JOStified part 1 by Ephraim O.

Ephraim was among the many who made the trip to the NCCF headquarters at Jos, for the national conference which marked the organization's 30th anniversary. Unfortunately, I was unable to be there. Below is the first part of his account of the experience:

Exhilarating best describes the feeling. You could sense it in the songs chanted in unison, the smiles, jokes and comedy bouts, history told by comrades, knowledge shared in the midst with accompanying affirming knuckles and hi fives given to him/her whose statement you best concurred with. 

It was my first 18-hour trip (I wasn't alone in this novelty of a trip) heading from Osun to Jos in a Toyota Hummer bus packed filled with corps members and their luggage. Consequently, considering the spate of insecurity in this part of the nation, our decision to make this death-defying, terror-shaming trip was birthed from a passion for upgrading our spiritual O.S.

We stopped at almost every state we got to (for annoying reasons best known to the drivers) and soon we had exhausted the limits of our vocal chords, with tiredness setting in, we began to take differing anatomical positions for what we could make out of sleep. With the exception of the lady that had fallen travel sick, and a few of us that burdened ourselves with knowing our location on BlackBerry map and occasional sign-posts, most of the other fellas had fallen prey to sleep by evening.

                                       

War against hunger wasn't as fierce as imagined. Light feeds, small chops and soft drinks came in handy, keeping the mouth busy and hunger at bay. The tactic was to avoid any attempt to greet the bush for "piss offerings" or any other form of offering. 

Briefly we waited at Kaduna for two buses from our convoy of seven that had lost their way somewhere around Keffi in Nasarawa state. We were lucky to get a Mallam who sold a miserable meal of sun baked bread and over-salted omelette at about 11:39pm for dinner.

                                      

I learnt two critical lessons from my sight-seeing trip to Jos. First was what I choose to brand not as foolishness, but trust and a unique way of life in that traders left their oranges and Irish potatoes shaded on the high way with no fear of theft. Wow! That wasn't fairytopia, I saw it live in Kaduna and in Nigeria.
Beware; do not try this in Lagos, Benin or Onitsha.

The second was that we had always found slight condemnation for our Foladele friend who always held small chops in her bag. But on this very trip I discovered its relevance and so rescind my decision. Choosing to rebrand the action, 'Hunger back up'. 

To be continued...

PS: It's a town, not a village! :P