When we had clothes to wash, and there was no rain neither did the water corporation officials remember our village, we would head to the stream to do the laundry, had our bath, and also fetch water as much as we could. It used to be fun until one day when I slid down the rocky path that led to the stream, thank God for one tiny tree that held me back.
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The hurricane lantern used to be our go-to light once it was night. Mobile phones were just starting to get introduced into our community anyways, so there was no issue of charging anything. However, my grandpa had a small black and white television that we hoped to turn on whenever we could.
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The roads we were used to are the untarred dusty paths that led to many farms where we go to cultivate and harvest our farm produce. There were only about two households that had cars. So, the number of cars that plied the roads were little. The time we get to see trucks was when the farm women came together to contribute money to hire one to help them transport their harvested cassava to their various homes. Those were the times I used to get excited to go to the farm because my neck wouldn’t have to carry heavy bags of products on a long-distance home.
One other time I used to see big cars was when people would visit from Lagos to buy fufu, a cassava-made meal from the villagers.
20 years later, the story has changed. The last time I heard that the cost of a plot of land in my village is now in millions, I screamed. I mean, lands used to be a gift to attract people to my village, now it’s more than one million naira to get a plot. I was wowed.
The development in my village has been tremendous, even though it is not at the level we want yet.
My village can now boast of tarred roads connecting different towns making it easier to travel, even though the tarred roads have frequently been damaged by the truck drivers that are mining rocks in my used-to-be village that is now a town.
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Hurricane lanterns are now a thing of the past, not because we now have a stable electricity, but because my village is no longer the village it used to be. It is now a town where so many options are available to generate electricity. In fact, many houses now opt for solar electricity and there are many houses that still use fuel-powered generators. In all, the paths and houses that used to be dark are now all brightly lit.
The streams do not have visitors as much as they used to because many houses now have their boreholes and no longer sell to people, rather they give to the houses that are yet to own a borehole.
The last time I was home, I saw many strange faces around, and my dad said they were the new neighbours we had. The village that used to be a place where people were not willing to live is now a place where many people deem to move to for their peace of mind.
20 years is actually a long time for feasible change to happen, and I can’t wait to see how much change will happen in my town 2in another 20 years.