Iwo; its pluses by Ephraim O.

Recently, my friend, Ephraim, who's also passionate about writing, and I were talking about the joys of Iwo. It was actually this conversation that birthed my last post, 10 things I like about Iwo. So, I asked him to write a post, sharing some of his favourite things about the town, too. Below is his piece:

We hopped from the bike cladded in our khaki pants and crested vest that showed we'd just been dispatched to discharge our national assignment, and offered him what we thought was fair for our short trip. A trip from the market to the place where we would call home for the next couple of weeks but with the most genuine smile, he kickstarted his bike and said, "Don't worry". 

"Amazing! Where in Naija does this ever happen?" In Benin, where I come from, you'd wait till your patience turns into longsuffering. We turned and looked at each other, trying to certify our disbelief before walking to our destination. This experience was our swan-song for the next couple of days that followed. This happened on my first day in Iwo. 

If one is a happenstance and two a coincidence, I wonder what name the dictionary would use to accomodate a more than three, four or five occasions of the goodwill and kindness these folks express on a regular basis. For instance, a friend told me of how one of their landlords offered them accomodation at no charge. This is a three-bedroom flat built to satisfy modern taste. How many landlords would do that in lagos or in Benin?

I wouldn't forget hastily that prices for goods and services are valley-deep cheap here. Yes! Some would argue that this is so because Iwo is a town but so what? In the town I am from, prices there would favourably compete with those of Enugu, Ibadan and Onitsha. A N50 trip on a bike here in Iwo is equivalent to N200 or N250 in lagos. Slippers that would cost N1400 in Benin was sold to me at N550 here.

One lasting impression Iwo leaves in my memory bank is the fact that folks here old or young, none stands to receive greetings. Both the greeter and the greeted go down when they exchange pleasantries. Respect being mutual and cordial. I hope my egotistic, money-conscious city fellas get to learn from these folks.

And like I had told a friend the first month we came here, "Iwo is not a mistake". It indeed has been a blessing. 

PS: It's a town, not a village