We had holidays. Three terms in one year and one month holiday at the end of each term. We went taken to the village for the very first time for the December holidays.
The excitement preceeding the trip and the reality was a bit underrated. We should have been more fired up. Point is, as soon as you step down from the vehicle, you become the baby of the entire community. You have uncles, aunts, cousins, etc all wanting to fete you.
I hardly ate from the house in almost a month. You will incur the wrath of the relatives if you dont stop by for meals. We had to go farming with them. We had to go to the hills to fetch the purest water ever, early in the mornings.
The water fetching was the most exciting. It was the place where you would see all the youth converge. We would bathe, wash, make new friends and flirt. Natural affection all round.
There were a couple of churches then. The anglican church dominated and most families identified with it. The church did not intrude into people's lives and love was allowed to flow. Why all this changed with the massive increase of new churches beats me.
The village night life was special. There was no electricity when we first visited. My father used gas lamps brought in from Lagos and this made our house the centre of attention at night. You would see impromtu parties all around the village with battery powered radios.
I am trying to describe without success how clean and fresh and trusting we were then.
I am trying to describe how safe we felt then. How totally one we were as a community and how religion and politics played zero roles.
Every Sunday after church the entire village will dissolve into commitees of group meetings. Age group meetings where members have fun and for tne students, we had social clubs.
After that first visit, I was hooked. We had to keep going back every December for years untill we had electricity and then higher studies and adult responsibilities made it difficult to continue the tradition. What a pity.
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