Yetunde dragged her bulging travelling bag with her as she got to the NYSC Camp at Iyana Ipaja, Lagos. She had mixed feelings. She didn’t know whether to be excited or be like a lot of folks who believed the government were wasting one year of their lives in useless service.
With the cacophony of thoughts in her head, she made her way to her room. There were twenty of them all together in a long room. Yetunde did not like this at all but she wasn’t going to pretend she was an aje-butter and get picked on or asked to spend money for them.
The girls were chatty, marking their territory and trying to be friendly. Yetunde soon decided to make the best of her two weeks stay in camp. She was going to make new friends and alliances that would last a long time.
Life was good, except for…Yetunde jotted in her journal:
- The bugle that wakes you up when the sleep is just getting sweet,
- The parties that run till 3 am forcing you to learn how to sleep while standing.
- Lectures that you only remember half of – thank God for glasses and caps that can help you sleep in disguise.
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But as much as she had cons, she also had pros, there were good reasons to be at camp and she listed them in her journal too:
- Learned basics for sewing through SAED
- Networking and getting new opportunities
- Get fit (all those morning drills are not for nothing)
- Make new friends
Speaking of new friends, Yetunde smiled as she thought about them. There were from her platoon:
Sammie
He never ate camp food, spoke to no one (she was shocked when he said hi to her after being forced to supervise cooking in the kitchen). He was rude and very handsome. Everyone suspected he was loaded.
Alero
She clearly had no money but she ran after every guy who did so she could have free food from Mami’s kitchen.
Tochi
Her only married friend who was visibly pregnant yet ran to camp to avoid her 4-year-old son and husband at home. She said the campground was her vacation.
Tobena
He asked a new girl out every day. In the morning, she’s ‘the one’ by nightfall, he had an epiphany.
Stella
The one whose kidney and liver start hurting once it’s time for parade rehearsals. Who knows what would hurt tomorrow?
Yetunde smiled at the thoughts of her five new friends. Something told her the campground wasn’t going to be the last she heard from them. It was only the beginning of something new and exciting.
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