Neighborhood relationships is something that has turned to be quite fickle throughout the years.
I've lived in three houses, been in two other neighborhoods before finally settling here and I can tell you that a stark difference in the neighborhood can cause a huge difference in the type of neighbor's who stay there.
I sparsely remember my first house. T'was a huge compound with lots of neighbors.
Back then the kids were always together, this the neighborhood relationships were mighty strong.
Those were fun times when we children would play different games from sunrise to sunset before retiring to our own beds to sleep for the day. Wake up the next day and we'll do the same thing 馃槀.
As we kids were together, the parent's were too, doing whatever parental things they do.
I sparsely remember the moms gisting and sometimes cooking together 馃槀.
Then, I knew every of my neighbors names, favorite things, favorite foods and even some of their cousins name. Then the neighbors were family, at least, until we moved out.
Moving into my second neighborhood, the neighborhood relationships were starkly different.
First of all, this compound didn't have as many neighbors, only one other family that had kids.
I was in shock, tired to even socialize as the kids were all girls.
It was a dream for my sisters but a quiet harsh wake up call for me 馃槀.
When they'll be outside, playing hide and seek, or inside the neighbors house playing with dolls, make believe or any other thing.
I found myself getting more and more attracted to the television, and the beautiful world of cartoons.
During this time, our country was just starting down it's long fast spiral of insecurity, inflation -and other bad stuffs that could happen to a country馃槀- hence going to make friends with the kids in other compounds was a huge No.
That's when my personal neighborhood relationships died.
Then we moved to our own private personal house, and the whole dynamic shifted completely.
This neighborhood didn't seem like a neighborhood at all. Sure the nearest houses and compounds are not even twelve feet apart but you could as well have been separated by acres of lands and forests for the amount of interactions we have.
Right now, there's nothing like neighbors knocking on your door and asking you to play, and even if they miraculously did, your reaction would probably be something like this..
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The neighborhood relationships in Nigeria has changed drastically, in this current time and age, almost everyone is isolated, except those who are childhood friends that are neighbors, or those leaving in rural houses that can't avoid relationships with one another.
The loss of neighborhood relationships due to security is quite sad, but yet it's a reality.
You could always love your neighbor as yourself, that doesn't mean the neighbor would love you back?
This was written using the #inleo #aprilinleo monthly prompts for day 9, meant to post it yesterday but meh.. thats life...
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