My Experience at NYSC Camp

When the Lord said "I'll take you to places", NYSC said "start from Ekiti"

In this newsletter, I'll be talking about how my NYSC experience at camp went. From my anticipation till the very end.

Anticipation

Since 300 level, I have eagerly anticipated my NYSC service year. I mean, I've been hearing stories about how fun it is and I can't wait to experience it myself. A Northern or Eastern state would just be fine, since I've not really traveled beyond the shores of South West, except school though. You know, this feeling of learning a new culture and language of people you've never interacted with before.

Fast forward to late 2023, and after seeing different stories on Twitter about people's NYSC experience, I resolved to stick to my Lagos jàre 😂. Nigeria is not really a good place to explore, not even with the insecurities everywhere. Hmmmm, but as God will have it, they threw me to Ekiti 😭.

In the Beginning

The three weeks I spent at camp were the longest of my life. At first, it was giving "taló rọ́n mi ní ṣẹ́"🤲😭. All the euphoria and anticipation first died down😭. Got to camp late that night so I didn't really get the memo of what I was getting into. My bags were checked at the gate and I was directed to the place to fill in the registrations. It was like four or five registrations in total before they finally gave us kits. Since I got there at night, I didn't do anything else other than sleep.

The first night, I woke up to noise from my roommates ni 3am, kiloshele 🤲 you people don't sleep here ni?🥺. Due to the stress from the previous day's journey, I needed to sleep well but these ones said no😭. Got prepared, and by 5:00 am, the bugle was blown for us to come outside to observe morning meditation and morning drills. We did MM for about 1 hour, 30 minutes before we started the parade. The Parade lasted for approximately thirty minutes. Little did I know that was only a dress rehearsal and the real deal is yet to come. The soldier blew another bugle sound notifying us that breakfast was ready. That lasted for about 1 hour before we entered the real meaning of NYSC (Now Your Struggle Continues). We came out to continue from where we started and I was hearing "attention by number" abi kinikan kinikan 😭.

That was what we did till around 12 pm when they gave us a 10-minute water break. I wasn't feeling my legs again, and my head was hot because we'd been under the harsh Ekiti sun for over two hours, it's not even north and the sun is that scorching 😭. Everything about the place is just somehow 😭.

My Activities at Camp

After rigorous drilling for about two days, I decided to try my luck with OBS. I joined because one, I love media spaces and I'm always ready to learn and second, to escape the march parades 😂. It has a requirement, so I submitted my essay in the hopes that it would be accepted. On the third day, I was accepted and joined the team. Since those who arrived earlier took the position of presenter or editor, which I would have loved to have chosen, I had to accept the assistant studio manager position. Nonetheless, I gained a lot of knowledge from other sources, particularly from those who have experience working as radio presenters or in other media organizations. It was crazy, entertaining, and an avenue to gain experience interacting with people from different social and cultural backgrounds. I gained a great deal of knowledge from both our PRO, Mr. Tunde, and his assistant, Mr Mount. Also gave me the privilege to read the Oath of Allegiance on behalf of my fellow corpers, on the day of our swearing in.

I didn't participate in the Platoon activities but I'm always cheering them on 😂🙌.

I met some amazing people in Platoon 3, even though I did not spend much time with them due to my involvement in OBS. We took second position in the debate and second position in the March Parade. The March Parade was one of the most beautiful things I saw on camp, the uniformity and orderliness was so beautiful. I just disliked the training 😭😂.

Oh, I almost forgot about the SAED lectures 😂😂. Those lectures from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m were insane. The "S" in SAED is more like Sleep because you'll so sleep ehn.

Most of the lecturers are boring. Imagine sitting for 5 hours to learn something, even if it's interesting at first, one will get tired. There were times when I would run back to OBS to take a nap after setting the sound for lectures 😂.😂.

On Food

Remember I said I read lots of stories about NYSC experience? Food was also part of it. During our registration, we were given a meal ticket that accounts for all the days we were to spend on camp. I think this is to curb people from collecting food twice. The meal timetable was released a day before the opening day and I was hoping it won't be that bad 😊. Guess I was wrong😭😂.

Bread and tea is still the best meal on the menu followed by Sunday Jollof (Concoction rice) and Chicken.

Most times I had to go to mammy market to buy food if the food on the menu is not manageable especially the Eba and Egusi😭. Other times, I settled for my milk and Golden Morn 😊.

Friendship

I had quite a number of people I talked with but it was just "hello/hi".My bunk mate and I even attended the same Uni but I didn't meet him in school. I only recognized our school lanyard which he was wearing. Since I was always missing Platoon meetings, I decided to go one day, just to observe what happens there. The platoon officer was having a meeting with the members to discuss the upcoming cultural day events and music competitions. When he asked if there was a good vocalist among us, a girl stood up to sing. She sang beautifully and I was really amazed 😊. We had free time until 2:00 pm because it was a Sunday. After the meeting ended, I met up with her and praised her for her sonorous voice. We exchanged pleasantries and I got to know her name was Silver. She asked if I sing too and I said "kinda"😂.

Well, she had a guitar with her so she asked if I could freestyle and I sang John Legend's "All of Me". During our freestyle, two of her friends from same platoon, joined us and they were discussing the song to sing for the music competition. Answer and Clement; they play guitar too and other musical instruments. We had some rehearsals together because the song was supposed to be a duet but the organizers said it's just one person that's to sing on that day. This was how I exchanged numbers and began talking with Silver and Answer. I started enjoying social nights and other activities since I now have people I could talk with.

At the End

I enjoyed camp towards the last few days though. We had OBS hangouts, played a game, gist and took group pictures. It was not a bad experience, except for the first few days 😂. Learned a lot and connected with great people.

In my next story, I'll be talking about how my sure plug got burnt😭😭😂.