Service Year Boulevard 20

Another nice story....

Hello Stella, Trust you are good.Thumbs up for the good work you are doing. Here goes my service year story:


I was a Batch B 2014 corps member. I tried to influence my posting to the South West but it didn't work out. I could remember the day that our posting was pasted in school, I was in Lagos then but a classmate that was in school snapped and uploaded on our group page around 10 pm (It was pasted at night in school also). Stella, you needed to see how they scattered us all over Nigeria. 

I saw 'EN' in front of my name meaning that I was posted to Enugu. I couldn't sleep till like 2 am because I have never gone on a journey that is more than 4 hours at a stretch.

Early in the morning, I had to call someone in school to help me get to DSA to confirm if it is EN or EK (Ekiti) because at some point, my eye started seeing double. The N was also looking like K to me from the picture that was uploaded... lol. I was really sad. 

I left Lagos that morning and went to school to collect my call up letter. On getting to school, I still went to the notice board myself to confirm ( I was hoping for a miracle). I collected my letter and it was then it finally dawned on me that indeed I had been posted to Enugu. I was really downcast that day no be small but when I saw my classmates that were posted to Gombe, Borno and so on, I was grateful to God and went back home for camp preparation.


I accepted my fate and took ABC bus from Lagos to Enugu a day before camp opened (Camp opened on 5th August, 2014). I journeyed together with one of my classmates. The journey took almost 12 hours(ABC bus doesn't run on high speed; I like it though). The camp is located at Awgu, rain was falling heavily by the time we got to camp at about 9pm. 

We were drenched from head to toe. We found somewhere to sleep in the camp and the next morning we were asked to come out again for searching, registration and so on. The registration, getting mattress, kit and all was such a herculean task but finally I crossed the hurdle. Infact, rain was drizzling as we were doing all this which made it stressful. I managed to join the parade but sincerely I wasn't enjoying the camp; all I wanted was to go back home. I was just angry for being posted to Enugu..lol. 

So most of the time, I was working at the camp clinic.


Barely one week after camp started, news broke out that Ebola had spread to Enugu...Chai! My parents started calling me. There was pandemonium everywhere in camp. 

They had to tell those that had taken excuse to travel not to come back to the camp yet to avoid bringing in Ebola. Come and see how salt was selling like pure water in camp. People were bathing with salt and water (Ignorance kills faster). It wasn't funny. My parents were just scared of me being in the clinic attending to people. The question on their mind was ' What if they had Ebola?" Thank God, calm was restored after like 2 days but everyone was being careful. Fast forward to the last week, I started enjoying the camp.



After all said and done, camp ended and I was posted to General Hospital, Oji River. I became so sad. I thought it would be a riverine area when I saw River in the name. I asked an old corper, he told me we will have to use boat before getting to the place. I became dejected. I managed to find the bus going to Oji. Alas, we got to Oji town and we didn't use a single boat. Infact,the roads are tarred. The NCCF family welcomed and accommodated us.


I went to my PPA the next day. The CMO of that hospital is a 'drama king'. Before he accepts any corper, he will ask if you are an only child, married, have sick parents or grandparents, breadwinner of your family. If you answer yes to any of the above questions, he won't accept you. He complained that over the years, corpers give him all form of excuses so that they can travel and they will spend weeks before coming back claiming that their grandma is sick, they are the breadwinner of their family, an only child etc. He accepted us ( we were two) and provided accommodation.


Being posted to Oji town was a blessing for me. They have light like no tomorrow; there is a power station there. I enjoyed stable power supply, got free accommodation as well. My friends that were posted to Enugu town were just groaning because accommodation was very expensive there.

I met really nice people though some proved otherwise. I learnt to sew during the year. I enjoyed eating Okpa especially from 9th mile and Rice with ofe akwu soup. I also learnt some words and phrases in Igbo language.(Someone was insulting my friend and I the other day in Igbo at Idumota market, I allowed her to finish, then I told her what she said, she denied it though but we left her shop. How would I have known what she said if I had not gone to Enugu). 

Stella, I met one SDK BV there and I also enlisted another person to the sdk crew..lol. The "not so palatable' experience I had during the service year was when I went to Onitsha and they duped me of 4500 naira (almost a quarter of my FG allowee...Chai) and also tried to snatch my phone. I was just shaking because before going, I have heard all sorts about Onitsha but I said nobody can dupe me because I be sharp Lagos girl. Little did I know that I be learner where Onitsha boys dey o ( apologies to all the indigenes)


The best decision I made was staying back in Enugu (I almost redeployed back to Ondo state because that was where I wanted initially) because it later paid off for me (Long story for another day). At the end of my service year, I was happy and still happy that I was able to go to another part of Nigeria to experience other people's culture. 

Sorry for the long epistle. Shout out to all BVs especially people that served in Enugu or are indigenes of the state.

Very clean story...na wah oh..so you didnt have one single toaster?lol