Boot Camp Reloaded

The sun rose up beautifully this morning over the eastern horizon just as its always done for the past God knows how many years. I wonder why some people choose to open with these words. I guess its because it sort of lends a feeling of being at peace (yeah, I know its called serenity) to their readers. The air was cool this morning, which is not normal in Bida, and as I watched the sun rise, I couldn't help mulling over the events of the past few days. As those of you who I'm friends with on Facebook will know, I spent the weekend in Minna and Paiko. The distance is just about 10, 20 min drive so its so easy to dash between the two places. I came back to Bida early on Monday morning to resume back in the office and not risk the wrath of my boss.
I left for Minna around 10a.m on Saturday. Boarded a cab at Etsu Yahaya Motor Park. The journey lasted for nearly an hour and was uneventful. At Minna, I placed a call to someone (don't ask and you won't be told any lies) and we arranged to meet. We hung out at George's in F-Layout. The area was nice; clean wide roads, serene (damn! That word again) environment. I was there for a while, chit-chat, yada yada yada. Next, I took another cab for Paiko, the host town of the NYSC orientation camp in Niger State. I've not been to the camp since the day we passed out of there so it was kind of like a homecoming for me. Being there brought back all the memories, well some of them anyway and I couldn't but feel nostalgic about the place.
As soon as I got to camp, I set about locating Emmanuel. On camp, Imx and I were 5 and 6, where you find one, know that the other can't be too far behind. on this second coming, he was the camp coordinator for the Winners Corpers Fellowship (WCF). after wandering abit awhile, I was finally able to locate him at the WCF stand, with his cool afro and wolfish grin that sort of says I look nice, masking his I eat little girls for breakfast person. At the stand, I also met Tolu, buxom beauty, if there ever was one. She looked so much like Cynthia that I had actually did a double-take. Henry too, and a host of other nice people. The WCF crew were a nice bunch and I enjoyed my time with them. Period.
That evening, the Mr. and Ms. NYSC contests were held. Mr Ighalo was the MC, along with this other guy who was trying too hard to impress. The contestants for the Ms NYSC all looked lovely, and if I'd been a judge, I won't have been able to choose a winner. LIE!!! Bare-faced LIE!!! It wasn't as close a contest as that. There was even one contestant who, to put it mildly, was vertically challenged. In the end, the winner was obvious even before the judges announced the results. I've never been one to glorify blonde jokes but some there gave me a reason to believe them. She didn't know what her own surname meant. Imagine.
The Mr NYSC contest was no better. Dumb guys and a short one too. There was this particular guy i though was going to win but he didn't. He was tall, handsome, good diction, excellent answers and all. In the end, a beefy looking guy(not muscular o. Beefy. With a slight beer paunch) won. I wasn't too surprised though. The chief judge could hardly construct one English sentence without lading it with enough mines to make Angola and Sarajevo seem like a nursery school play pen.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. We slept in Paiko that night to the serenade of frogs and the kisses of mosquitoes. I had to wake up and wear my socks in the middle of the night when I could not take the sucking any longer. Service was held in one of the classes in the morning (don't ask me about baths and all). Saw Busayo for the first time that morning and her face with the Brandy-like smile stuck in my head (am saving her for later). The preacher was the immediate past president of WCF (G-Papiose) as they call him. He worked up quite a storm, figuratively speaking. At one point, I was fearful for the ground, such were the urgency and power in his steps that I feared that by the time he finished, the floor will have been cracked. After the message, the president came on and made the usual pitch about you-know-what (and I'm not talking about an altar call). Some felt obliged to come out after several calls. And I'm dropping the rest of it. After the service, we had a photo-shoot session then left for Minna.
Minna is a beautiful city. Has nice views too. Went with Imx to his crib. As usual, there was a power shut-out, outage, shortage or what ever. Imx slept off as soon as we got home but I watched a movie for a while before I also succumbed to the arms of lady sleep. After about 3 hours of deep sleep, I woke, had my bath and ate brunch. That day was coincidentally Ebere's birthday (He's a friend from school) and we went to his house. Sanmi Oro was also there and they regaled me with stories of Mr Orotic Aciduria. It was all fun and we later left for Paiko again.
Uneventful as usual. That Sunday also happened to be graduation for Peer Education and Training (PET) and they held a rally. The bonfire night was also held that night but we didn't stay. We just caught glimpses of it. We left for Minna about 10p.m and got home around 11p.m because we branched at Yahuza to get dinner. Imagine beef suya and Yoghurt for dinner. A flex gan o.
I'd planned on leaving early the next morning but I woke up late and didn't get to Bida at just about 8. Barely made it to work on time.
That Monday, pay rolling for NYSC opened and we had to head to the NYSC secretariat again. On my way to the secretariat from home, I happened to witness part of the last rites processions for an islamic burial ceremony. It made me pause for reflection about the ultimate end of every man. From the secretariat, I went back to FMC and witnessed another body just as I was closing. Small wonder I had nightmares that night.
Nuff said.
Check out my facebook profile for images on the camp and batch b hosting in Bida. www.avidmaverick.facebook.com

BOOT CAMP!!!

