Now here 's to a festive weekend, experience for me.
So, I 've been in my village for a while now, a rural village in north central Nigeria. Though I do come quite often, I do not stay too long before zooming out again.
But this time I stayed longer, almost a year and got a wind of the various activities that makes the life in a rural village fun. From the village communal hunting to the seasonal fishing in the local rivers. So much fun indeed.
Now, I 've been hearing of this particular mass fishing that comes up every 3rd or 4th week of February when the water has receeded greatly, mostly dried up at some point. This is so to enable even those who can't swim to be able to participate so no one is left out.
Also, there are a whole of trees lining the entire river bank and fallen branches here and there makes it difficult to use a canoe or proper fishing nets, instead the villagers use baskets and old mosquito nets tied around a climber made into a circle then attached to the end of a 3 to 5 feet long slender but tough stick, mostly bamboo is used.
So, the latest fishing was done on Thursday and though I can't swim properly, I decided to go along, a change from the normal hunting for rodents, snakes and birds I do go on with my cousins.
Wednesday night was a busy one for those who wish to partake in the fishing outing although it won't commence until the sun was getting a bit hotter due to how cold the water do get very early in the morning. And you know, we do go in with as little clothing as possible to ease movement in the water.
At around 10am the village gong was beaten to give the signal for everyone wishing to partake to move down to the takeoff point just where the river runs close to the village but it is usually way downstream to avoid disturbing the part where the villagers drink from.
We moved there and straight into the water we all went, me included although I spent a couple of minutes to calm my nerves and also adjust my body temperature to that of the water, although am no reptile. Winks.
We proceeded slowly but definitely downstream but as we proceeded, we broke up into groups of 2, 3 or 4 depending on your sped and also some families and friends also want to move together. I was with two other of my cousins.
About 3 hours into the fishing, we came to a part a bit deeper, say 7 to 8 feet in depth and the water was very muddy due to the crowd that has waded through it before we came. And guess what, I got a fairly powerful head nodge from something, under water, just below my shin. Wow! At first I was a bit scared since a lot of pythons do ply this area. But seconds later, this big guy here
Photo By Me
brought it massive head out to take in some air and I saw it, one of my cousins did see it too and we began the chase. It swam to the edge where dead branches made it a lot difficult to chase but who the hell would let such a trophy slip by because of a couple of dead tree branches? Not me! Not us!
We got it boxed in between the three of us and also shouted out to other fellow villagers nearby to come give us more hands. What a struggle it was. That day, I got to know why it is sometimes said that "As slippery as a fish in water". We could barely get a good grip on it and I nearly fainted from exhaustation but the good thing was that, it was getting worn out too and also out-numberedfor we got joined by four others raising out strength to seven.
Photo By Me
Well, after what seems like a struggle that lasted forever, we finally got it out. And straight, we headed home, me and one other of my cousin anyway, because the other went on with the fishing but I was too tired and also happy to continue. I was in a haste to show the prize of my first fishing adventure to my family.
What a great pleasure for the weekend!
You're free to join the buffet!
Photo By Me
