The break of dawn, the wake to reality. The day had finally arrived. I felt a bit sad whilst trying to comfort myself amidst preparations with Mercy that it would be a wonderful one. At Cross Country park i saw some people i knew travelling faraway from Lagos. I wasn’t supposed to go alone on the trip. I had made plans with Wale whom got posted to Kebbi too. He had called earlier though to disclose his inability to make it for that day as he was just recuperating from the malaria treatment he was receiving. So there was I, with my mum bothered about leaving her little girl to travel faraway from home on her own. Well, not by myself as I and my mother had called God who gave me to her to see me through the journey. I could tell my mum was really emotional but she tried to conceal it which was a futile effort.

The bus started moving alongside pastors taking turns to pray for us and seeking for voluntary contributions. I had chosen a seat near the window so, i sat eating the fried chicken and drinking the drink i had with me while listening to music. I was in my world. As time went by, i started dozing off suddenly, the bus came to a halt at Ibafo. Apparently, the luxurious bus was not fit to travel the long distance ahead. We were told to be patient that a bus was coming. We waited for the first thirty(30) minutes no bus then, another one hour we all couldn’t bear it anymore. We started shouting at the driver and his assistance. I am sure they had enough of angry youths yelling at them. Eventually, another luxurious bus pulled by it seemed to be finer than the previous one. Immediately, everyone rushed into the bus all at once. I wriggled my way through and found a front seat close to the window which i had to give up for the comfort of two siblings so they could enjoy each other’s company. I found a seat at the back close to the window once more and beside me was a girl wearing a nice pair of glasses. The journey continued and i grew increasingly bored. My phone’s battery was approaching low, there was no interest in reading the novel i had brought and i had finished eating my fried chicken. As i started to shut my eyes, i had a tiny rapping voice saying please can i drink a little of your water?’ i looked at her and said ‘sure!’. That was my first conversation with Iyanuoluwa which prompted our continuous conversation. I got to know we both finished from the same school and faculty and we spoke at length laughing at almost all intervals. She was definitely cool and it felt like i had known her for a very long while only that i did not know her name but she knew mine as i kept mentioning my name trying to mimic my mum’s way of talking to me to her. Iyanu’s hiss is so adorable like a child trying to figure out how to hiss. The driver kept stopping at intervals for everyone’s convenience. I got the opportunity to notice the presence of some wonderful people. As we continued the journey, we all began to converse in groups which lightened the mood.

Apparently, our driver had no good knowledge of our destination has he took the longer routes which led to us spending way longer time. It felt like we were on tour. On getting to Kebbi, we all thought we had gotten close to the orientation camp. We had started counting down as we were all exhausted after spending thirty two (32) hours on the trip. The camp didn’t seem to be anywhere close as hours kept passing by. Kebbi state seemed to be empty all we saw were dry lands, cattle and at night, it became apparent that we were in a desert as there were no street lights making our bus overhead light, the only light in the tunnel. All along i had been battling with serious stomach ache and could not comprehend of all days to have stomach ache it had to be on the day i was going to another part of the world. When it became really obvious that the driver had no knowledge of where Dakingari was, few people whom still had their phones on checked Google map. There was a particular individual whom i got to know later was a doctor by profession. He was so into the google map from the beginning of the journey i decided to nick name him GPS doctor. The GPS doctor and some other people started directing the driver but he didn’t seem to follow their directions at some point as we found ourselves at the border of Niger republic. Luckily for us, we were stopped by the border officials whom asked us were we were heading when we told them Dakingari they exclaimed saying we were journeying to Niger Republic. We all started shouting at the driver. About twenty(20) minutes later we found our way to the camp.

At the sight of the light in the Pavilion, We started rejoicing we had finally gotten to the camp after thirty eight (38)hours of journeying..