I spent ten years or more in my state; I never knew what it meant for someone's house to be flooded in fact, when I heard about floods, I always thought it was a joke; I always said that I didn't know if I could live in a flooded area.
An unfortunate marriage brought me to Lagos state, Lagos state is a very big city that seems to sit on the ocean, Lagos state is surrounded by water, so any little thing everywhere becomes flooded.
I have spent five years in Lagos and I never experienced flood in my house except for yesterday, and it wasn't funny, at times some of my friends lament about how water destroys their properties, some will have to leave their homes for weeks, I was only imagining what they're facing.
A year ago the need for me to get a place for myself arose and it was so urgent, that I didn't have much time to do a proper investigation on how the area is when it comes to flood issues, I quickly paid and moved in, I will say I have been coping with other challenges till yesterday that I saw the greatest of it all.
My door step
How it started
I woke up by 3:am, and I was busy preparing myself for the day's activity; it started drizzling a little bit, and in less than no time, the rain became heavier, and the water level started rising; I felt nervous, and I started praying; it rained for two hours and everywhere was filled up.
The next thing I heard sound like a boiling water, and I looked it was water rushing out from the ground in my room, before I even realized what was going on the whole room, kitchen, and bathroom were filled with water.
What I did
I said to myself "Baby girl, no need to panic, no need to worry, you believe in one day at a time, and here comes today with its challenge, face it with happiness and joy"
I put on my Bluetooth speaker and connected my phone. I searched for my best track of Flavor a Nigerian musician and I started dancing, it was fun because I didn't allow the situation to bring me down emotionally.
I put a call across to my neighbors and they rushed home, opening their apartment it was like a mini swimming pool and the wife started crying, most of their property had gone bad.
Throughout the whole day, I was busy packing water from my room and I never felt like I was doing something bad, my neighbor was just looking at me, she didn't understand why I should be dancing in such a situation.
My friend came to check on me, and she brought food; she brought my favorite, which is unripe plantain porridge with lots of vegetables and onions; when she met me dancing inside a room filled with water, she first stood and looked at me.
She asked me "Are you okay?" "Sure am okay. I have learned a slow living pattern and one day at a time, " I replied.
I continued "If you allow challenges of life to bring you down that means you have not learned a good lesson, just find solutions and work with the solution, the solution here is to pack the water and dry the house, make sure everything is safe"
She said "Hmmm, I like your style; I brought food for you, have you eaten?"
Immediately, I dropped the packer and broom, grabbed the food, and started eating, after eating I decided to rest for a while before I continued packing water in my room.
"Oh no my Bluetooth speaker battery is getting low and I need this music to keep playing", The Power supply immediately brought power, and I started charging the speaker, The music continued till 7 pm when I finished cleaning up the whole house, I took a hot bath and jumped into my bed.
There will always be challenges, and facing them with a bitter heart is like adding salt to the face of a wound which will cause more harm, just be happy while you deal with the challenge on hand.
It should have been terrible yesterday but I turned it into another day of learning something new in my life, I retained that joy and happiness I woke up with.
Images are mine