I grew up in a very diverse environment made up of Christians, Muslims, Traditionalists and Judist. The society operated organically meaning everybody was pretty much integrated with each other and that included the kids. It was a community located in the northern parts of Nigeria that strongly believes kids were communal responsibilities and not solely for their parents. It was a really peaceful place where religion holds little weight as a criteria for association which trickled down into the lives of the younglings -US. Growing up I did not really care about which festivities belonged to a particular group or religion, I celebrated them and that includes Christmas, Eid, Passover and even the new yam's festival. I did not care if it concerns me or not as long as it was an occasion and there's food I am there. My age grade and I even took it a step further by becoming official party crashers that include birthdays and wedding receptions. On Saturdays when we were bored we go snooping around churches to see if there was a wedding going on somewhere just so we can come eat the free food and on Sundays it was for birthday parties strictly to steal the show, overshadow the celebrant, eat cake, go home with goodies and stories about how we owned it all expecting to do better when another opportunity presents itself.
During festive periods, we would pair ourselves into groups ( maximum of 10 each) choosing whom we are closer to, create a visual map about our adventure for the day before setting off to the house of friends and relatives with the hope of getting money or gifts from them. This custom was really popular amongst my peers until something happened and it changed everything.
It was Eid Mubarak and as always we had already strategized how to attain ultimum gains to topple that of our previous achievement. Having discovered an old wallet under my dad's bed which ended up becoming mine since he had no use for it made me the defacto Treasurer for that day. I was always in the middle of the group to protect me from eternal harm and safeguard THE WALLET.
Everything was going extremely well, we were receiving more financial gifts than snacks and meals and in some locations we got all three. We were already racking up close to three thousand naira for 5 boys and this was around 2008/09 so you can guess that it was not chicken change. At around pass 4 we decided to get cold sachets of water as the weather was extremely hot and we were all thirsty. After quenching our thirst we all got , dusted our behinds, headed towards the direction that spells home. When we got to the junction that split us up to our individual residences, I reached into my pocket for my wallet but for some reason my baggy trousers felt unusually deeper and empty for something that was supposed to be a haven for our hard work. I searched myself thoroughly for the fifth time before telling the boys that we should hurry on back to the mango tree we sat down for a cold drink.
After running back there for what felt like eternity, we found the wallet right where we sat on the floor, emptily staring us in the face. Nobody said anything after such a massive heartbreak, we all went home with heavy hearts and a plan to cry ourselves to sleep as that was the only thing us kids could do. That was the last time we went money fishing during festive periods as a group as everybody wanted to do their own thing individually and prevent such tragedy from ever reoccurring.
I learnt a valuable lesson that day, NEVER TRUST WALLETS and I have never purchased or owned one ever since. I'd rather stick the few change I have on me inside my pockets than to insert it into the very reason why I was not a Thousanaire at 11.
Happy Eid al-Fitr to all my Muslim brethren around the world . I wish you the best during this festive season. Enjoy
