I woke up this morning to embark on a journey, a journey that'll only last a day. I walk from my flat in a medium cost housing estate in which the cost of living there is gradually escalating even though the facilities which are almost non existent are gradually deteriorating. I have to walk a few metres to the busstop because I do nor have car although I pass through a garage of six cars belonging to one man or rather boy just a few years older than I am, i won't have wondered at his wealth if he didnt stay home on his computer all day doing God knows what. People say it's 'yahoo' and I'm puzzled, does he work for yahoo or something?. Anyway I get to the busstop and I'm wondering what school kids are doing hanging around the busstop because closing time is a long way off and every one that age is in class. Out of concern I pull one of them aside and he gives me this look of disdain characteristic of Ill-brought up kids, I ask him why he is not in class at this time of day and just before running off he tells me that their teacher has not been in class for the past week and the principal can't be bothered. I get in the rickety old bus that is definitely in no condition to be on the road driven by a man who thinks he's sitting behind the wheels of a 2009 maybach model, shouting at anyone and every driver on the rode who annoys him even a little not considering the fact that he himself is breaking a hundred and one traffic rules. On my way i look out the cracked window enjoying the view of crammed neigjborhoods and structures at everything turn. Before long, the bus comes to slow stop and we aré greeted by a barricade of policemen who seem to be collecting some kind of of duty from the driver but i'm wondering why no receipt is being issued.....strange! Anyway before long we are on our way again. We travel for another one hour because of the numerous potholes and the irresponsibility of Nigerian drivers because most have no clue of the most basic of traffic rules. I finally arrive at my destination, as I scream 'owa' I am made to jump down from the moving vehicle just when I thought o should be angry, the bus conductor yells insults after me for being slow and such an 'ajebota'. I've barely walked five minutes before i'm startled by the sound of a wailing mother, her child has been missing for days and the police stand around helpless. My heart mourns for her. I keep walking and I keep passing men, women, and children whose livelihood is begging on the streets, I'm appalled at their standard of leaving. I give some of them money but how much can I give, I also wonder why people pass without giving even a little money. I stop someone to ask and he tells me that some of them are paid to help ritualists 'jazz' and kidnapp unsuspecting victims. At this point I couldn't have been more disturbed. I keep walking anyway, I stop by in a hospital pharmacy to pick up some medication and i'm puzzled at the darkness of the hallways, I ask a nurse why the lights are off, she looks at me like I fell off the moon and replied 'what do you mean what happened to the light?, NEPA has taken light now' and then she adds 'maybe they'll bring it later at night if they are happy'. I stare at her in disbelief as she walks off obviously ticked off by my question. On my way out I see a line up of patients obviously in emergency conditions waiting for 'God knows what', I walk out saddened. Anyway I continue on my journey, I pass through a local government office where voting exercise is taking place and I stop by briefly observing the process and I observe 2 voters in some kind of dilema, wondering if I could help i advance towards them but I stop in my tracks because their trying to figure out who to vote for based on how much they'd been given by the candidates and who is most likely to share something they called the 'national cake', just as I was leaving, someone hurriedly brushed pass me and as I recover from the shock of almost toppling over I see a group of men running off into the distance with some ballot boxes, I thought it ridiculous because armed officials were standing close by and didn't even so much as chase them, at this point I honestly expected someone so come out and shout 'smile, you're on candid camera!!' or 'you've just been punked!' but after 10 minutes it dawned on me that it was 'realer' than reality. I kept walking and after about 5 minutes I reached my destination, it was an orphanage home overfilled with kids that had no parents who loved them, no home, no glimmer of hope in their eyes, and seemingly no future. I drop all the things I brought for them spend time with them listening at the dreams they nuture in their heart but with no hope because they do not see how they can get good education seeing that the public schools they attend does not avail them and even when they do finish school, no matter how brilliant they are, 'making it' in this country has now become a thing of who you know. I express my love to them in tears and as I return to my humble abode I ask myself one question, 'Is this my home?'.
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