The Thing We Did Last Weekend

 

I am scared of many things, <okay maybe not too many, just cockroaches, fat rats, death?> but more than all these things, it scares me that there is so much beauty in this world, that there are so many beautiful places, and beautiful people, and beautiful cultures that I might never get to see, to appreciate, to feed my eyes on, to bask in— for obvious reasons.
I like to think that it is one thing that is common among my friends and I. For us, the fear exists as hunger to see the world, to meet new people, to experience new things, and so when an opportunity came to step out of the world we knew to one we did not know too much about, we grabbed it in five minutes lol. We had a discussion and agreed in five minutes that we were going to do an interstate travel.

There was supposed to be a meeting for executives of an association that we belonged to <and we were a part of> but the meeting was going to be held away from the city where we lived. It was going to hold in Jos, Plateau state.
Initially we talked about it a bit, then we shook the idea of attending off because our parents were definitely not going to let us go and how, how, how was it going to happen?
This is the point where I stop my story to quote Paul Coelho to say,
 “...and, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
Somehow, everything fell in place and we went on our Jos trip. <Brethren at the back shout 'luyah!>
The point of this blogpost is not to tell the story behind the trip< or maybe it is, just a little bit.>
I'm partly writing about it because it is an experience I don't want to forget but more importantly, because I want to share a few things I learned.

I.

Do not prepare for a trip in a haste. Don't pack your bags last minute. Don't do it. Do thorough research about the place you are going to first. Repeating for emphasis: DO THOROUGH RESEARCH ABOUT THE PLACE YOU INTEND TO MAKE A TRIP TO FIRST BECAUSE WHY DID I PACK SLEEPING SHORTS FOR JOS WHERE THE TEMPERATURE AT NIGHT WAS 13°C?
I mean, I knew Jos was cold but I didn't know how cold, until we got into town and saw some people dressed up in winter coats and gloves and headwarmers.
At first we— my friends that doubled as my co-passengers were wondering what was going on and even found it a bit funny. Let's just say thank God we at least had sweaters and hoodies packed.


II

It's okay to be a little afraid. I want to say, "do it afraid, trust your gut" but I'm not sure how accurate our guts often are.
My friends and I were really scared. We were going on this impromptu trip in a public bus filled with strangers to a whole other state, and did I say that we did not tell our parents?
<don't mind me, I know I didn't. Hehehe>
Everytime we asked each other the "what is the worst thing that could happen" question, the answers were clear and all equally tragic.

what if you get into an accident and get maimed or die?

what if you get kidnapped?

what if...what if?

We didn't tell our parents because there was no way on Earth they were going to give their permission, and we really wanted to go. We planned to tell them after we had gone and gotten back. To us it would be a testament of how grown we were, a proof of adulthood bravery and courage enough to earn a kind of respect maybe? 
What we did was pray a lot, begging God to please overlook the recklessness of our decisions and spare our lives. Then we sent our live locations to all our other friends, texting them at intervals <I told someone to call my mother if at any point I wasn't texting back, now that I think about it, lmao thank God nothing terrible happened>
In retrospect, it was a bit lot of risk, 100% do not recommend <or maybe I do, just a little bit?>
My parents eventually found out while I was still on my trip <long story>, they were mostly scared than angry. Scared because the country is really unsafe? Don't you know this is election period? They are kidnapping people everywhere...

I thought it was a bit sad that travelling around Nigeria, exploring our fatherland is mostly discouraged because of the insecurity plaguing the country.
I hope we take our country back. That there would be days when there wouldn't be too much for us to be scared of. That we are individually able to find the type of education that only expeditions can give.
I hope you intend to vote this Saturday <for the most eligible candidate, the candidate with proof of all his claims in case you want to go and verify of course>