October 26. Ma first day of NYSC orientation camp. I really enjoyed the journey though it was crazily long. Imagine about 8 hours in a bus wiv zero leg room, no a.c, no dinning room, no bedspace...... Oh! Must have dozed off. Did I say bus? Anyway, apart from the terrible road, the journey was uneventful.
I saw the Niger for the first time and what a site it was!!! Simply beautiful to behold. Anyway, got to Minna, the Niger state capital around 3 o'clock. Emmanuel went for a haircut and we set about trying to find a cab to take us to the orientation camp in Paiko.
Paiko was interesting. Apart from the first day's mad rush with registration and stuff, it was ok. Wake up at 5:30, stand in a cold field till Nigeria wakes up at 6. Jog, do borin stuff, yada, yada yada.
Camp was fun sha and looking back now, I wished I had blogged it all. Mammy market, babes, guys, booze, MDGs training and all of it. Really had fun. Till next time.

Encore

Today's Sunday.
The first day of the week.
The last day of the weekend break.
It's also the last day of February.
It happens to also be my baby sister's birthday. She was born on a sunday, many winters ago on the last day of February. So today's her real birthday.
It's been quite awhile I blogged last; not because global warming has caused drought, nay, global warming hasn't toasted my neurons yet, although the heat of the past few days has often left me wan. Rather, a recent downturn in the economy, leading to a loss of projected earnings for the first quarter of the current year, necessitating corporate downsizing has impacted negatively on my ability to add new posts. In English, adsense hasn't responded to my application, so I'm on "strike", if you can say you are on strike when technically, you weren't appointed in the first place.
But since then, I've decided that even if adsense doesn't add me, I'm still gonna blog. I've spent the last several weeks scouring sites that offer free novels. I've devoured the creative commons policy, examined the gutenberg project. I've scouted wikihow, wonder-how-to and so many other sites dedicated to being human- stretching a helping hand everywhere.
I'm so overwhelmed by the sheer number of these site and the kind of advice you can get on these sites. I've learnt alot from these sites; things about school, how to be a better person, even how to be a gold digger, though I haven't found an avenue to turn that knowledge to power yet.
I know this post reeks of the same breath of my last post, that's why its titled encore.
But being a proper Yoruba boy, I believe you can never say thank you enough. I'd like to appreciate all the wonderful people in charge of these sites, the hosts, webmasters, authors and everyone connected to these sites. I'd like to also say a special thank you to people who contribute to these causes, people who give, no matter the amount to maintain these causes.

Thank You.

I decided to start bloggin 2 years ago but I just lack d get-up-and-go to do it, till Seyi started blogging and that gave me the impetus to go. Right from the start, I knew it will be fun, but I really have to admit that as easy and enjoyable bloggin is, it isn't a walk in the park. Despite being bombarded by so many possible things to write, or should I say type about in daily life, putting one's thoughts down isn't that easy. The hardest part, of course is deciding what to write about. With a blog like mine that isn't restricted to any area, I guess it seems a bit easier, but it also means that I have a harder time deciding what my next topic should be. Therefore I find myself deciding if I should do something on the mystery called Nigeria, or maybe about my dear Uniyonu, sorry, I mean Unilorin or just an article on any mundane topic.
I really couldn't make up my mind until 10p.m yesterday, and even then, I slept off before I could finish this. Anyway, I guess its o.k that my blog is starting on the 1st of February, being the beginning of a new month, and my anniversaries will be tucked between four birthdays, 2 on the 31st and on the 1st and 2nd.
For my first post, I've decided to dedicate it to every avid blogger around the world; men and women who've informed us about places and situations that conventional reporters can't report on, or don't cover, people who have uphelp our right to know, and everybody that has impacted others just by sharing their thoughts on the internet through websites, blogs, message boards and fora.
I want to specially appreciate people that have made this happen, providers of free blog site, free hosting and free advice and tutorials on various things, from gardening tips to how to be a better boyfriend and even how to be a gold digger.
All these people, from the service providers to the users have really, trully and faithfully been vangaurds in the push to a more enlightened world, and in my opinion, they are the miracles of the 21st century, because the've dedicated time and effort to making the internet what it is today. Thank you guys, you are tha' bomb.