. As for the taxis there, you have to sit 4 or even 5 at the back, 2 or 3 at the driver seat and 2 at the passenger seat. That was the worst ordeal going to school everyday. The smell eh…smh

We didn’t find any church to attend in the village to we started attending NCCF fellowships. It was awesome. I was in the choir, was excited about serving God. My PPA was a secondary school where English was even taught in Yoruba. I was a bit scared at first before I started but it got better, I loved the students ?. I started tailoring as my Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED), started selling cupcakes too. I just didn’t want to be bored throughout my service year. I went for NCCF rural rugged, NCCF state conference, IKOGOSI WARM SPRINGS, etc. 

Rural Rugged at Ikole-Ekiti

Ikogosi warm springs

My SAED and cupcakes. 

Strange Ekiti Animals

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On a more serious note, those people were suffering, from my neighbours down to the students in school. They didn’t have clothes to wear, food to eat, one slippers for everybody in the house . From time to time, I gave them my clothes. The last time I went home, I had to bring a full Ghana must go of my clothes and gave them. That was what inspired me to carry out a personal Community Development Service. Incase you see me repeating clothes just know it’s not my fault. ?

To be continued…

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