I have had many beautiful holidays since my childhood. Among these holidays, the ones I spent with my maternal grandparents and uncle are the most adored and fun-filled.
When I was in primary school, my parents had the tradition of releasing me each year to spend my Christmas holiday with my maternal grandparents. I look forward to it each year.
My grandfather was a farmer and a hunter. Whenever I was with him, he pampered me with a lot of bush meat. With my parents, our routine meat was beef, chevon or chicken. The only opportunity I had to have a taste of other varieties was my time with my grandparents. My uncle, who wasn't married then, was also available to take us round on visitation to rivers, cashew plantation where we would roast cashew nuts and eat. It was so delicious. I have two other cousins of the same age bracket that we used to do the holiday together.
My uncle likes academic excellence and he always engaged us to test us on what we had learned in the term that ended before the holiday. The three of us were at the same level of education. We shared the same class across our various schools.
We were with him on a particular holiday and he told us to tell him our individual positions in school. My cousins took first position in their respective schools while I took 4th in mine. He took us to the cashew plantation to harvest and roast cashew nuts. After roasting it, he shared the nuts in the ratio of our positions. I was given a quarter of what each of them was given. He then posed a challenge to me to improve my academic performance in order to be so privileged the next year. I was pained initially but I later accepted the challenge and vowed to take first position in my school the following session.
The holiday ended and I returned back to my parents.
The following year, I studied hard to take first position but I was able to move two places to take second.
It was with mixed feelings that I traveled with my mum to my usual holiday destination. It was her tradition to take me there, spend a few days with her parents before returning back. After three weeks of holiday, my uncle would now be the one to take me to my parents. I was happy that I improved over the year but was unhappy that I couldn't take the first position.
Fortunately, that holiday was one of the best memories of my childhood.
A day after our arrival, my uncle didn't waste time to call my cousins who had arrived a few days earlier and I to discuss our performance in school. As usual, my cousins took first position in their respective schools. My uncle brought out a packet of candies and he shared it in such a way that I was given half of what they were given. I wasn't happy but my uncle cheered me up and praised me for improving tremendously.
He brought out a second pack and this time he told us to answer questions and win some candies. He began to ask us questions about current affairs in the country like the governor of the state, the president of the country, some national symbols and the like. This was where I won many candies and I had in my custody more candies than the two of them. My bragging rights began. They had mocked me the previous year and even when the first pack of candies was shared.
Then my uncle gave us another challenge for the next year.
In the evening, my grandmother served us grasscutter pepper soup.
We spent time in the river with my uncle the following day. He taught us how to swim in the river. Visiting the cashew plantation wasn't left out but this time around, the nuts were shared equally. I found my voice with my performance with the current affairs oral test.
After three weeks of eventful holiday, we left in January to our respective parents looking forward in anticipation for the following year.
The following year, my uncle was no longer in the village. Only one of my cousins also joined me for the holiday and it was boring for us.
The memory of the last holiday with my uncle in the village remains evergreen.
I wasn't able to recreate the experience because there was no other time that the four of us met in the village again. That phase of life has gone but the memory remains.
