On a cozy evening as I sat on the couch going through feeds on social media when my phone beeped, I rushed to open it, and lo and behold it was a notification from my friend and I quote "Girl People have started receiving their posting letters, go and check yours" without hesitation, I logged into the portal and behold my posting letter was there staring at me.
I was scared at first, but then I said to myself, "Whatever my faith is, I will accept it." Then I took a deep breath and exhaled, and I was ready to read what the letter contained. The first lines of the letter were, "Congratulations, you've been posted to kebbi state." At that moment, I felt my joy being cut short by an invisible cutlass.
At this point, my mind started wandering off like, "Where is Kebbi state located?" I know it's the northern part of my nation, but where exactly? I'm based in the southern part of the nation, and being posted to the north is a whole lot for me to comprehend.
As hours turned into days and days to weeks, it was time for me to do the needful by journeying to the north.
So I started packing my bags and was assisted by Mum, waiting patiently for the next day to come, but it felt like the day wasn't ready to come because it was very slow. "How can the night be so slow?" This is the question I was asking myself: maybe the night doesn't want me to travel to such a distant location.
I tried to sleep, but unfortunately, the sleep wasn't coming, so I just lay down on the bed holding my phone and checking my map. Then I discovered the number of hours I would be on the road.
I haven't traveled that far away from home before; the only places I have traveled to were some nearby states that don't take two hours on the road, but this particular one was showing forty-eight hours.
Thinking about the number of hours I get to spend on the road gives me goosebumps, but I didn't panic because I knew I was gonna meet someone who would be heading in my direction so that I could form a connection at the moment.
I got to the park and boarded a vehicle; after a few minutes, the vehicle started moving, and suddenly, I heard a nice voice from behind.
"Hi, where are you headed?" The voice asked
"I'm headed to the north, Kebbi State, to be precise," I replied.
"Wow, that's far," the voice said with a surprise.
That was how one conversation led to another, and we found ourselves getting to know each other better. Sandra was posted to the north as well, but not in the same state as me; I wasn't bothered cause at least I got to know someone who would accompany me in the nation's capital when we got there.
We got to our destination in the middle of the night and didn't know our direction; since we were new there, we asked our Google map if we could locate a hotel nearby where we could sleep till morning. Unfortunately, there was none nearby.
We stood beside the road feeling all lost when a young lady approached us and was like, "This place you guys are standing isn't safe." Then we replied by asking her if we could see any hotel nearby so we could lodge for the night, and the lady replied no.
Then she left, and we were muttering about how to get out from the spot we were standing when we heard a voice.
"You guys can spend the night at my place if you don't mind?"
We turned to see who was speaking, and to our greatest surprise, it was the young lady. Instantly we said yes because that's what we'd always wanted to spend the night somewhere, not outside, standing like statues.
So we followed her lead, and after a few minutes of walking behind her, we finally got to her house, she opened the door and asked us to go in. In that spot I was in front of the door, different thoughts started roaming my head; the scary stories I'd heard from people started swimming in my head as I was about to take the next steps into the house.
"Tari! Are you okay?" Sandra shouted.
Immediately, I regained my consciousness and replied, "Yes" I'm fine.
We entered the house, and it was just the young lady living there; at that point, I felt a great relief in my soul. We had our bath and were offered a great meal.
Her house felt like a comfort zone at the moment; it was calm, and the scents alone made it look like heaven. We couldn't go to sleep immediately because we were still feeling a little frightened but then she made us feel comfortable by sharing her story when she was posted to the north as well to serve the nation. She shared her experience and how she met the love of her life. Then we shouted in surprise, "You don't mean it?"
We didn't know when we slept off: the only thing we could remember was waking up to the smell of a nice breakfast. After having our breakfast, we bid goodbye to the young lady and continued our journey to the north.
Thanks for reading 🧡
What a lovely travel story. Honestly it was normal for you to be scared,after all you don't know her. But truly she was an angel sent to help you ❤️
Yeah, she was!! Thanks for stopping by
Hmm
The young lady is really nice because a lot of people can’t do that for strangers and not even me but I’m glad that she accommodated you guys