From Sickness to Firefighting: A Week of Unexpected Challenges

Dear Diary

Are you aware that I’m supposed to summarize my diary session under 15 minutes after having such a busy week?? I tried to seek help from ChatGPT since the AI knows it all, they were telling me gibberish! Well, we’ll have to wait for next challenge coming up next week and participate in that one besides, I’ve already missed the deadline.

22nd of September

22nd September started off on a sick note. In fact, i was so sick, I had to pay a colleague to cover for me at work. I know the whole world is against self medication but so far, so good, the malaria and typhoid medicine I’ve always taken whenever I fall sick has always worked for me.

But, I actually noticed something strange about my health. For the first time in a year I’ve been sick twice of malaria and typhoid. I hardly fall sick no matter the mosquito bites but it’s quite odd been down twice. I think is time I visit the hospital to know wats up!

24th of September

Dear diary, you won’t believe I found out I was having a job interview from 25-28 of this month while i was on my sick bed, going through some old messages in my “junk mail”. I applied to be among the team of firefighters early this year and this is when I am receiving an invitation mail… this September?? This country will never cease to amaze me!!

25th September

Dear diary, something funny happened that day!! I thought I was bedridden because of the sickness. immediately I noticed I had to go find referees to fill my form, strength came up from nowhere. Due to the high level of joblessness in the country, when you see such opportunities, even if you were at death's door, you'd find the strength to rise.

Moving about the streets of port harcourt, looking for who to be my referees wasn’t an easy task. Some of them didn’t meet the requirements needed to sign the form, while some didn’t trust me since i was just a stranger to them. My aunty was finally able to convince her colleague who meets the criteria, to sign the form.

26th September

Dear diary, locating the venue wasn’t funny at all. Google map misled me and I found myself standing in front of one big flyover. I boarded another taxi , the driver dropped me off at a particular street, where I had to follow numbers on the walls until I found “No. 228.”

It turned out the taxi driver deceived me. The driver knew the route he was going to pass was far longer for me but because he wanted to complete his passengers in his car and leave the park, he lied to me that he was going my direction.

I ended up trekking like the Israelite in the wilderness looking for no 228. Any person, I ask around the area kept telling me I’m close to the place, giving me false hope. The long walk almost crippled me, i couldn’t feel my legs any longer but at last, I finally got to the venue for the exam.

Diary, you won’t believe this officers kicked me out of their compound after my long walk in the wilderness. They refused giving me access because I wasn’t wearing a white shirt, shorts and shoes. This was something that was never stated in the invitation letter. We didn’t have any choice than to buy it. I spent 10,000 (31 steem) getting those stuff. This is something, a lot of us can get from our respective homes, if we knew about it.

Guess who was selling it at the venue?? One of the staff! A medium to make some quick cash!

After the whole verification that day, I got home so tired. Dear diary, I wish I was married, she would have helped me massage my legs and body. I had to shake off the bad thoughts going through my mind that moment picked up my phone to start task 2 challenge organized by @adeljose.

Going through the challenge in task 2, I realized how much i have deviated from decentralized tags. Something that use to be a game changer for me in my early days of steemit. I think is time, I start doing more of personal post because I have been too involved in contest, I don’t know what it feels like anymore to use tags effectively.

Talking about the second question, my comment outnumbered my post. In fact, on the day I was doing task 2, I was so happy it was a comment challenge because it’s less stressful. I just have to read, understand the post and give my opinion. You know what??? part of the reason, I couldn’t meet up in time to do “task 3” was because it was a post and I was really tired after getting back home that night.

Speaking of reading, I always have post i always run to relax with when I’m bored and they never disappoint me but the last task I did last week increased my set of people I’ll be visiting there work more often. It exposed me to other great writers and I’m happy about it.

27th September

Dear diary, we arrived again, this time at a different location for the psychometric test and written exams. Thank God, I was familiar with the new venue, so locating it was easy. The officer in charge of the psychometric test arrived late. He was asking us some questions, to know how mentally fit we’re for the jobs. He asked some few questions to know if we’re scared of heights and fire. He also asked if we can swim.

Everyone assured him, we can do all that. One was claiming, he can walk through fire and come out unhurt like the Hebrew children in the Bible. He didn’t really ask much questions, he only told us, since we can do all that, then we will meet in camp, where all this stuff are in place to test us.

A lot of people started panicking because they lied… Anyway, till that time comes. But as for me, I’m ready to fight a lion to get into the job. Is far secured and the pay is high compared to the one I’m doing right now.

28 September

Dear diary, I arrived once again for the written exam but before we started, the officers made us pass through some drills to test our stamina and agility. We did some match parade. The match parade was very funny. For the first time, I appreciated the fact that i finished from a military high school. It was a walk in the park for me.

The written exam was the easy part. It was a 20 minutes exam and it centered more on government. They were some questions I failed that I was so angry with myself. If my government teacher know I failed such question he would be very disappointed in me. Anyway, I hope for the best of grade and I believe I’ll be among the team selected for the recruitment.

Dear diary, that’s all about my week, till we see again next time!! This time with my fire brigade uniform…

Cheers!!

Cc: @inspiracion
@wakeupkitty
@yancar