Obeying the clarion call to serve my country!!!

It's a beautiful thing to serve your country or call it, give back to your country what has been given and instilled in you.

Annually, every youth in Nigeria is posted to another state in the country, sometimes very far places to serve in a program known as NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS (NYSC). As I continue in this beautiful journey I'll be using the abbreviation above, well that's because I'll be mentioning the word often.

I'll make this life journey story a series for the next 3 weeks. This is because, before the main NYSC course begins, all corp members ( people undergoing NYSC program) will lodge in a designated camp which is situated in all 36 states of the country.

I began my journey from Akwa Ibom State to FCT- Abuja some few days ago when I posted about it. This was the reason for my journey.

I was posted to camp at NYSC orientation camp in keffi nasarawa state after which I'll move to FCT ABUJA for my actual NYSC course.

Let me start by saying this is my first time in this region and it really has not been an easy one trying to adapt and adjust to an entirely different culture and tribe.

This is a summary of my day in the camp as of Saturday 30th August.

We woke up at around 3am to have our bath and get dressed in our uniforms and be ready for morning drills which begin by 5am . Soldiers were already chasing us out of our hostels and most people who came late were punished with squats and other activities.

We first went for morning meditation. A particular topic is chosen and used for the day, the topic for meditation was attitude.

We were encouraged as corpers to always have a positive attitude all the time. We were reminded that attitude is contagious and so we should be careful in whatever attitude we display to the soldiers, officials, colleagues and fellow corp members. We were then given 2 minutes to meditate on what we have heard and listened to.

Then it was time for morning drills. We were splitted into various platoons as they call it. The soldiers taught us how to carry out various march passes. All the marching protocols and parade.

We were given meal tickets to get free food served in the camp.

We also partook in afternoon lectures which lasted for about 4 hours.
Afternoon lectures was centered on ways to avoid sexual harassment and insecurities where we find ourselves. Various tips were given to us and this included not staying out late at night, avoid talking about material possession and lots more.

We were advised to report any suspicious activity around the camp to any of the officials we see.

After the day's activities, we retired to our hostels. There was a light out by 10:00am. We were expected to sleep and get our mind ready for the next day activities.