A' CAMPING

 

       

               NOVEMBER 6TH 2005
      Went a’ camping in October in a rather new yet old part of the country. It was a totally different experience than what I have been used to in life. Ate a food I know I’d never eat on a normal day but it was fun.
      I had been disturbing my parents about the camp ever since I heard of it and what made it worse was that most of my friends had gone ahead of me. When they eventually gave me the permission to attend, I didn’t know what to pack; I was so excited that I didn’t realise how long the camp would last.
      When I got to the camp, I met my best friend at the time. She was on the big...let’s say, the fat side of life and for me, you only have to be fat to be seen by me as motherly and cuddly hence the reason why I wanted her to mother me during that period. I was pretty smaller than the other girls there but I was there and there was gonna be no going back.
      We had to pass through some aerobic exercises so we could all move as a wave of water. The training period was bone-breaking; it was tedious, hectic, tiring and add every other adjectives alike. The trainer was an Asian who believed in perfection and stopped at nothing to ensure that even training on a rainy day.
     Aside from the stressful training, our peace was seared by the terror of CLEMENT! He was the school’s ghost/rapist. It was believed that he could pass through walls and would molest young girls in their sleep. This information kept us up most nights when we’d hear abnormal sounds. We had to even constitute a midnight praying party. You needed to have seen us Diary, we prayed with fright, one eye closed in prayer and the other, watchful for any sudden strange movements; it was comical! One night, we heard a girl scream and she wanted us to catch him. Apparently he had torn her dress and she expected us as scared as we were to catch him? I cuddled under my friend and prayed for morning to come.
      When the occasion for which we were training came, we were apprehensive for we had to train two times harder for it as the date drew closer. The occasion was at the Nigerian stadium and there was a tendency to forget your position, I almost forgot mine but not for my position partner. We did all we knew to do and we were extremely applauded. I was proud with myself!
      The camp soon came to an end and I went home in excitement expecting to be received with joy cos I had been away from home for about a month; despite the fact that my parent often came to visit me. No! There was no excitement, no hugs, no smiles, nothing! It’s like I wasn’t needed back home. My parents weren’t at home. Just my siblings and there preferred the movie on the TV to their little sister’s return. I was hurt by it all. And what made it worse was that I had saved a chunk out of my pocket money to give them but nobody paid attention to me. I threw the money around the sitting-room to get their attention but it didn’t work.  I found a corner and cried. I had just seen my best friend being welcomed at her house when she arrived and thought that the same would be the case for me...guess I wished for too much.