MY CAMP EXPERIENCE

Hi guyssss.....
This is one of those posts I was so sure I was going to make. As events unfolded, the need to make this post increased.

On the 23rd of February, I and other graduates who registered for the NYSC program were mobilised to start their service year with a 3 weeks orientation course. We were to camp for that duration and get involved in a lot of activities in preparation to go out to different location in our state of assignment to serve the country.

Since I already made a post on my camp arrival, I'll go ahead to state the other events that took place even though I'm still tempted to tell you all how uncomfortable covid test was for me on arrival.

Alright moving on, There were lots of activities that took place in camp ranging from parades, lectures, skill acquisition and social activities.

Typically, we wake up as early as 4am in preparation for parade and drilling every morning at 5am.

Then we go for break at about 7:30am to 9am after which other activities like long lectures and talks about carreer, business opportunities, culture, security and the NYSC program in general.

In the evenings, we had parades again and then later on social night follows.

I particularly disliked having to wake up so early for parades!
Especially because we had to bath cold water in the early cold mornings.

During lecture time, it was mostly boring. Most people, including me see it as opportunity to catch up on the sleep we lost in the night but it was never really a smooth sleep because soldiers and staffs always went around to wake people sleeping and often asked them to stand up for at least 30 minutes.

Pressing phones during lectures weren't allowed either. We were simply just expected to sit for several hours listening to lectures upon lectures on different topics.
Frankly, I wasn't really interested most of the time. I would keep checking time until the lecture period was over.
Annoyingly, time becomes so slow at times like this.

In the evenings, after parade and dinner break, we were expected to be at the auditorium for social night. Sometimes, it was fun, other times it was boring. There were drama, cultural or other social displays during these times.

After the social night, we retire at about 10pm. I make preparations for the next early morning wake and finally retire to sleep at about 11pm to 12midnight.

This routine continued everyday for 21 days! At some points, I even sacrificed my sleep for rehearsals when I was part of the people to perform during the social night.

Everyday was pretty much the same except for slight differences. There are a whole lot to talk about but I wouldn't want to bore you guys with the details.

Sundays were days to look forward to. It was the only day we didn't have to wake so early for parades.
There was no camp activities on Sundays until 4pm. This gave me enough time to sleep, wash and tidy my things, then relax.

We were fed three times daily but the foods were mostly sub standard and most people purged from eating them. The other option was to eat in the Camp Market which was mostly expensive so what I did was to eat the Camp food sometimes and other times, I'll eat at the camp market.
At the end of 2 weeks, I was pretty much fed up and just wanted to go home. I kept counting down in days and even hours!

I couldn't wait to go home, eat food made by myself and sleep as long as I wanted without being timed.

Yesterday, 15th of March was the day I finally left Camp.

Few hours before I left, I suddenly got emotional! I definitely didn't see that coming but it happened. It dawned on me that I was never going to have the opportunity to experience that again. To spend everyday with the new friends I made in Camp. Everyone was going to different places to continue with the remaining part of their service year.

I was going to miss my hostel mates, my team mates, my friends, the soldiers parade, the Man O'war drilling.

Screenshot_20220316-192028_Photo Editor.jpg

All of those things that seemed like too much hassle, I suddenly realised that I might never get the opportunity to have such experiences again.
I was going to miss a lot!

I hugged many of my friends goodbye trying so hard to keep my emotional self together.

21days of camping had its ups and downs but in general, I'm grateful for them all!

I'm back home now, still trying to adjust to the outside life. I woke up by 3:30am this morning, ready to go take my bath and head out for parade. Took me a moment to realize that I was home now and there was never going to be any early morning parades anymore except of course, I decide to join the military which isn't in my consideration list.

It feels good to be back though. Every activity that took place in the past 21 days was all worth it and after all the training, I'm in a better frame of mind to geninuely serve my country for the next one year and even afterwards.