The Diary Game || 17-02-24 || Suffering in my village farm and covering an event

_{picture of me drinkinking palm wine}

Dear Diary,

It was such a terrible day for me. For the first time in my life I felt severe pain and happiness at the same time. I never knew life in the village is this hard not until I tried it on Saturday, a whole weekend. This is not the first time I've gone to the village though to work. I go there seldom when it calls for but I never experience such pain the way I felt on Saturday. What happened that I felt such pain? I'll give the narrative.

After the reggae on Friday played the blues on Saturday

What do I mean? On Friday, I did lot of enjoyments as shown in my diary game entry. I ate to my satisfaction and was even tired. I felt like a king the previous day but the reverse happened on Saturday.

Morning Activities

On Saturday morning as early as 4Am, I woke up to prepare for work in the village as my day arranged to leave by 6pm when it was still clear. I tried completing my review in steemkids and parents community before leaving for the village. My happiness was that when I go to the village, I'll do a lot of snapping for diary game and I'll be opportune to drink the local Palm wine as my day do bring it every day we visit the village farm.

It was high time we left the house to the junction to carry others along who indicated interest to follow us to the farm. Our purpose or aim going there was to clear a big bush and keep it ready for planting. We were about 7. Six capable men and myself. We boarded a vehicle of which the driver happens to be a friend to my dad. We arrived the village by 6:30Am as it's not really far from my hometown.

When I got there, I did what I knew how to do best, I started capturing things I saw there. This is my cousin's house and he has lots of firewood used in cooking food amidst this hard times where Cooking Gas is exorbitant. The firewoods look rich and I then captured the able men my dad brought alongside him. I didn't forget my music player as I hate working in a place that's dry and less lively. The sun was shining brilliantly to show the day would be bright.

My dad who knows the farm very well took us there with our sharpened cutlasses. We pass through lots of tracks before reaching the desert called farm or bush. When I heard we were to clear two bushes and one Is already looking as long as a train and as wide as an ocean. I felt discouraged at first but smiled though. I took pictures of myself with some of the bushes some villagers cleared.

In my village, the villagers view farm work as the highest of employment there. God forbid!!!. I can't view farm work as my permanent work. When I alighted from the vehicle and entered the farm, I took my matchet and joined the others who already started. My phone and I were best buddies even though my dad complained but I didn't give ears. My phone acted like a motivation to me. If I didn't see it, I won't be active.

Trees were too tall and hard in the bush. I heard the bush is over 8 years. No wonder it was that hard to cut down. I cut down trees and cleared those grasses in pains as my fingers and arms were just aching. At some point, my dad brought some stomach fillers for us to be active. He brought;

Palm wine
Cucumber

• Bread
• Stout

I left Immediately as I was already tired to drink the palm wine. It was unknown to me that the worst was yet to happen. After drinking two cups of the palm wine and eating the cucumber to balance up, I was paralyzed. I felt all my weight coming to my legs and making it seem like I'll fall.

The palm wine had strong effect on my brain that I started seeing two things in one. That was the end of work for me. I was kind of happy this happened to me and that I won't work again but I was forced to. I gathered some more strength and fought with these tall trees. It was a very hectic work. After all I had did, a village came to the farm and said I'm the least of the laziest person in the village and that I haven't started anything.

I immediately dropped the matchet and sat down. That was enough discouragement to make me quit. When I look at the end of the farm and what all of us did so far, I become more discouraged because it was as if we've not even started clearing the bush. We were there till 12pm still clearing. The villager said if it were them, they would have been done since 10Am.

I was like; if I catch this man, I'll wound him. Does he think we are as helpless as he is? I can't call this hardwork. This was punishment because the stress was just too much and I then imagine those who do this everyday as daily hustle. I couldn't bear it anymore. I laid down on the bush to rest. All the shouting and get up and work were in vain because I slept.

When I was up, these men were still in the farm. I was expecting that this clearing would be done before 12pm but no, we were still struggling to finish one. My work did ended when I slept off. I didn't know when I woke up I'll still see the bush still big. It was really a big portion of land I must admit. despite all the talking and pressure, I remained still. Such punishment called hardwork in the village. This is a picture of the previous day and Saturday

rejoicing with my friend on his matriculation	suffering in the village. The pain was real

When it was 2pm, I found a way in leaving the farm as I couldn't stay any longer. Luckily for me after much pressure an excuse to cover a event, I was allowed. See how I ran out of the farm never to return. I boarded a vehicle down to my house. Inside the vehicle, passengers in were just talking about the prices of a lot of things in Nigeria and how they expect us to survive. One of his sentence that impressed me is that "Even if these things reaches 50k, we'll still buy**

Laughter started expressing itself on my face. I was happy once again. Immediately i reached home, I took to preparing myself for my brother's inter house Sport and boom, I was at the venue.

Covering an Event

My aim there was to cover the event. I met yellow or freedom house doing their march past. It was nice though. When they were done, I captured some of the house members like my brother and the princess.

It was Alaba house. They did great and the Unity house. Their salute shocked everyone. It was too good and more like a parade. I guess they won the march past. Now it was then time for track events. I did the needful in ensuring o covered all the houses before the track event.

Alaba
Freedom
Unity
Charity
Peace
Red house

Under a particular canopy sat the judges, the chairmen and parents who came to watch their children display. I was indeed fun. The track events started with the kids who did their best in winning.

Most of these track were nailed by Freedom house. They are just so good in running. In no time, parents were told to run and that the winner would receive a prize of 10k in naira. The female parents were the first to run an guess what? @ngoenyi was in this race. She displayed her running skills as a fitness personnel and even if she didn't win, she ran with impact and took 2nd position. If I can share the videos here, I would have done so. My mom ran as well. Although she didn't win, she ran with so much impact. I never knew she could run this way. I was surprised but proud of her.

It was now time for the make parents to run and guess what? the young guys took over the older men. @benton3 was part of this race. He ran with impact though and fell as the 4th winner. Such an achievement. They both contributed in the joy of their children. It's not easy.

The track events were mainly nailed by unity and freedom house* and guess what? The winners were announced and Alaba house won with 106 points while Freedom house was seconded. My brother is member of this house and I celebrated with him as well. We left the venue and headed for home. My pains turned into joy. That was how my day ended.

@bossj23	mobile photographer