As promised in my last post on this story, here is the rest of the story.. enjoy and Happy Children's day.
Trying to turn, I noticed that we
were on a cliff, and I told the driver to hold on, so I could be sure the back
was good for him to turn, I swiftly came out of the bus and behold, there was a
very deep cliff behind the bus, if
the driver had moved an inch backward, the bus will dive into the deep ditch at
the detriment of we losing our lives, I shouted and called everyone to come out
of the bus immediately, as I placed a big stone behind one of the rear tyres
before telling the youths what would have happened.
After successfully turning
the bus towards the IGELE Land, we
entered the village, it was a very small community of people, and probably a
man sojourned and started living there some years ago, because the village was
about 30 or 50 minutes far from the next village. Our presence brought the
villagers out, they gazed at us like we were strange, and I looked at them like
they were in the stone age, no electricity, no network, haba, what a place?,
well, we greeted and gracefully enough they replied, wow, that was a needed
relieve.
We told them of our journey, and how we have spent hours tracing the
place, we also asked if we could spend the night there, and they referred us to
their Baale, who told us that our destination was very close, less than an hour
ahead, he also encouraged us to go ahead with the journey, because he is sure
that nothing will happen to us, with that at the back of our hearts, we boded
our bus and zoomed off, as we left, I gazed into the eyes of the villagers, and
they looked at us, hoping to see that large number of civilized individuals
again. We journeyed on till we got to our destination around few minutes to
11pm, it was indeed an interesting trip, and other campers were already waiting
for our safe return, thanks to God, we arrived save too.
THE CAMP
The first night was like hell, kai,
those mosquitoes did not even spare my blood at all, they sucked hard like they
wanted to save the rest in their blood bank for the winter, but all the same I
managed to sleep. We had about 7 units that made it to the camp, out of the
more than 11 units in the state. Each unit must erect their tent and make it
ready for all their 20 pathfinders, clearly demarcating the female side from
the male side. There were more than 10 different games organized throughout the
camporee, and each unit had to compete for the top positions of first, second
or third. The games included, Tent making, Theme song composition, Parade, Flag
hoisting, Drama, Bible sword, Bible Quiz(the book of Revelation), Cooking
competition, Lime and Spoon race, Sack race, Knot tying among others.
The camporee was well organized,
the rules and regulations of the camp were fair and the whole planning was much
disciplined. The Four nights well organized camp held at Iwopin town, Ijebu ode
LGA of Ogun state.
My unit won the first aid
competition, took second in the knot tying competition, took second in the
cooking competition, took third in the sack race, and did well I other
competitions.
I had a wonderful tourist experience
by taking a walk through the streets of this ancient town, Iwopin riverside
town. It’s a very big town when compared to the IGELE village. I and two other
ladies with our driver drove round the village, looking at ancient buildings,
happy people and most importantly civilization. We drove to the end of the town
which was a very big water body, little wonder they called the village Water
side. We were told by one of the villagers that their major occupation was
fishing and that the large sea led to the Lagos state 3rd mainland
bridge, the man further elucidated that many of the villagers who were wealthy
and work in big establishments in the Lagos island, take a boat ride to their
lives on the island whenever they visited.
An Iwopin villager, Maubuchi, Blessing, Mua, Driver |
I had so much fun, but was unable to have a
good swim as I was informed that the river was too deep, and I could drown,
hmmm, I swiftly took the wise counsel, so as to be alive to write this piece
and also to tell my great grandchildren about a place I may never visit again
in my live time, a one-time adventurous tourism trip to the great and ancient
riverside, Iwopin.
THE RETURN
At the end of the adventurous pathfinder
camporee, the first of its kind under the new Ogun state conference, my
district, the Pioneer pathfinder club of Sango/Ilaro district emerged 3rd
position. I screamed, shouted and celebrated hard, because we came, engaged in
each competition and conquered at the end. My wonderful pathfinders whose names
are:- NWACHUKWU GODSFAVOUR, POPOOLA EMMANUEL, STEPHEN AWE, AWOYOMI ANU, AGBELEYE TIMILEHIN, POPOOLA JAMES, CHUKWUDI
HYGINUS, POPOOLA ADEDOYIN, AFOLAYAN
SABBATHY, OKORO BLESSING, TAIWO ADEOLA, DANIEL PRECIOUS, DURODOLA ABIOLA,
ADEWOYE SEUN, JOHN GLORY, DURODOLA BLESSING, ISIGUZO FAITH, ADIMA MAOBUGHICHI,
OKORO FAITH, and AKABUEZE PRINCE, made the
district proud, they are our heroes,today being children's day, i celebrate them, praying that their future will remain great and bright, Amen.
We sang along as we journeyed back home.
We sang, sang, sang and sang till our voices failed us and our eyes gave in to
the tiredness of our body, most of us dosed off in the bus, but I was
determined to be awake, though it is my nature not to sleep in the bus. Indeed,
our return was smoother than departure.
(Stay tuned for more stories.... The next story is titled- IGE..... the spirit within)
Hmmmm....nicely put together. Let me start by saying that Iwopin 2014 was a real adventure! While going, I cld recall how anxious we were to get to the camporee ground, hoping that the next village we wld see that night wld be Iwopin but waaooh....we were in for a surprise...Iwopin was still far away! Songs like "by the rivers of Babylon", "ya Ubangiji kajirokomu", "bind us together" kept my zeal burning n my hope alive that all wld be well that wld end well!
ReplyDeleteDuring the camp n the competitions, I was privileged to be one of the revered judges. I cld recall how proud I felt when, against all odds, my pathfinders won 1st positions in first aid n craft/skill, and how my mood wld change whenever we didn't get to the medal range. In the end, these young proved that with proper guidance they wld go places!
On the return journey, it was all fun......I remember us coming home with the song "we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves......