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Memoirs of a Yikpata Camper

Blue skies, Birds chirping and enough Woof! Woof! Woof! did the trick… No better morning wakeup call than our annoying neighbor’s dogs … Angrily rolling over the bed and curling my hands to my head, it was right then I realized I slept without my hair net on… eishhh! My new locks were everywhere * I don’t care face on*   Debola! It’s almost 7:00am’ Bunny called from the bathroom… ‘I am already up! I shouted.

This wasn’t just any Tuesday morning, neither was it just any day… It’s the day the Lord as made. The day Mystique will be going off to the NYSC orientation camp, the day I will eventually get to sleep with strangers in a big hostel (#somuchforprivacy) and set my foot on Kwara state’s soil. As curious as I thought I was that’s the only close-north western state my adventurous spirit has never dragged me into. I can’t believe I have never visited Ilorin or the popular Offa… let alone this Yikpata suburb the camp is supposed to be situated. Dora was punctual as usual, all dressed up and ready to go to Iseyin… My dream Camp, I wanted Oyo state so badly to serve but God just had to show how mighty he was in my case. With tight hugs and promises to call, we said our good byes.

Meanwhile, Bunny just kept being a kill joy telling me the downsides of the nysc camp and how she might get my dad not to drop me off at the camp. I couldn’t even eat or makeup... The anxiety that filled my whole body system was just something else. Off! We went with dad driving alongside his friend, with me and bunny at the back seat all smiles. The calls just kept coming in, my social media handles were buzzing out of control, I didn’t even know which of my phones to answer because I was carried away with the chat in the vehicle and the whole camp fantasies going on in my head.

 Part of me wanted my dad to drop me in the camp but the other part really wanted me to go alone, feel the ambience of doing things on my own and take responsibilities for my travelling… Luckily my dad kept passing through the various drop points… it was either the vehicles were too bad.. Looool! or we couldn’t find a fellow corp member going to Yikpata. At a point we saw a young lady all packed up with her buckets and heading to a bus , I quickly rushed to ask her if she was going to the Yikpata camp, she said yes! only to affirm she was going to Iseyin camp. Oh! My God! I can’t do this on my own…

Reasons!!! (perky face on*)

1.     I am carrying a huge luggage (errrmmm!  I don’t pack light. Loool!)

2.     I was just scared for no reason.

3.      I just wanted to run back to my bed and sleep the whole 3weeks off. Looool!

After having these amazing self pity thoughts, I just started crying… All tearful and emotional, my dad made up his mind he would drop me off at my camps gate. (you needed to see me smiling)hehheheh!

We got to Ogbomosho and who knew I would be that fancy? Not only did I find a cab that will take me straight to my camp shuttle but I also met a fellow Otondo going to Yikpata camp with me... Shayo was his name and talking through Ogbomoso to Ilorin was superb, He finished from the Kwara state poly, so he showed me around the familiar road sides from the windows… Slowly but steady, Ilorin just appeared from the mirage and it was a drop dead look alike to the popular sides in Ibadan. The bill boards were attractive, the road was good and there was much Muslim population.

The driver dropped us at the Post Office ( a very popular place for anything enterprising in Ilorin) Shayo was kind enough to help me with my luggage’s, while I carried the buckets and his small bag. We finally got a cab going to Yikpata and the driver sure wasted our time, it was almost after an hour we were able to get the cab filled up with young Yikpata campers. That was where I first saw Nk and Prisca… Nk paid for the two seats in front because I could not even imagine the poor girl squeeze with another person for a 2hours+ journey and Prisca was the last passenger, immediately I saw her with a short colored hair do and heard her speak pidgin, I knew she was definitely not from the west. Loooool!

The journey to Yikpata was awfully long and just before drifting to dreamland, I remembered how I hugged my dad and sister so closely and also how I managed to snatch the hob knobs she bought from the stopover we had at the gas station before we got to Ogbomoso. I am so gonna miss them…. Shayo said I slept almost all through the journey, though that was after I had told him to wake me up in case there was any problem…. 2 hours gone  and 15minutes to getting to Yikpata I finally woke up….. Listening to Adonai (Castro ft Sarkodie) from my Zummer pink headset, all loud feeling super fly, Ignoring the dusty and gallopy road that led to the camp.

           The moment of truth was finally here, we had gotten to the camp and seeing otondos carrying their luggage’s on their head I knew I was in for it. It was so disheartening and at the same time hilarious. Looool! As I was coming down from the vehicle so did I come down with a huge banging headache, I don’t know if I should call it the ‘fear of what is gonna happen to Anne’ syndrome but I swear it wasn’t my jittery spirit telling me to take a run for it. Hehehheh! I wanted to bring out my medical report almost immediately but Shayo said I shouldn’t worry, that he would gladly help with my luggage… Yes! He carried it without hesitating“Lord I thank you for this good Samaritan’ I silently prayed.

Up! Down! Frog Jump! Story for the Gods! Looooool!

As we lined up in a bus topology carrying all sorts of bags, we poor otondos were been ordered around by an annoying dark shaded soldier… Jeeez! I hated his guts, he was carrying a rifle with a carved knife at its edge and handling a tied rubberwhip in his other hands, not knowing he would be the very same soldier to come cheer me up by my bed side at the camp clinic when I was sick.

Well! He did kick our butts…. When I say Up! ‘you jump up’ When I say down ‘ you squat down’  What??? With luggages on our heads… unfortunately we had no choice… Now super tempted to bring out my doctors report, a ‘Migrainer’ walked past majestically not carrying a feather on her head and the soldier laughed and let her go… saying he had to carry a generator on his head on his first day in the military camp. “hello!” Did I ask for your story!!! But despite that…. No! I couldn’t be subject to a military mans laughter. Loool! So I manned up and went through the whole three military check points, my thighs were burning with pain… It was at the fourth check point I first saw Khadijat proudly wearing her Unilorin (better by far) vest and no she wasn’t smiling… She was crying, her luggage was shaking on her head and it successfully hit the dusty ground, I really wished I could help her carry her luggage back on her head but I was also helpless with mine, someone did gave her a helping hand though.

 Oh No! My Channel n0. 5 perfume was seized… I felt like crying… promising I would get it back, the police man made me feel better and trust me I did get it back! Loooool!

Here we go! The first building that caught my eye was the OBS( Orientation Broadcast Service) because right opposite it was a very long queue of boys and girls lined up separately, Shayo gently dropped my luggage and we headed to our lines to take numbers. I saw Motun right on the front line… Lucky me! Or so I thought, she had been calling me all through the journey but she had gotten there earlier, I wasn’t allowed to stay in front of her so as a good girl I went to the back and got a space, if I had not gone to the back of the line I would have not had the pleasure of meeting my cubicle G girls and Bianca, she was tall, fair and oh boy! I thought I was skinny…. Looool! Bianca was way skinnier, we got talking and luckily for both of us we were in the same cubicle, she also became my first Bunkie. (I had 2 bunk mates) We got our mattresses together, had our luggage’s settled at the hostel and we headed out to the registration stand.

We stayed on the wrong line at first, obviously that was meant to happen. Looooool! We were on that line for almost 30minutes, until Nicholas (my friend from Ondo State) I knew he was gonna be in the camp but I never knew I would see him that early… he tapped me from the back and for someone I had not seen in so many years he looked way taller, we caught up on old times and only to end the chat with the fact that me and Bianca had been on the wrong line, that our own line which was for those that paid the 4k online was on the other side of the registration office...

 Nooooo kidding! That line was super looooooooooonnnngggggggg!

Motun called and drifted me out of my ‘where would I now stay on this line thoughts’ Thank God! Motun was in a good spot and she gladly let me stay in her front ,that was where I met Funmi (tom boy) and Modupetemi! Looool! Nice girls they also both came from Ogun state with Motun… meanwhile, I was terribly hungry so I told them to stay tight on the line and off I went to find myself some lunch with Bianca as my hunger partner.

I went to Lady tee for the first time and ordered for Rice and beans with Titus fish... It was superb; Now for those posted to Kwara state and should use the Yikpata camp, Lady Tee’s meals were on point all through.  After eating Bianca said she needed a fast way out for her registration seeing as she needed to get back to Lagos state the next day. Amazingly for me I was not in much of a hurry so I just wanted to go with the flow and of cause this reply shocked her… Looool! I headed back to my queue.

It was hell I tell you… I laughed, sweated and cried on that same queue. I was just grateful to God it wasn’t during Ebola times. Looool! I eventually lost my wrist watch and scarf… it was so painful because I only realized this when I had gotten back to my hostel, unfortunately too, I couldn’t register that day, so dejectedly I went back to my hostel and wanted nothing more but just to redeploy back to Ibadan.

 On getting to my room, I noticed Funmi was directly opposite my bunk, Khadijat was her bunkie, Prisca was beside me and was her Bunkie, Nk was also beside us, we all bathed together that night OUTSIDE! Yes outside in the cold but I was lucky to get hot water… I gently laid my bed and set my mosquito net and Oops! That was when I remembered I forgot my torchlight at home too, so I set out to get a brand new one… my new torchlight was big and always illuminated the cubicle.

My first night was soothing; we all chatted up and got to know those who have been registered among us and those who haven’t like myself, we also talked about our plans for the next 3weeks, cause I only wanted to stay safe from all the escapades that would eventually go down in the camp and I remembered telling Funmi to wake me up the next morning,

 Thank God that lady woke me up early …

Piece 2 of Memoirs of a Yikpata Camper will be posted very soon…