MY NYSC EXPERIENCE IN KATSINA STATE - CAMPING
As soon as I got my bed I headed for the hostel. I chose a bed space, dropped my bags and made to registration. No time to waste.
On getting there the crowd was much I nearly suffocated. I sha made it and got a Platoon and my kit.
As anybody who had served before knows, the camp kits are nothing of your size and everything only an overweight person can be happy with. Wonder why they told us to take down our measurements on the portal sef. Mtssw. Typical Nigerian problem, I shrugged.
The registration went on for two days. Thankfully I was through on the first day so rested the second day. By 4am the third day, a shrill sound from the trumpet rudely awoke me, summoning all corpers for devotion. This is the first welcome I got to the camp, I was so annoyed .
This was me on my first parade appearance in camp.
This early waking up in the morning became sort of the norm each day, we would have devotion till about 7:30am, after which we proceed to exercises organized by the Man O Wars. These are really exhausting exercises made particularly acute by the fact that we are yet to eat breakfast. Immediately after morning drills(which may include jogging round camp), we would be dismissed around 8:30 to bathe and for breakfast . I would like to dispel a common notion which people have about camp food here. Contrary to what they say, camp food is actually ok. My meal ticket was always on point, lol. But I know several people who prefers to eat at the mami market. The only disadvantage of the camp food is the beans, you would need to buy flagil to take in order not to suffer from purging as their beans is uhnmm.Lemme just leave it at that. As camp went on the Skills acquisition and entrepreneurship training (SAED) program started. This was to engage amd sensitize corpers on the various skills they may like, for entrepreneurship purposes. The lectures have got to be the most boring ones on earth, imagine having to sit through 5 hours of torture each day. Everything in camp was all about competition, from the marching, to sports and to performing arts. All these were geared to promote integration among the corpers. Marching especially, is something the soldiers hold dear ti their heart, for obvious reasons. The Camp Commandant(Major Hamza) is a very charismatic leader,to put it mildly. The way that guy goes about the parade, you would think Donald Trump is coming tomorrow and we must be impeccable in our marching. For getting any moves wrong the soldiers may decide to make us kneel in the sun for hours (are we children??) ,and start lecturing us about the importance why we must perfect our marching.
Major Hamza (Katsina camp)
All these made camping really stressful, and most days we pray for the camp to come to an end quickly so we can leave. But I met many people, made friends and generally enjoyed camp. The next post will be about the people I met and final days of camp
wetin dem wan dey follow us talk by 4 sef?I grumbled then got to the parade ground.
This early waking up in the morning became sort of the norm each day, we would have devotion till about 7:30am, after which we proceed to exercises organized by the Man O Wars. These are really exhausting exercises made particularly acute by the fact that we are yet to eat breakfast. Immediately after morning drills(which may include jogging round camp), we would be dismissed around 8:30 to bathe and for breakfast . I would like to dispel a common notion which people have about camp food here. Contrary to what they say, camp food is actually ok. My meal ticket was always on point, lol. But I know several people who prefers to eat at the mami market. The only disadvantage of the camp food is the beans, you would need to buy flagil to take in order not to suffer from purging as their beans is uhnmm.Lemme just leave it at that. As camp went on the Skills acquisition and entrepreneurship training (SAED) program started. This was to engage amd sensitize corpers on the various skills they may like, for entrepreneurship purposes. The lectures have got to be the most boring ones on earth, imagine having to sit through 5 hours of torture each day. Everything in camp was all about competition, from the marching, to sports and to performing arts. All these were geared to promote integration among the corpers. Marching especially, is something the soldiers hold dear ti their heart, for obvious reasons. The Camp Commandant(Major Hamza) is a very charismatic leader,to put it mildly. The way that guy goes about the parade, you would think Donald Trump is coming tomorrow and we must be impeccable in our marching. For getting any moves wrong the soldiers may decide to make us kneel in the sun for hours (are we children??) ,and start lecturing us about the importance why we must perfect our marching.
All these made camping really stressful, and most days we pray for the camp to come to an end quickly so we can leave. But I met many people, made friends and generally enjoyed camp. The next post will be about the people I met and final days of camp
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