7 Day Writing Challenge Day 5 - My Worst Road Trip by @stanleynnah

Good day everyone,

Welcome to the day five (5) of the seven (7) days writing challenge organised by @steemalive. For today, I will be writing on "My Worst Road Trip".

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Introduction

As human beings, we do travel from one place to another every now and then. Most of this trips turn out to be fun while most turns out as nightmares. However, in this post, I will be writing on my worst road trip which was a trip to the state of my National Youth Service Corp posting.

My Worst Road Trip

The whole nightmare actually began when I received a call from my friend in school that I was posted to Sokoto for the compulsory one year National Youth Service Corp. So many things were already running through my mind which included the insurgency issue, the distance, the culture among many others. And the most unfortunate thing here was that I was the only one sent to Sokoto from my faculty, I knew no other individual from my school that was going to the same location.

However, I set off for the journey on the D day as early as 7am, on getting to the park at Ojoo Ibadan, I made payment, collected my ticket and waited for the sienna car to get filled up. All in all, we left the park some minutes after 8am. Issues however began when we got to kontagora in Niger State where the car broke down, and took almost an hour before it picked up again. Lest not forget this was a journey to place I have never been before and never thought I will be. Another issue we had was at Jega in Kebbi State, this one however involved a flat tire which took a while before it was fixed back. As at 1am, we were still on our way to Sokoto, and one issue with traveling in the night is that most of us don't understand how drivers communicate. Most drivers that were coming in the opposite direction had series of signs that they were giving to our driver. We had some using the head lamp flash signal, some using the hand wave signal, and some even using the flag down signal, all I was thinking was if the signals meant there were danger ahead or so.

However, we got to Sokoto some minutes to 3am, at this point it was impossible for me to get a cab going to the camp, and I was in a state of confusion of what to do next as I had no understanding of the language and no friends or relatives around. After much thoughts, I decided to speak to the driver who pointed to a particular shop where I can make enquiries. On getting to the shop I was advised to wait till morning before getting a bike or vehicle going to the camp, and I was asked to pay the sum of 100 naira for my bag to be kept in a safe place until morning, and I was given a mat to lay down on in the park till morning. I made the payment but couldn't even sleep, just had to sit down on a particular bench, stayed awake with my phone till morning came and I completed my journey to the camp.

I am not a fan of long distance trips especially when it's via vehicles, the road situation in the country is not pleasant for such trips. For this reason, after resuming at my place of primary assignment (PPA), I never set foot again in the south until the day of my passing out, thereby spending the likes of Christmas, New Year, and Easter celebrations at Sokoto.

I, @patience90 and other friends on Passing Out Day

Conclusion

I will like to use this medium to appreciate the @steemalive community for the wonderful and amazing contest. It's surely an engaging contest and it has been a pleasure taking part in it.

Cc
@steemalive
@focusnow
@charis20

Regards,
@stanleynnah