I cried ear to ear after hearing the News during a phone conversation with Ademide. His "Sorry Sorry, it's for good" wasn't doing the good he meant but, adding more injury to my pain. I abruptly hung the call so i could dedicate the next few hours to crying,wailing and lamenting of how unfair have been treated while thinking of a way forward in all of these eventualities.
After much thought, I opted in to inform my parents with the hope they would share in my pain but,did they?
Dad was like,
"No oooo........you can not go oo"
"I know I gave birth to many but I'm not sorry for not giving any to the claws of death"
"Why will they even post you to where a lot of atrocities is prevalent?"
"Can't they just post you to serve in a nearby State"?
And yeah,my dad did knew my pain but his reactions to the News left me with more confusion than I was. And my mum? She made it even worser.
Meanwhile, I do not have much time to do any lengthy thinking or seek advice from people who i presumed would say nothing more than " don't go just wait for the next batch,the posting may likely favor you then".
Whether i like it or not, the fact still remains that, I'm to come to a final yet rational conclusion in less than two days because, I was to report to my Orientation Camp for my National Youth Service (NYS) the third day in the Northern part of Nigeria which is many miles away from home.
If the going get tough, the tough keeps going.
It was a tough decision for me but I made it anyways, after weighing the pros and cons of the journey. I made up my mind to go, going against my dad, mum and elder brother wishes to stay back because, they considered the journey a risky and dangerous one.
I get it........I knew they were just watching out for me so, I made them understood why I needed to go that, "It was a step further". They gave in and gave me all of the support I needed financially, emotionally and spiritually.
After have had their blessings, I made enquiry from every nooks and cranny about "Where to board a straight bus there" and "The estimated hours for the journey".
Luckily for me, two of my course mates( friends) were also posted to this same State and they were fully up for the adventurous journey.
The following day, I bade my farewells to my relative, with so much tears in my eyes,I hugged each of them tightly as if that was gonna be my last time.
Apparently, my home is far from the city and mind you, i can only get to board a bus straight down to the Orientation Camp only in the city. So, I had to move a day before the day i was to report at the camp. I and my other course mate Sarah, got to the city late at night after much hassle in locating the address of Ibukun's residence, her aunt welcomed us warmly and prepared us a nice homemade meal,which we obviously devoured like hungry lions. We almost had a pleasant night rest too until the mosquitoes said,NEVER!
Around 6: 30am the following morning, we arrived at the motor park(Myself, Ibukun and Sarah) so as to secure a convenient space,that would serve as kitchen, toilet and bedroom in the bus, for the supposed eight hours journey that turn out to be a whole freaking sixteen hours in the long run.
Waterfalls, mountains, hills, dams, rivers, ocean, birds and all other creatures and creations caught our sights but the vehicle was moving at its highest speed that we barely got to took a proper snap of them.
We slept, ate, pressed our phones until none of it interest us anymore.
Haven't we gotten there?
How many miles are still uncovered for the journey?Our incessant repetitive questions was beginning to ache the driver's ear so,he stopped answering us.
Finally,Finally, we got there.
Tired and sleepy, we obviously need a good sleep but that was far being a reality because, the hostels were locked and we would have to make necessary registration before we could lodge in.
Having no better option, we joined the plastic chair outside the hall and used our suitcases as pillow as we passed the remaining few hours to dawn in the cold weather laced with mosquitoes of various breeds.
https://images.ecency.com/DQmScEEtUTrmV77KMehD5yXDWfpkSLndCg5TPEGrRo5gFs3/img_20230906_wa0034.jpg
"Money answereth all things"
That night,I wished we had enough to take a flight in place of the road transportation we opted for,at least that would have cut us some slacks from all of the troubles we had to experienced (some are not even mentioned here) and ever since then, have built a fantasy around travelling by plane or rocket.
In between, I was thankful we arrived there safe and sound in spite of all odds and also, made new friends who made the three weeks camping an unforgettable pleasant experience for us.
© Medemausi
This is my entry for #mayinleo prompt day 29
To also join,you can click on the link here
The pictures are mine.