03:45, Thursday, November 24, 2009 the ‘biggle’, oh, that horn had its effect on me. Not long after….., “if you are still on the bed you’re wrong……”, “HOW?!!!!!!” “Is it day-break already?”… “I still need more sleep”, but right at that time my options were limited, at least for this day. I had to stand up from my so-called mattress and get out for the drills!
“KILLER” is his name, at least that’s what we know him by, a paramilitary with a God-given talent – his mouth. He made the drills fun and pain at the same time. By the way, my first lesson was GOOD MORNING SIR, even when referring to a lady. I wondered “what the heck? What difference does it make, will that make you a man?” well that’s all in my mind, and my thoughts can’t change a thing; I just had say it or say the opposite in my mind, when no one would join me in saying it.
I ran into him the previous day, he was wired and had on ‘scorpion slippers’; he was the commanding officer for my first drill, “jacking the bow … I do like this …. I do like that…. I balance well…..” Just as I said, I had the combination of fun and pain. I thought that was all and I would have some time to get back to bed, I didn’t know there was more! The military officer-in-charge had to register his presence – it was time for lesson two, “pré…pré-tion” “stand a-high” (what’s it these guys? Can’t they just complete their statements?) Parade attention, stand at ease; “why does people….” (English doesn’t just come easy). “Pre-remove-head-dress…., pom….., three heart cheers….., drums……, pre-to-replace-head-dress……., pom!” I think I missed all the commands on the first call; I guess you know what to expect for that “OTONDO!” “…what in the world is that?” I had to learn that in their world there are unpublished dictionaries; that word is one of the many words in that dictionary.
After head-dress exercise, we were dismissed. Seriously, I thought that was for the day, but it wasn’t so at all; we would be having lectures! “Here too?” thank God for my roots, it’s a privilege to understand the dynamics of ‘stabbing’ the mind had already calculated the number on site, and figured out that “….no way can this hall take all these bodies….” Since I had to understand my new environment, out-right ‘stabbing’ might be suicidal, so I decided to be among the ‘unlucky lot’ who couldn’t make it into the hall. The difference is mine was a choice; good for me! I didn’t miss much as the lecture was boring – “I’m not surprised! Did anyone actually expect anything different?” Lesson 3 – stabbing is very possible, but it must be done with wisdom. HOORAY!!!
I only failed Lesson 3 once, when the main actors peeped into the script of the minor actors. Seeing Lesson 3, they provided an amendment to their strategy. When it was lecture time, they blew the ‘biggle’, got us to the meeting point and marched us to the lecture hall. “Nice amendment” I thought, but it didn’t take long for the minor actors to do re-amendments. Thank goodness I was part of the few with “A¯” in dynamics of ‘stabbing’ from the roots, I only failed that Lesson once. There were better things to do than boring oneself in a lecture hall where you sleep through most of the lecture. Sleeping on the arrangement of metal rods (my mattress) would be better than sleeping on the chairs in the hall. It was my last lecture though, and some other stuff suffered the fate of stabbing, “I can’t kill myself now” at least I choose not to, since I have a choice here.
Match time…….Slow match………Quick match………. Lesson 4, I didn’t need this, “with all the stress I’ve been through….., this again? NO!!!” thank God I didn’t get into the selection, even if I did, I’m sure I would have ‘knifed’ it. I still have a great future ahead, to have it mortgaged by stress? “….no way” God bless the guys on the matching squad, I was lifted watching you perform. Thank you.
My crew was the second to get on the ropes and mine was not a funny story! As I tried to slide down the slanting rope, I tipped over – the result of my not listening to instructions; but life has a way of preserving itself. Even if you stop loving life, it will help you by starting to love itself. I knew I couldn’t fall off, and surprisingly I was composed and not scared, and could go through the remaining hurdles, scaling them successfully; that was a life time experience. I wish I have all that in pictures now. Since I didn’t heed “the leading” to sow my camera as a seed, (it was so precious to me – a special gift), I had to part with the camera the hard way. If I sown it, I would have my memory stick, but now I lost both. I’m still quite “burnt” with myself in that regard, but I learnt my lessons, Lesson 5 – always yield to the Spirit leading, this was a very important lesson I learnt in this period.
“….night patrol?” “….can you imagine?” That was my duty for the day; well I had to take it, because in this case as many others from my roots, “your opinions count only in your mind.” It wasn’t a bad duty at all as I had an excuse to skip drills the next morning.
Meeting people was a daily affair. On my crew, I had two colleagues from the roots, two great friends. We were mostly introduced by one of us who claims he read applied plumbing, advance masonry (not sure of this one, but I guess it’s something close), then fencing and wiring for my other friend and I. It was fun meeting people, and against the popular opinion – that people from my root are not sociable, I guess the three of us were about the most sociable guys on site. We met so many people and we got along pretty well. I had fun meeting people, and I met a number of fantastic people there.
“Shoes get size…… ehn, okrika get counterfeit” “Shoes get size…… ehn, ikebe get counterfeit” all were regular tunes for jogging and drills and a good number of other tunes that skip my mind right now. “KILLER” was the main man, he just kept supplying the tunes and we had just one call – sing along.
Almost forgot this, burn-fire was boring, it didn’t just march the hype, I went to sleep and it didn’t feel as if I’ll miss a thing….
I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about the experience. The drills, the trek, jogging and meeting people had the fun side and the hard side, but it was an experience indeed. I’ll close with this, “….under the sun and under the rain….., do what you can to make a difference……, Nigeria’s ours, Nigeria we serve”
AJUWAYA!
