Tuesday 5 August 2014

The Corper Diaries (Pt 1): Fresh Otondo

"Wake up! Wake up!!" That, coupled with the shrill blasts of the whistle, roused me from sleep. I rolled over trying to ignore the noise when two things hit me. The first was that, I was not sleeping in my big, soft bed at home but a hard and thin bunk bed. The second was, if I rolled over any further, I would land on the bare floor. That got me scrambling off the bed fast!
I woke my neighbour, a light-skinned and well-built young man. Like me, he is also short (though I think 'vertically-challenged' would be a more
politically correct term but there you have it). You see, we had no water to bathe and with my slim build, I couldn't very easily move the impossibly stiff water pump we had to get water from. Infact, we had dubbed it 'Manpower pump' cause it required a lot of strong man power to get water successfully. Hence my waking my neighbour to fetch water for me. Sorry, I meant, for us.
 
Let me introduce myself. My name (or names, as the case may be) is/are Olaoluwakiitan Timothy Adesina. As a fresh graduate of one of Nigeria's prestigious universities, I had been mobilized to participate in the National Youth Service. Corps Scheme (NYSC) and I had been posted to Kwara State. When my call-up number came out then, my mother wanted to 'work' my posting but I refused her kind offer.
I wanted to explore new places and I found myself in the Kwara NYSC orientation camp at Yikpata. To serve my fatherland, by
waking my neighbour to pump water for our
bath. Once through, we got dressed in our
white vests and white shorts with white socks and white tennis shoes. And of course, the requisite NYSC crested cap (this ensemble has given each fresh batch for orientation the name 'Otondo' aka white fowl). All dressed, we ran to the parade ground and there, we separated into our different platoons.
 
A typical day at camp goes like this: we
assemble at the parade ground by 5 am, sing the National Anthem (we dub this action 'Waking Nigeria') followed by the NYSC anthem (it took me one whole week to correctly master the NYSC anthem), then the usual daily pep talk. A list of Do's and Don'ts follows and each platoon gets assigned different tasks and duties for that day. From there we adjourn to the kitchen with various assortments of plates, food flasks and cutlery for breakfast.
After that each platoon does their special daily activities then we adjourn to the big hall for some special sessions. When those sessions are over, back to the kitchen for lunch after which I usually take a nap.
Evening comes with more activities till 9pm when most people go to bed. This is repeated every day except on Sundays where there is a bit more freedom to choose and indulge personal activities.
That's the general idea or should I say summary, of how each day goes.
 
I hear the shrill blasts of the whistle again. That's my cue to join my platoon to the Man O War village for drills. Others have said those drills are very rigorous but I don't want to miss them for anything. Okay, if I am paid 1million naira, I would definitely happily miss them. If I survive those drills, I would come back and drop more gist on my camp adventures. And there goes Cynthia, the object of my long-distance devotion. She is slim, fair in complexion and totally, totally knockout! Maybe I'll get lucky with her today, who knows?

This is where I drop my pen now.
 
Later!!!
 


By Oluwasina Niran
https://www.facebook.com/niranneil?fref=ts

15 comments:

  1. temitope is this a true story?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oyebiyi Timileyin15 July 2014 at 06:00

    Great

    ReplyDelete
  3. And matty be like ....Cool Blog!!!
    Kudos bro

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mehn, I Gotta Read Again... Twas Dope

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mehn, I Gotta Read Again... Twas Dope

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nd datz superb by Niran_de_Boss

    ReplyDelete
  7. erm, anonymous.... lol
    tanx so much

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting! Erm liking vis sayz Decency*winks*

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for sharing, nice post! Post really provice useful information!

    An Thái Sơn chia sẻ trẻ sơ sinh nằm nôi điện có tốt không hay võng điện có tốt không và giải đáp cục điện đưa võng giá bao nhiêu cũng như địa chỉ bán máy đưa võng ở đâu uy tín.

    ReplyDelete