Omo… I’m not going to lie to you, it’s been ages since I’ve last traveled. And when I say ages, I mean it’s close to a year now. It’s no secret here how I try my best to avoid any long journeys of any kind, anything that would get me to battle with traffic, I just do my best to avoid it. Unless it’s an emergency and I absolutely can’t avoid it, then I go ahead with it.
As a result, if I feel that traveling won’t do me much good, then I won’t even bother to do it. It’s not like I don’t like traveling, actually I do. I enjoy going to new places and getting to meet new people. It’s always fun for me. However, I only enjoy it when it’s done sparingly. If I have to do it every few months, it’ll become stressful for me and I’ll burn out pretty quickly.
So, the last trip I’ll consider as “traveling” happened last December and stretched to this January. Yeah, you guessed it; the New Year thingamajig. I only consider this because I spent a few nights in the village and I got to spend some quality time with some extended family members and some family friends.
I think I made a post about it, going to the village and getting to experience the masquerade festival. It was lit, I must say. That was the holiday period and thankfully, I was able to take some time off work. This allowed me to do the kind of things I wanted to do. I left my home around noon, but I didn’t want to get there too early, so I stopped over at Shoprite along the way. I spent close to two hours there. First with a movie at Genesis Cinemas, and then when it was over, I went to the Shoprite supermarket where I got some things for myself and my Dad.
However, I miscalculated and for a second, forgot that it was the yuletide season and a lot of people wanted to shop. The crowd there was massive and the lines at the check-out counters were as long as fuel queues. However, I didn’t mind. I found the shortest line I could, it was at the far end of the supermarket and I joined it. It took me almost thirty minutes just to check my goods out.
So, I left and got on a bus that took me to my village. It was good to see my Dad and my Uncle, they were also happy to see me. I shared the things I bought with the family and nothing much else happened that night. The main gist took place the next day when we went to the masquerade festival. It was crazy and it was a whole lot of fun! It’s well known in the East that during the yuletide season, it’s always a bad idea to go out with your own vehicle because the traffic will frustrate you. And what causes the traffic? The masquerade procession.
That day, I saw different kinds of masquerades, guns were shot into the air, announcing their arrivals, and so many dignitaries were in attendance. It was so much fun, and typically, I got so focused on enjoying myself that I forgot about taking pictures until most of the fun was gone. Yeah, I’m sorry about that.
We bought chicken pepper soup and some drinks to wash it down with. Later on, when it began to get dark, we started going home. It was not far so we simply walked it. We had fun that day and the only thing that could have ruined it was the shaky internet that exists in my village. Thankfully, I was so exhausted from the good day that I had that I dropped asleep almost immediately after we got home.
Not long after, I returned to school to begin my final year as a student and it’s been smooth sailing ever since. I’ve been to the village multiple times since January, but I don’t stay too long and I’m going for one reason or the other. Which is why I don’t consider all that “traveling”. Now that we’re getting close to the end of yet another year, another Yuletide celebration is around the corner. I’m looking to see how it all unfolds.
