STORY- Iwopin: The Journey, the Camp, the Return

It’s been a while I entertained you with a fun-filled life story, well, if you are reading this, then I am glad to announce to you that you are about to sojourn with me through a fantastic adventure. It is obvious that I love adventures, like taking a naked bath under the rain, jumping down from a moving bike or eating a fresh alligator pepper, yeah, those are fantastic adventures that I will never forget, though I am yet to try Omo detergent (the blue coloured one) as a toothpaste and proposing to a girl on the Lagos state’s third mainland bridge, hahahaha, yeah, some very crazy adventure right?.

 Some of you may wonder why I haven’t posted any cool gist for a while, most especially after the successful #31Days31Reflectors that I blogged throughout the month of January, I still extend my gratitude to all the writers of that successful episode, I am positive that another of such episodes will come up soon. This week, I shall share with you a story that will keep you checking on this blog for more. This story is an extract of all the adventure I experienced between 17^th and 21^st of April, 2014, exactly, you are correct, that was the Easter celebration week. 

 

Plans for this adventure had kicked off some months ago; we had to train about 40 young children of ages between 11 and 16 years, I was among the judges that would select only 20 candidates who will represent the district in a series of competitions with other Pathfinder group in the state, it was a hug task but one that I must do with all my strength. After about 6 nights sleeping outside the comfort of a civilized world, 20 young minds were selected to represent to represent my district. I still recall the tears of those ones that couldn’t make it to the final 20, I even had to shed a tear for my darling Esther who couldn’t make it, but the competition needed those that were prepared the face the harshness of the world in its ancient self.

 

I got my bag pack, dashed out with my little brother who was selected among the final 20 candidates to the departure venue, after waiting for a while, I checked my wallet to be sure I had some coins in there that will keep me going for the few days. At about 5pm we kicked off the journey.

THE JOURNEY

We were all excited, I sat in front of the Mass transit bus smiling and hopeful for a swell adventure, Iwopin, Ogun state, here we come.  The sounds of car horns and that of the bike men, popular known as “Okada men” here in Nigeria, orchestrated the background music for our journey; it was as if they were doing a song for us as we journeyed along. We had a quick stop somewhere around Ifo Local Government area of Ogun state, there and then came a sudden rumble in my stomach going hum-bala hum-bala hum-bala, I quickly alighted from the bus, and took a quick gaze around as if I was in search of the ultimate prize, hmmmm, Gala?, No, emmm, Bread?, No, Lacasera?, No, emmm, Biscuit?, emm I got a Beloxxi cream crackers for my kid brother, but I needed something heavier as I haven’t eaten since breakfast, as I gazed, My eyes saw the shop, yuppie, I dashed down to the woman and the following conversation ensured……

Me:- Mummy, Good evening o..

Woman:- Good evening, My son, what do you want?

Me:- What do you sell ma?

Woman:- rice, beans, spaghetti, bread, plantains, meat and fish and swallow(this included fufu, amala and semo).

Wow, I was very glad as the woman smiled at me and asked what I wanted again, hmmm, looking at the time, I couldn’t sit to eat, so I ordered for a “Nylon” take away, and requested for rice, beans, dodo(plantain), spaghetti,2 meat, 1 fish and 2 sachet of pure water to wash down the solids. I paid for my meal, and raced off back to the bus on time before those who went to buy stuffs from the market returned.  

At about 6:30pm, while plying the “Papalantoro” road (that road needs to be dual-ised o), I opened my “nylon” packed take-away and ate everything, and drank the water the wash down the solids.  The journey continued as we crossed Sagamu town and Ilishan town (where Babcock University is located). At about 8pm, we crossed the heart of Ijebu-ode, it was already very dark, and we became even anxious to get to the camp ground on time.  Calls from parents and loved ones kept our hopes alive, as we asked for directions so as not to move to far from our destination, since we had no GPS device with us and my blackberry’s battery was already drained. 
After about another 1 hours 30 minutes we got a place known as J4, we took a right turn and kept straight till we got to another T-junction where we made final inquiries about our journey, we followed the directives of some good Samaritans, until we lost patience and decided to return to a village we had passed initially, after a while, we got to this strange land, the IGELE Land, at this time it was past 10pm.


(Stay tuned for the next episode)