Posted by davidluiz in Old files, Poems
03:45, Thursday, November 24, 2009 the ‘biggle’, oh, that horn had its effect on me. Not long after….., “if you are still on the bed you’re wrong……”, “HOW?!!!!!!” “Is it day-break already?”… “I still need more sleep”, but right at that time my options were limited, at least for this day. I had to stand up from my so-called mattress and get out for the drills!
“KILLER” is his name, at least that’s what we know him by, a paramilitary with a God-given talent – his mouth. He made the drills fun and pain at the same time. By the way, my first lesson was GOOD MORNING SIR, even when referring to a lady. I wondered “what the heck? What difference does it make, will that make you a man?” well that’s all in my mind, and my thoughts can’t change a thing; I just had say it or say the opposite in my mind, when no one would join me in saying it.
I ran into him the previous day, he was wired and had on ‘scorpion slippers’; he was the commanding officer for my first drill, “jacking the bow … I do like this …. I do like that…. I balance well…..” Just as I said, I had the combination of fun and pain. I thought that was all and I would have some time to get back to bed, I didn’t know there was more! The military officer-in-charge had to register his presence – it was time for lesson two, “pré…pré-tion” “stand a-high” (what’s it these guys? Can’t they just complete their statements?) Parade attention, stand at ease; “why does people….” (English doesn’t just come easy). “Pre-remove-head-dress…., pom….., three heart cheers….., drums……, pre-to-replace-head-dress……., pom!” I think I missed all the commands on the first call; I guess you know what to expect for that “OTONDO!” “…what in the world is that?” I had to learn that in their world there are unpublished dictionaries; that word is one of the many words in that dictionary.
After head-dress exercise, we were dismissed. Seriously, I thought that was for the day, but it wasn’t so at all; we would be having lectures! “Here too?” thank God for my roots, it’s a privilege to understand the dynamics of ‘stabbing’ the mind had already calculated the number on site, and figured out that “….no way can this hall take all these bodies….” Since I had to understand my new environment, out-right ‘stabbing’ might be suicidal, so I decided to be among the ‘unlucky lot’ who couldn’t make it into the hall. The difference is mine was a choice; good for me! I didn’t miss much as the lecture was boring – “I’m not surprised! Did anyone actually expect anything different?” Lesson 3 – stabbing is very possible, but it must be done with wisdom. HOORAY!!!
I only failed Lesson 3 once, when the main actors peeped into the script of the minor actors. Seeing Lesson 3, they provided an amendment to their strategy. When it was lecture time, they blew the ‘biggle’, got us to the meeting point and marched us to the lecture hall. “Nice amendment” I thought, but it didn’t take long for the minor actors to do re-amendments. Thank goodness I was part of the few with “A¯” in dynamics of ‘stabbing’ from the roots, I only failed that Lesson once. There were better things to do than boring oneself in a lecture hall where you sleep through most of the lecture. Sleeping on the arrangement of metal rods (my mattress) would be better than sleeping on the chairs in the hall. It was my last lecture though, and some other stuff suffered the fate of stabbing, “I can’t kill myself now” at least I choose not to, since I have a choice here.
Match time…….Slow match………Quick match………. Lesson 4, I didn’t need this, “with all the stress I’ve been through….., this again? NO!!!” thank God I didn’t get into the selection, even if I did, I’m sure I would have ‘knifed’ it. I still have a great future ahead, to have it mortgaged by stress? “….no way” God bless the guys on the matching squad, I was lifted watching you perform. Thank you.
My crew was the second to get on the ropes and mine was not a funny story! As I tried to slide down the slanting rope, I tipped over – the result of my not listening to instructions; but life has a way of preserving itself. Even if you stop loving life, it will help you by starting to love itself. I knew I couldn’t fall off, and surprisingly I was composed and not scared, and could go through the remaining hurdles, scaling them successfully; that was a life time experience. I wish I have all that in pictures now. Since I didn’t heed “the leading” to sow my camera as a seed, (it was so precious to me – a special gift), I had to part with the camera the hard way. If I sown it, I would have my memory stick, but now I lost both. I’m still quite “burnt” with myself in that regard, but I learnt my lessons, Lesson 5 – always yield to the Spirit leading, this was a very important lesson I learnt in this period.
“….night patrol?” “….can you imagine?” That was my duty for the day; well I had to take it, because in this case as many others from my roots, “your opinions count only in your mind.” It wasn’t a bad duty at all as I had an excuse to skip drills the next morning.
Meeting people was a daily affair. On my crew, I had two colleagues from the roots, two great friends. We were mostly introduced by one of us who claims he read applied plumbing, advance masonry (not sure of this one, but I guess it’s something close), then fencing and wiring for my other friend and I. It was fun meeting people, and against the popular opinion – that people from my root are not sociable, I guess the three of us were about the most sociable guys on site. We met so many people and we got along pretty well. I had fun meeting people, and I met a number of fantastic people there.
“Shoes get size…… ehn, okrika get counterfeit” “Shoes get size…… ehn, ikebe get counterfeit” all were regular tunes for jogging and drills and a good number of other tunes that skip my mind right now. “KILLER” was the main man, he just kept supplying the tunes and we had just one call – sing along.
Almost forgot this, burn-fire was boring, it didn’t just march the hype, I went to sleep and it didn’t feel as if I’ll miss a thing….
I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about the experience. The drills, the trek, jogging and meeting people had the fun side and the hard side, but it was an experience indeed. I’ll close with this, “….under the sun and under the rain….., do what you can to make a difference……, Nigeria’s ours, Nigeria we serve”
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!