Decades: Chunks of Time

I actually did not picture that I would be adjusting back to my home city this soon. If someone had told me at the beginning of the year, that I would be in Lagos around this time, I would have asked, "What for?"

Mr. Takiti returned hom after work, one hot day, to meet his two sons fighting and arguing. He was extremly tired but he took the time to ask them what the problem was. "Toni and Tosin," he asked, as he drank a glass of cool water, and wiped his brow. "What is the matter? Why are you fighting?" "Toni hid my Ben Ten watch!" exclaimed the older Tosin. "Toni why?" asked their father, as he placed the glass cup on the table. Then he changed his mind. "I don't want to know why," he added. "Just give the watch back to your brother." "Yes daddy" the six year old muttered. One hour later, Toni was still looking for the watch, as he had forgotten where he hid it. Tosin was getting more upset and shouting so much, that their father woke up and called them again. Toni was again instructed to give the watch back, while Tosin was told not to make any more noise. Two hours later, Mr. Takiti woke up in a smoke...

I wrote this piece while waiting for my flight on Saturday June 2, 2012. I had to stand for about five hours, and I was too angry to even smile. Little did I know that a tragedy was due to grace our country the next day...May the victims' souls rest in peace.... I am so angry right now. My anger surpasses the physical, because it is not about my present issues, but about the whole country in general. I booked a return flight to Lagos from Abuja from a popular airline here in Nigeria, some weeks ago. A day before the flight, I got a message that the time had been postponed to about two hours later, so we set out for the airport an hour later than planned. We are one of those people that love getting to the airport and checking in exactly when the airlines say - two hours before. We spent the better part of the first hour in traffic. We got so frustrated that I came down from the car and began walking towards the toll gate. Now those who are familiar with Abuja airport road...

I have finally gotten a job. In fact, I resumed on Thursday. And I was relieved, because the state director himself announced that if a corper was not posted by the second week of January, the person's file would be sent back to Abuja (head office) and remobilized (which means, reposted to another state, another job etc). I got posted in the second week. Thank God. On resumption, i was woken up. Yes I mean figuratively, not literarily (gotcha, Xi!). I thought I had knowledge - a passing knowledge of some processes, until I was given a sound lecture on what technology is all about RIGHT NOW. I am still in the Jurassic era, and I shudder to think of all the sleepless nights ahead of me, while trying to catch up with the rest of the world. I hope Vicky will not suffer for it - as in communication and everything, because, as I see it, no more late night calls for me. God is my strength. my most favorite slogan right now was stolen from Diamond Bank: Where you are going should look noth...

Well, there are a number of competitions that each platoon must participate in (as I said before). These include Mr. Macho, Miss NYSC, Cooking Competition, Best Drill Platoon, Volley ball (female), Meditation write up, and Football (Male). I’ll have you know that I didn’t participate in any of the competitions – well, I helped out in the cooking, and cheered my platoon’s volleyball team on (we made it to the finals), but I did not march, and I couldn’t have contested for Miss NYSC (apart from the fact that I’m short, fat and ugly (lol), Lagos Corpers were not allowed to compete just in case they won, and took the crown back to Lagos with them. It didn’t make sense to have two Lagos Miss NYSC, right?) The fact that Lagos and Abuja NYSC camps was under construction, and some corpers were sent to other camps to do their orientation, put a brief mess on things. Some Lagos corpers were sent to Ede, Osun state (about 600 of us), while some were sent to Ekiti state. So the fact that we were n...