Roa

by Munachiso Elekwa (Nigeria)

I didn't expect to find Nigeria

That morning at 5:30 am, I rolled my bags into the park in Umuahia. It was exciting that I finally got to Leave the confines of my home and environment of 15 years. I checked in and sat beside a Young Lady with Red hair. I mumbled a greeting and got settled for the journey. About two hours later, I began to see totally different places and infrastructure, random sellers between express roads, people with Sun-toned complexions, touts who literally licked the roads for extra Cash. The adventure began when we approached Kogi state, although I heard it was underdeveloped, but I practically saw men dressed in traditional briefs, holding wine kegs and coming out of thatch houses! Yes, there were thatch houses!. They still used bamboos as wood, their pots were made of clay. Most of them were dark complexioned and their women wore threaded hair. Well, I recovered soon enough from the thatch house thrill. We got to the famous river Niger at Lokoja, it was bigger than they described it. It took us up to 30 minutes to stop seeing its various extensions. I held some of the thrills to myself, because at this point, a good number of the passengers were at sleep. Towards the end of Lokoja, I saw men fishing! I didn't know fishing was still in fashion in the 21st century! I only read it in my School comprehension texts. But today I saw men Fishing. The journey got more interesting when I saw the large Rock at Abuja. I wondered why it wasn't called a mountain, because the Zuma rock in my head was like... a rock!, well then I wasn't so thrilled, I think I had gotten a full dose of thrillers for the day, and besides it was a countdown to my destination. So after a while we drove into a large park where I saw someone familiar waving. It was my Sister! A topping on the plate of things I didn't expect to see. But wait, How did She know we were close?