My Trip To Dakingari…It’s Been 6 Long Months Already!

Buckets clashing, voices murmuring, roommates chattering, hostel busy
It was dark and the time was 2:05am. Enele opened her eyes to the last day of camp in Dakingari.
It had been 3 weeks already and everybody was eager to go back home including the soldiers.

Waking up by 2am was very rare as parade never started till 5:30am but this day was different, it was the closing ceremony day and you ought to be done with all you are doing before 9am when the ceremony would start.
I dashed out of bed in a haste to get dressed for the parade, return my foam, collect my pictures(oh…my memories…my man o’ war memories) and eat and all these(especially the foam matter and picture collection) took till like forever, almost 5 hours to get done.
It had been 3 weeks already. It had been 3 weeks of stress, 3 weeks of morning drills, 3 weeks of double day parade, 3 weeks of competition, 3 weeks of mami market and their exorbitant prices, 3 weeks of living in a village named Dakingari, 3 weeks of eating camp kitchen food with our meal tickets, 3 weeks of meeting new and exciting people, 3 weeks of social nights, 3 weeks of humility and obedience and 3 weeks of speed too.

 

4 weeks before then, anxiety had arisen among everyone until the callup letters came. The anxiety was worsened when it came as many didn’t expect to be posted to the North.
Well, I kinda expected it because I had already had the feeling of it happening, so, it wasn’t a shock. In as much as many people found it to be a sad venture, I found it as an exciting one and jubilated when I saw Kebbi state, everyone else, I mean every other single person was shocked but Enele went about dancing happily(behind them) because she found it as an adventure…………
20 seconds later she felt a tap on her shoulder, it was Esther, one of her new found friends, who sat beside her, it was time for the ceremony to start…she was sitting under the pavilion waiting for the ceremony to start…she was lost in thoughts again…wasn’t she?

The ceremony ended and the time had come to know if you had been redeployed, if not, you would be checking your PPA(Primary Place of Assignment), local government and the village/city it is in.
Luckily, it was according to platoons, so, it was faster, I waited at my platoon spot to hear my number but somehow they skipped it(meaning you have been redeployed).
I joyfully went to the queue for checking our redeployment status…and ofcourse, I got Lagos(Lasgidi).

 

The trip to Dakingari.
(4 weeks earlier)
(Scene opens in Ene’s house one beautiful Thursday morning).
With the anxiousness of camp within, I very early in the morning hurried to my dashboard to see my state of deployment and behold, it shone forth before me…kebbi.
Hurried off to get stuffs and arrange transport but the most amazing part was that I was the only one who dint think kebbi was a bad idea when I saw it.
Whatsapp groups are not for joke, they helped me with companions to my destination, dakingari. The day before camp, we headed right to Dakingari, as it was about 36 hours away from Lasgidi. We alighted from the red saloon car with tinted glass…at last, we were in front of the camp. Registration…parade…morning drills…swearing in ceremony…social night…mammy market…camp kitchen…carnival…soldiers…man o war commanders…platoon officers…corpers…camp carnival…camel…these were the components of any orientation camp all over the country…and 3 weeks passed as fast as the strong wind the kind that kebbi posseses (that can happily carry you to the nearest mountain or hill as the whether was always extreme, be it, heat or cold).

Nature was more beautiful there and of course, I used my eyes to capture the beautiful skies as the sun shone like white lightening upon us. My eyes were my camera and my heart was the memory card!.
It was dakingari, 3 weeks of humility and obedience.
I came back to Lagos, the day after our closing ceremony and the clarion call journey began.

Could it really be 6 months already or am I in a dream?
May be…maybe not.
6 months of Challenges all overcome, 6 months of C.D.S., P.P.A, NYSC anthem, survival of the fittest and lots more.
Was NYSC almost done or had had the service year just begun…at last, I found myself in the middle ready for the 2nd half.
It’s been 6 months already.

Long live NIGERIA. Long live NYSC. Long live Corpers and their officials!.

 

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Cheers till my next post!!!

Enele a.k.a Aunty J. loves you!!!

 

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