My Camp Experience...

Well, for some reasons, I wasn't surprised when my NYSC call-up letter read Bayelsa State. I was actually anxious about going to camp but still had nostalgic feeling about the whole Bayelsa thing. So on the 25th of june, I set out for Kaiama Grammer School in Kolokuma/Opukuma LGA of Bayelsa State with Precious and my mum (my usual escort:D). Being already familiar with Bayelsa State, it wasn't difficult to locate kaiama. As we got closer, I began to get more anxious. Getting to the gate, I saw other fellow Otondos who had arrived earlier all looking fresh from their various homes ignorant of the great task ahead. We were verified and checked in by some NYSC officials and some 'I too know' NSCDC officials as well, some contrabands like knives, cooking stoves, kettles etc were seized from some otondos (I actually wondered what they needed all that for). My number was 112 with bed number 50. We proceeded to get mattresses in queue which I was already getting pissed with, as much as I expected, the mattresses were as flat as pancakes, I felt sick touching them. Walking down to my hostel(hostel A) with my stuffs, I began to wonder what three weeks in this strange community would look like, with ancient buildings, slippery and marshy ground I suddenly began to feel I was in FGGC Imiringi. Everything became so familiar again. We proceeded to get registered and behold, another queue we met. Here, some graduates also had issues filling their forms, some Couldn't spell correctly, some had issues with english language. How the hell did they graduate then?? This is the never ending mystery. We took our kit(khaki jacket, trouser, crested vest, tennis shoes, jungle boots, cap, socks, white shorts and vest), I couldn't stop laughing, you just can't wear those stuffs without amending them and from there trust me the complaining started.(Some strange otondos decided to wear theirs like that) Getting to the hostel, with precious as my bunky, we met some troublesome girls, loud girls, busy body girls, aje butter girls and not forgetting our igbo sisters(always representing) with strange accents as usual, some even had issues communicating and expressing themselves in English. The hostels looked like a scary movie, no windows,the mosquito nets were as good as nothing(they had seen better days), washed walls with various kinds of graffiti advertising various kinds of business better than AIT, the doors had no lock, and to top it no electricity(sorry no bulbs), the toilets were bad news with sick stench, It finally dawned on me where I was. Unlike me, I got friendly with some girls(apart from my weird side mate) and somehow my first day in kaiama came to an end. Though I was so hopeful about the next day.
Still sleeping and feeling I was in my bed at home, the bugle (a horn blown to indicate time for various activities in camp) busted my bubbles. Before you go to camp, people would disturb your ears with "CAMP IS FUN!!!" but when you reach there you would know for yourself. Waking up that early wasn't funny at all, I managed myself throughout the 21days waking up by that time. Some people even woke up by 3am to shower and I couldn't stop wondering. I dreaded having my bath, the thought of entering the scary bathroom. Sometimes sitting there on my bucket (doing things) and staring at the ceiling, I wonder how the hell I got myself here. The meditation and morale songs were what I looked forward to in the mornings.
Now the mami added some color to the camp, after a while you start getting use to the whole parade routine,("prade, prae shun, standad ice") squad 1, squad 2, "Under the sun and in the rain" things.......then going to relax in mami market (the Protea and Sheraton of camp), not everybody comes here. Some felt it was too expensive to afford, the stage for toasting starts. Guys toasting girls, girls struggling to be noticed. Somehow, I think no girl left mami 'untoasted". All kinds of people represented, oppressor boys buying lunch 5 girls making other dudes feel their case was different, guys drinking like fishes and smoking like chimneys (girls not excluded), good boys forming bad boys, good girls forming sluts.
Charging of phones in camp was priceless because you pay for that service (everything in camp is equivalent to money). My first week in camp wasn't so nice. I got bored with the parade thing, so many times I tried to act sick but it just didn't work. The second week gradually came with boring lectures though some made sense but I slept through some, gisted through some and the worse was the skills acquisition class. I just wasn't interested in any of the classes although i actually wanted sewing. Learning how to make perfumes and stuffs didn't just catch my fancy. Now everybody had settled down fully and we've become quite familiar with ourselves, some people already formed cliques and all, I had my own clique and it was just Precious and I(Doing all the mischievousness together) we were giving our first allowance, bicycle allowance, N1500, also in this week we had man o war activities, and Platoon cooking competition. I kept praying for days to roll by asap. Then finally the third week came with so many activities; Miss camp, Mr macho, Miss hot legs and pretty face camp fire night and all. I didn't take part in any of these because I actually met some cool doctor and we had so many things to gist about; I still had my eyes on some dramas going on though, lovebirds perched everywhere with some very serious things going down and somehow I began to really enjoy camp, all the dramas became fun, the frog jumps reduced and soldiers became friendlier. And finally, the end came, and I began to miss it already. In camp, I appreciated my toilet at home, the food, electricity, good water, comfort of my bed. I met wonderful people from the musical band I joined to the funny babes I met in hostel A to the wonderful soldier gentlemen like Benard. And not forgetting my girl, Precious Wejinya(Pretty girl with a wonderful Soul), Dr emmanuel, kingsley, douglas, sochi, yemi and all the mami representatives. And somehow I was glad I was in kaiama camp. My posting was a miracle. I least expected ministry of education I knew it was God working for me. My camp experience was wonderful, I felt privileged to be among other Nigerian graduates. Indeed a great experience it was.