Mammy Market

One minute, you want to be all grown up and escape the duties of a glorified housemaid carried out daily by you after high school graduation, get into college and abuse the longed for freedom, the next minute you wanna get out of the godforsaken institution and do what garduates do. Get a good paying job and paint the town red. The joke of the year!!!
College was Ok but I couldnt wait to get out. I thought the job market was a bed of roses. Actually I felt that a job was waiting for me at home. It was a rude shock when the people with authority announced the commencement of national service. A programme designed initially for fresh graduates to mingle with different cultures and to gain experience, if a little in the job industry. The programme had been cancelled due to corruption and political waste. It now served as a bottle neck to squeeze out the unemployed graduates. I dreaded it. I didnt know what to expect and I felt like I was being sent to prison. Pa was very concerned but he hid it well. He didnt want me to go too far from home but we did not even know what to think until the postings came out.
National Youth Service Corps. Well, I went to check my posting and dreaded seeing it. Yippe, I was posted to a neighboring state. I was relieved though I had started wishing behind Pa's back to be posted to the north. I really wanted to learn the language. No north for this youth. I packed my bag and set out that bright morning. In like two hours I was at the camp. I nearly swooned when I saw the number of youths like me on the grounds of the training college used. There were police officers, army officers, Man-O-War and only God knows, everywhere. My bag was searched and I was frisked. I had a sudden misgiving about coming. I thought camp was supposed to be fun,instead they were treating us like prisoners. Then came the registration, we stood out there for hours. I actually made the only girlfriend I had in the one year of service,there on the line. I was number 1,500 and something in camp. We were so many we were like ants.
Around 9pm, we were handed mattresses and we all slept whereever we could.It was definetely not fun. It took me three whole days to settle down. I had to alter the khakis , they were like 10 times bigger than me. I got lucky with the boots though. Marie and I became fast friends. We had gone to Mammy market one evening to get some spaghetti,only for us to see some nice looking girls guzzling away. They were all drinking "Shanko'' (small stout). They were later joined by another girl. She was nursing '' baba dudu'' (big stout). My mouth watered. it took an effort on my part to tear myself away from the small store. It had been so long that I had taken alcohol. I was just about to get into a relationship. I liked him very much but not comfortable with the religion factor. His religion does not allow alcohol. So ever since I met him,and decided deep inside my heart that I was gonna date him, I stopped taking 'shanko'',trying to form good girl.
Marie and I got back to my room,looked at each other and made a sharp turn. We went back to the store and bought two bottles of 'shanko'. We promised the owner of the store, Oga Ope that the bottles would be returned the next day. We had a field day with the two bottles and I didnt really wanna get up when the army officers came in the morning with shouts of''lets go lets go''. It actually sounded like ''leggoleggo''.
We went through the morning jogging and exercise. Later that day, Marie and I strolled to Mammy Market to return the bottles. We noticed a group of guys sitting down at Oga Ope's store, drinking. I was not sure about their status on camp because they were not in khakis or the whites. We gave the bottles back and chatted with Oga Ope for a few minutes. One of the guys said "hi'' and I said "hello'' quietly. If there was one thing I had vowed to avoid, it was camp romance. The guy that said hi was a big, dark guy in glasses. I noticed that it was just one of them without glasses. To me, they looked like young men that had wandered in from town. They definitely did not look like corpers to me. They radiated with confidence and there was an overall sense of maturity.
We made to move away from the store but I came to a perfect standstill when the light skinned one rose up to a magnificent height and strechted his big hand towards me for a shake. Suddenly, I felt shy and flustered. Out came the deepest voice I ever heard from a human being. I melted like butter to my toes.