CNF: 16 HOURS TO ISEYIN: A JOURNEY OF "FIRSTS"

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My friend Femi was getting married and had invited me to the wedding. The wedding was scheduled to be held in the western part of the country, since Femi and his wife were from western Nigeria. At the time of the wedding,

I was totally broke and had little to no money to my name. Of course, I wouldn’t miss his wedding for anything, knowing what it would mean for him if I attended his wedding and how I would not stop bringing it up in conversations if I missed the wedding. Aside from that, I also wouldn’t want to miss the fun we would have.

Being bros, I explained my situation to him, and he was glad I had. Femi told me of the planned conveyance of people who were also attending the wedding from the city I live in, and will also be moving with a fleet of cars, and all I needed to do was be available at the take-off point, where there would be a seat in one of the vehicles waiting for me to join them in the journey.

I was excited that I would make it to Femi’s wedding, but what I was most excited about was that I was going to be seeing the west for the first time. I have heard stories about the West, stories about the ancient city of Oyo, how there are old and beautiful buildings, and the standing histories of being first of many things, and for the fact that I was going to be seeing it for the first time.

On the morning of the journey, I arrived as early as possible, being a person who loves keeping to time, never wanting to be late for anything, since the movement was scheduled for the early hours of the morning and I was living at the outskirts of the city, which may hinder me from coming on time.

I had left home the day before to spend the night at a friend’s house so that I could meet up on time. I was the first to arrive at the location and had to wait for others to come before we could start the journey, I never knew that the time they gave was the African time, for instance if an event is schedule to start by 8 am, it is usually announced for 6 am so that people will make it on time despite not coming at the announced time.

After I had settled down, others started arriving for the journey, they were all elderly and I had felt like the journey was going to be boring for me since I knew nobody there and I didn’t see someone of my age bracket not until I saw Bisola, who was a friend to Femi and a school mate of ours during our secondary school days.

Bisola and I were not friends before that day; she was just a girl who attended the same school as I did, we had not had any conversation before that day, and we were only familiar faces, but I could see it in her eyes that she was also excited to see me. We said our pleasantries, and I invited her to sit beside me, which she was happy to do.

The people I was travelling with were colleagues of his mother from work, travelling in their group using a bus from work, a hired saloon car, and a mid-sized compact pick-up truck, which was occupied by the police who were our escorts for the journey because of the growing insecurities on the road, the robberies and the kidnappings that were happening on the road at that time.

The journey started at exactly 8 am. Bisola was asked to say some words of prayer before we started the journey. They had made food and snacks that were enough for everyone, and everyone was given their choice of food. Since there were two routes we could take, either to follow Niger state or Kogi state, it was for the driver to decide, who had mastered travelling by road and knew which one was safer and faster. The lead driver decided to use the Niger state, saying that the roads were better and safer for travel.

It was the first time I was passing through Niger state, since Niger state is known to have the largest land mass, it won't be a surprise to tell you that it took us seven to eight hours before we got to Jebba, the border between Niger and Kwara state, we stopped there for a quick bring and also to refuel our stomach before proceeding.

I can remember an encounter we had with some boys on the road, the boys were driving rough and our vehicle almost collided with theirs, they had ran out of the road because of that but decide to follow after us, by this time, they were unaware that we were travelling with an armed guards, noticing the vehicle chasing after us, the officers we were with had to intervene and the boys had to disengage, if we were not travelling with these force men, who know what would have happened, so I thought to myself..

We finally got to our destination, “Isheyin”, and we had spent 16 hours on the road, for a journey which was meant to be a 12-hour journey. It was the longest journey that I would have taken in my lifetime.

Thank you for reading through my post. My name is@rishagamo, and above is my response to the week’s prompt “MEMORIES”.