4:06 am- I’m seriously tired. The pain is starting to choke. That thing they did to us last night was not funny. I prepare for the day but I’m not going to go for the morning assembly.
5:00 am- I’m at the clinic. I charge my phone. This is the first time I’m missing morning assembly. Technically I’m not missing it, I can still hear them; the clinic is in front of the parade ground. I’m 100% certain if I go, I would fall cause I’m too tired.
6:15 am- We are to have morning lectures. I’m not sure if I want to go either. It’s the fire brigade hosting. I, Folu and Cici are talking about how women will be Folu’s end when we talk about Adam and Eve. They don’t believe Adam had a choice in picking a helpmeet. I know Adam had a choice. Whatever he called wife would have been wife. I don’t argue much; I have never believed that arguing about the Bible is the best way. They release us early from the lectures because they see most people are getting unwell. Today is my platoon’s dance presentation. I believe I last did a cultural dance presentation in primary school. I’ve done other dance activities after primary school but not cultural. I go for a quick rehearsal before breakfast in front of the NACC building(Catholic church).
9:00 am- Today is Friday so we’re going to have short lectures because of the Jumaat service.
11:00 am- SAED lectures are for an hour. I go for my hair classes. I hear something about contributing to buying extension weaves for our Ghana weaving practice. I’m not listening, I’m on YouTube watching Dance Moms.
12pm- I and Cici go to Accounts to collect our bicycle and travel allowance, 1400 and 1800 respectively. We’re going to use our 3200 naira to paint Ekiti red. The people in the Accounts department are bitter leaves, getting angry for no reason. The man at the front desk would not even look at you if you don’t have your school ID card even if you have a picture or any other school document. This man hands me a torn 200 naira note and I ask him to change it. He shouts at me to get out. Someone will wish that man Happy Father’s Day now when he’s busy frustrating lives.
12:30 pm- I go for rehearsals again. I’m enjoying it.
2:00 pm- I wash my clothes and freshen up. This might probably be the only time I get to myself today. I go to take lunch at the clinic and the food has finished and Mammy is closed. I want to cry but I’m a big geh.
4:00 pm- Our military commandant will use parade to kill us. We have dance presentation and he carried us to the field to march. I’m the last one to get there. As I’m approaching, I hear “Doctor is coming, we are complete.” That’s more like it, I’ve missed the honour.
6:00 pm- We remind our commandant about the dance presentation. He had forgotten. He wants to assess us. Our social director goes to rent our costumes and drums. We rehearse and keep making different mistakes. Our commandant is dashing us “waka” here and there but he’s also correcting us with love. We are to meet before 8 pm to dress up.
8:00 pm- We are all ready. A little tensed. We dress up; with white tops and blue or yellow wrappers for the ladies adorned with neck and leg beads. The guys are topless with wrappers; adorned with oil, neck and leg beads and chief caps on their heads.
We begin with a fire stunt. Our social director is holding a fire torch and blows out fire from his mouth. We’ve caught the crowd’s attention. People are cheering. We dance in. I’m on the far left. We do Benin, Ibibio, Yoruba and Igbo dances. Our voices are loud and clear. I’m enjoying myself and smiling. I don’t want it to end. The presentation lasts about 10 minutes. We jubilate when we get down. Everyone is saying ‘good job’. If we don’t win, I’ll know corruption has entered camp.
Our commandant congratulates us and encourages us to work harder. We take group photographs. I return to the clinic. Folu and King took videos.
9:15 pm- I go to the hostel. I arrange my bed and go to the toilet. It’s not comfortable at all as I have to manage the wet area, try not to get an infection and be fast at the same time because soldiers can ‘clear your doubts’ anytime.
10:00 pm- Lights out. It was a good day.
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