III

I got to meet a lot of new people. I especially enjoyed interacting with the ones that were natives of the town.
James< *not real name* one of the people I met and got to talk to> and I were taking a walk around a field while we made small talk, and then we came across a wooden stick wrapped with cellotape at its ends shaped like a hockey stick.
James picked up the stick immediately as if it called for him and  I saw his eyes light up, heck, his whole face. Seeing the stick opened a window to a part of his memories that held reminders of simpler times. He told me about the stick, how with the stick you could hit a small plastic ball to make it travel several miles. It was one of the games he enjoyed as a child. From talking about the stick, James told me about his interesting childhood in one of the villages in Plateau state, how he and his friends never ran out of games, how they were so clever, they would cut up of rubber slippers and pass them through the metal tubes of disembodied flashlights that they had already heated up over fire to make them into balls <a procedure I'm not sure I understand or maybe that's not how he said it?>.
I enjoyed listening to James talk about his childhood, it made me a bit jealous.
It was obvious that he loved the place he was from and he loved the people that surrounded him as he grew. I asked him what his native name was and when he told me, I told him it was beautiful. It was. I wish he used it as his first name.

<I have used the word 'wish' a little too much, but it's my blog, I can use whatever words I want, hehehe>

Another interesting person was Simon <not real name>.
He was not from Plateau state but he was raised there. He told me about the town, about how he could almost swear that it was the site of the biblical tower of babel because almost no two neighbouring villages spoke the same native dialect or belonged to the same tribe. He said the town was mostly divided into sections according to religion. According to him, there was a demarcation between the Christian concentrated part of town and the Muslim concentrated part of town and showed us—me and one of my friends, what part was which as we drove around. I thought it was quite sad.
Simon told us gore stories about the times when there were crises in Jos <to be fair, we asked because we wanted to know if the things we used to hear about were true because the city was so calm?How could any violence had happened there?>, about how one time, he and his family ran to hide among rocks, how there were still clashes from time to time, but there hadn't been any since 2021, how schools were shut down sometimes during those periods, about the time when some students were killed and the state governor said it was their luck because didn't he say students should leave school?  and there were protests all over and the bodies of the dead students were dumped in front of the government house, about how the men we saw in clusters holding weapons were community police because even if it had been relatively peaceful, everybody was scared.
Simon told his stories as if he was telling us about a TV show he saw the other day, without flinching, but in a way his eyes had grief in them. I think we shouldn't have asked.
We changed the topic when he started talking about the scene he witnessed during the aftermath of one of such religious clashes. I asked him about delicacies exclusive to the town and he plunged into an endless list, even looking up photos of things he did not know how to explain to us for us to see. I wish I had written them down, I only remember one, "gote", a type of porridge made from ground corn? I'm not too sure and I hope I got the spelling right.


III

There was this meal I had there, semo and egusi. Semo but not semo, like, not the type you buy off the shelf and mix over heat. They made the semo flour from scratch by themselves with cassava and corn <I have no idea how>, and it was sooooo goooooood. I think I'd be willing to give out half a pair of my favourite shoes to have a taste of it again.


IV

People in Jos have a way of saying things like "Jos town" or "Jos cold". They say the words together to make them blend into themselves.
"Jostown", "Joscold".

V

Jos air=good skin.


VI

Again, ask questions so that you can pack clothes appropriately. When I say that I shivered????

VII

I have had to apologise profusely to my father and promise that I would never do a thing like this again.
I hope I keep my promise. I enjoyed my Jos trip. Our hosts were amazing. We were well taken care of and we got to see around town a bit. We even visited the National museum and zoo where we saw a lot of artifacts and really intelligent chimpanzees that put on a show for us before stretching out their hands for us to give them stuff to eat and to crown it all up, we got to climb the 100 steps to Afizere settlement <a huge accomplishment for me btw, because I am terribly physically unfit, lol>

My Chi is satiated for now but I'm sure that she would be hungry for new adventure soon. I can't wait to watch her get fed again. Not without telling my parents of course. *wink.
Thank you for reading all of this. I hope you weren't too bored.
Tell me in the comments, if you could travel to anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
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