Service Year Boulevard 84

....Service year Boulevard is like taking a long walk backwards....

Hi madam Stella, good day. Here is my little contribution to your blog, I have been an ardent blog reader as far back as 2013. I decided to share my NYSC story since that is the only segment I can contribute to. No meeting point story, wedding night brouhaha, labour room drama and omugwo chronicles to share yet.

So here goes my story, NYSC started in May 2015, I got posted to Bayelsa state to obey the clarion call. Everyone around me hailed my posting; according to them, I got posted to an oil state as such I had high expectations of the state. I wish the oil hailing lived up to expectation though.

Anyways, I made the journey to Bayelsa state on the day camp opened and was welcomed with heavy downpour. I got to the camp ground (Kolokuma Opokuma in Kaiama local government area) and started registration immediately, I got my mattress and bedspace but that was as far as I could go that night as it was late already.

Settling down to camp activities was not so easy because life in camp was quite difficult from our normal. The rigorous task of having to wake as early as 3am in other to meet up with the 5am devotion, (I had to wake up earlier because my hostel block was a newly renovated classroom as such we were given mobile bathroom and toilet to make use of:2 bathroom and toilet for 6 rooms so you can imagine the rush plus its level of “cleanliness”) parade, march past, 10mins breakfast time and more parade……. Oh God!!! At a point, I started to count down to 21 days and it seemed like it calwalked its way. 

The only time I looked forward to in camp was the lecture period because it was an opportunity for me to sleep like never before.
Fellow Bayelsa corp members can attest to the fact that Kaiama camp was not really a conducive environment during rainy season as the area is waterlogged but then I had to readjust to my new environment and the new life I had to live for 21 days.

The first week saw me struggling through camp activity but I bounced back better from the second week and I made friends from my platoon and roommates. At a point, I looked forward to morning devotion and parade. My platoon: platoon 5 was more of comedy show because we had some funny characters that made us laugh so hard during parade with their “matching ”skills. Though I did not partake in some camp activities because I did not have the strength and was not ready to add an extra load to the one I had already so it was basically from my room to parade ground, mammy market, kitchen and back to my room. NACC activities suffered because it was a Sunday only affair for me.

Fast forward to the close of camp, we got our various posting letters and sincerely it was not funny. We heard stories of Bayelsa state being 20% land and 80% water so the hustle for land posting was REAL. Oh well, I received my letter and saw that I was posted overseas in Southern Ijaw local government area and immediately my riverbanks started flowing. I cried that I was posted to serve “in the ABROAD”. Who cries about not wanting to go “ABROAD”?

 I did --

My life travelling on speedboat for one year flashed before me and I could not imagine it all. If only I got proper orientation about how to change posting immediately, I wouldn’t have let the proprietor of the school I got posted to accept me on camp. For the first time ever, I travelled to my ppa on water for roughly 1hr 20minutes and the tears started again when I got to the place. 

The corpers lodge is a beautiful place and one man room because very few corp members accept to stay back. Infact I had resigned to fate and accepted the posting but a week to resume fully in my PPA, during mass, I had this rude awakening that I can actually try to change my posting so I decided there and then to relocate back to land no matter what it cost me.

Finally, I was able to wriggle out of serving “abroad” across water though it was at the expense of my pocket but I did not mind at all.. I just had to leave and was able to get reposted back to land.

I was very happy when I got my reposting letter to serve in the only land area in Southern Ijaw lga which is Amassoma,(late Diepreye Alamieseyeigha’s hometown) and a secondary school as there are no organisations in the town.
In all, my service year was fun because it taught me a lot of things, I met with different people and personalities plus I was able to register for some professional courses at a ridiculous low rate under the NYSC package(I wish ICAN will take this into consideration and partner with NYSC though).

 The most interesting part of it was when the governorship election was held in 2015, It was fun having to preside over who becomes the next leader in a state.
Above all, I give God the glory for a successful service year because devil tried to rear its ugly head in form of road accident a day before and a day after NYSC but God proved himself faithful as always.


Thank you for this platform to write about our service year experience albeit a brief one in other not to bore the readers.

*A day before and a day after?OMG,thank God for your life!