MY MORIT EXPERIENCE: A Tale of my first time Volunteering

 

MORIT  EXPERIENCE

 

Standing under Oshodi Bridge waiting like a groom whose wife is being brought to him is the perfect depiction of my situation that Monday morning. Till tomorrow neither Tise nor myself accepts that we caused the mix up in the description of routes. After waiting for over an hour (she’d claim it was 27mins, but believe me I’m the author of this piece) she showed up in her royal majesty and the journey to Oyigas’ station began.

 

As a Lagosian, you must have found yourself at the mercy of Lagos conductors especially when you don’t know where you’re going. Every minute, you have to remind the driver of the busstop you would alight. Same thing happened this day. “Driver …. wa oo oo, we don’t know there ooo”, was our anthem for every bus stop we got to. After consistent nods of acknowledgement amidst smirking glances from fellow passengers, we decided to stop. One hour and thirteen bus stops later, we finally arrived at Oyigas’ place where we saw a varieties of stationaries our boss gathered for the kids. This included different stationeries ranging from pencils, pens, 3D, 2B, 20leaves, 40leaves, 60leaves, textbooks, dictionaries, over 200 school bags and lunch boxes.

 

After some chitchats, bants, exchange of friendly insults, the real journey began. Again, we were faced the confusion of the route to take again. “O god affliction shall not rise for the second time”, was my silent little prayer. Who to blame for this, I don’t even know. First blame was on Oyiga who we relied on to direct us there considering the fact that he was there prior to the D-daywhich was three days ago. How can this young man not remember the road he used last week? It’s not like he has his job, family, career path, and a dozen other things to think of? Second blame was on Google map. LOL. Just LOL. You’d think you’re computer savvy until Google map begin to direct you all around the city of Ajegunle. Whoever said Google map makes travel easier haven’t been to the slums of Ajegunle. Either no one went there to properly map out the area or they were scared of the occupants dwelling there. Have you ever been to a place where you are scared to even ask for directions? At some point Oyiga asked us to put our faces down in the car because we could not hide the bewilderment on our faces when we noticed the acts that goes down there ( don’t ask me to elaborate, I plead the 5th). 

 

Eventually after going around the city of Ajegunle, passing in front of my destination thrice, we finally found the school. Apparently it was behind a shop where local herbs, dry gin, and varieties of alcoholic. At this point I was numb already. It was just a small open space at the back of that seller that was demarcated with blackboards. It was so small I could call someone with my “bedroom voice” from one side of the room and the other person would hear every bit of what I said. After that sight, I just began to feel so sad. The state of the whole structure did not meet any form of standard. It reminded me of another this nation stole from us. Right to basic education. Then we went in.

 

“Good morning ma!!!, we are happy to see you. God bless you ma, amen!!!’ was what was we were greeted with, and when I say all the stress we went through on our way there dissipated into thin air, believe me. My insides leapt for joy and I began to feel all the dead butterflies in my belly get a rude awakening. Is this what love feels like? Why are they so cute? Their hopeful innocent faces lit up my mood? It was so pure I was beginning to think they were some 400L PFA students. Their innocent faces is something I’ll take with me for a very long time. It gave me a feeling of nostalgia and reminded me of a time when I didn’t have bills to pay and my biggest worries was how to beg my mum to buy me pink beads instead of the brown wooden ones. 

 

As excited as they were on seeing guests at their school, they still needed to maintain composure and not make a mess of their whole sitting situations. They were a joy to behold and my biggest surge of feelings came when I saw the excitement on their faces when they saw the things we brought for them. Their smiles were so full and you could tell it wasn’t fake. I don’t blame them, I'd cry with smiles if I saw that most of my basic needs were met.

 

After a little over an hour, their break time was over. During this time, I’d shook every 113 of them, asked of names of 80% of them, played all sorts of childhood table games, settled fights between siblings, friends, seat partner, old fights, new ones, theft of pencils, rulers, crayons, sharpener, etc., call me Judge Judith. Almost back to reality folks! Now we have to work. Why does every little piece of fun ends soon as an adult? LOL. Now came the time to share the presents we brought to them. We decided to get serious business. First, we divided the stationeries first, ensured we had enough to go around fairly. Then we moved to the biscuits, sweets, cheeseballs, fruit juices to get their curiosity one more time. 

 

During all these sharing one that made me happy most was when we wanted to share the school bags and lunch boxes we got for them. It happens that we had different superheroes artwork designs on the body of each piece. We already shared it to them when one of them was curious enough to notice they all had different super heroes drawn on them. That was when the ruckus began. They are wanted transformers and turtle ninjas. No wanted spider-man, superman, black widow, bat man and all the other super heroes. You can know what a child would be like while growing from their choices of superheroes. Girls were picking different types of Barbie series, snow white, power puffs girls, Cinderella, etc. Although they some girls among them that wanted male heroes. You’d see the true beauty girlies up from their choices. 

 

Eventually, we were done sharing everything we brought there and it was time to go. The looks of disappointment on their faces sank my heart. The babies that were attached to us didn’t want to let go of our hands. We then had a photo-shoot session where we took individual, group, classes, general pictures, etc. After the pictures we went to a nearby Chicken Republic and got food (Oyiga didn’t buy us hollandia yorgurt). This part was very important because we were about to face Lagos traffic.

 

The journey back home was the same old Lagos traffic style. Took almost the same time as going in the morning except this time everyone is tired and stressed from a work filled Monday. At the end of the day when my head hit the pillow, I concluded that my day went great. 

Your’s Sincerely 

Sanusi.