Life is not always rosy, sometimes things happen and you can find yourself in a different situation than what you are used to.
In nigeria migrating from one social class to another can be very frustrating be it from lower to higher or higher to lower.
If you are migrating from the lower class to the higher class, you will have to change a lot of things. Like where you live, the school of your children, feeding etc. likewise migrating from a higher class to a lower class.
In nigeria migrating from a lower class to a higher class is very hard and frustrating seeing as the system was designed to frustrate and fail you.
Things went downhill for my dad when he was duped of a very large sum of money, we tried adjusting but the bills became too much to handle so we decided to leave the upscale part of Lagos (island) to the lower-scale (mainland). we were no longer in the upper class but the middle class. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we had to make it happen.
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The day of our moving came. The moving company we hired was on their way here so we were doing some finishing touch on our belongings which we had packed before this day. I could see the sad look on my mother’s face even though she has been trying to hide it all this while my siblings were not looking good either but being the first child I had to be strong for my siblings.
“Ebuka you and Chidi should go and bring the bags in my room,” my mother said to me and my brother.
“Yes ma,” we said in unison.
The moving van was here so we were packing our load into the van.
It took a little over 5 hours to pack all our belongings into the moving van, it was a very big van. And as soon as we were done, we set off for our new abode.
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It was a 2 hours ride to the mainland oshodi to be precise, but it felt like an eternity with a lot of things going through my mind. What will life be like? Will we fit in? Will things be like this or will things get better? These were some of the thoughts going through my head, but my thoughts were interrupted when I heard my dad say “we are here”.
I took a first quick look around where was going to be our new home, and it wasn’t bad at all. It was a 2 story apartment that was built by my dad with the intent of renting it out. But seeing as we need it more, that won’t be happening.
“Alright, let's unpack as fast as we can,” my dad said.
With the help of the movers, we unpacked our belongings into our new house. It was easy to put everything in its specified position in the house because while packing, we labeled every bag from kitchen utensils to garage tools.
It took us about 3 days to fully settle into the new house and we were finally ready for every other thing. For one, we would be resuming our new school by Monday that's two days away from today. So we decided to use today and tomorrow to get a little bit familiar with our new neighborhood.
For one, the road on our street wasn’t tiled, it was bad and in need of immediate repair. There were a lot of touts(area boys) in the neighborhood smoking and harassing who they could, my dad knew some of them obviously from when he was building the house.
Muhammad-taha Ibrahim
“Agba daddy anything for your boys(big daddy do you have anything for us)” one of the area boys who I feel is their leader said to my dad.
“Tunde you this boy Oya come take for you and your boys(Tunde come have this for your boys) ” my dad brought out three 500 naira notes and gave them to tunde.
“Daddy e sure for you. shey na your pikin them be this? (Daddy you always come through. Are these your children?) the area boy asked.
“Yes these are my children” my dad replied.
“Ah ok like this nothing go do them for this zanga (As it stands nothing will happen to them in this neighborhood) the area boy said to my dad.
“I believe you Tunde,”my dad said with a little laugh as we walked away.
“Daddy who are they?” my little sister asked my dad.
“They are area boys make sure you children avoid them ok,” my dad said sternly.
“Yes sir” we replied in unison.
We were able to cover some ground and got to know where to buy things and how to get there. The next day being Sunday, we went to church together as a family. It was fun
seeing as church service was different to us than what we were used to. Being Sunday, my mother prepared jollof rice and chicken which we all ate to our satisfaction then we enjoyed the rest of our day watching movies on the tv.
“Ring “ring” ring” my alarm rang very loudly.
“Is it morning already?” I said to myself.
Today being Monday was our first day at our new school. I was nervous and scared because every other thing went smoothly in a way. What was left to complete this moving was our new school. How will i be received? Will they like me? Will I fit in well? These thoughts went through my head fast.
“I guess I'll find out,” I said to myself.
“Where are these children come and take your food,” my mom said from the kitchen.
“What are we taking to school today,” my brother asked my mom.
“Plantain and egg” my mom replied.
“You children should eat fast so I can take you to school,” my mother said to us.
We were enrolled in a private school not too far from the house which I was grateful for. I couldn’t imagine myself going to school somewhere very far.
Plato Terentev
The black spiky gate was what I saw first from my mom’s car then a big building that was going to be my new school. The nervousness and fear were suddenly replaced with a newly found courage, my mom dropped us off and left, we then made our way to the principal’s office who then took us to our respective classes seeing as it was our first day.
“Class we have a new student please introduce yourself,” my teacher said to the class and me.
“My name is Ebuka Okonkwo, I am new here it's nice to meet you all,” I said to the class boldly.
“It's nice to meet you too,” the class said to me.
I then took my seat in the middle row, this wasn’t so bad I guess I thought to myself.
Classes were nice seeing as I understood what the teachers taught and my new classmates were friendly and fun to be around. I was happy everything went well, adapting to new things can sometimes be hard but it was smooth for me and hopefully the same for my siblings.
“How was school,” my mom asked in her car on our way home.
“It was very good,” my sister said.
“Yes mom it was very good I made some new friends” Chidi my brother said.
“That's good I hope you ate your food. If not you won’t eat what I prepared at home” my mom said to us sternly.
“We finished our food,” we said in unison.
We then made our way home happy.