Each time I look back at the time I traveled out to a faraway village to write my SSCE exam, I wish it were possible to find my way back to the village and to the compound where I stayed for the period of one month, just to appreciate the landlord of the house and his family for making my stay with them a beautiful and memorable one.
It was far back in 2016 or so, if I am not mistaken. I registered for a GCE exam in a village—a miracle center, per se. I did not know anyone there. The man that registered me gave me a house to stay in, a house in a compound with a family of five: an elderly man, his wife, and their three children who were around my age at that time. These people never made me feel like I was a stranger in the village. They gave me access to everything they had. They gave me food, and to tell the truth, it was from their house that I learned and adapted to eating other people’s food(food that was not cooked in my own house). At first, it was hard to adapt, but when they made it a continuous thing, I had no option but to adapt.
Every evening, they would put on their lister generator and force me out of my room into their house to join them in watching TV. I guess they felt I was feeling lonely, that is why they always did that, but I was not feeling lonely as long as I had my phone. We would watch Nollywood movies till midnight, and I would get carried away and sometimes forget to read for my exam.
Every one of their family members was special; there was no one left out. The dad would come back from the farm and cut me a share of bushmeat caught in his trap and also give me palm wine. The mom, each time they made cassava, would always share some with me, even when I still had some left. The children, especially the boys, would come around to my house in the compound for boys’ talk, and we would share movies on our phones through Bluetooth and Xender.
The feeling was just as if I was at my own home with my family, no difference at all.
The unfortunate thing, yes, unfortunate to me, is that the one month ended so quickly, and I found it hard to easily pack my bag to go. I was missing my home already, but it also felt like I was at home there too. But I just had to go, and ever since then, I have not seen the family again. It is so bad that we lost contact in every form, and because it has been very long, I have not had the interest to make moves to search for a means to reach out, at least on social media. Life happens like that too.
Thanks.