TRAVELING IN DECEMBER (2)
(Continued from Traveling-in-December 1 )
But when it came to a burial program the age of the deceased would decide the mood of the program. If the deceased was not an aged or elderly person, then it would always be a ‘painful loss’ or ‘gone too soon’, not the usual ‘celebration of life’.
It was a usual thing for the kids not to be present during the main program. They would play around and leave it for their parents and elderly ones to attend.
Then they would resurface during the Reception program when it was time to eat. This was another reason why kids loved December. “Burial Rice”
Uncompleted buildings;
During every long journey, we would always drive past uncompleted buildings. If you never ever came across uncompleted buildings, then the country had changed for good. Some would stand strong without ever being completed; one would think that their owners had forgotten about their existence. There was one which I tried keeping track of, for a very long time. I guess it was miraculously completed several years later.
And the next time when I was transversing that route again, I saw new buildings. Uncompleted and abandoned once more; standing tall and strong.
Bars;
Always open 2-4-7. The brooding spot of the bigger men. In a developed area, there was the presence of bars for every 10km of a journey. They were always filled to the brim at night. A time for people to gather and drink away their sorrows, or what they believed them to be. If you wanted to know the kind of people who came to the bar in a certain area; all you had to do was to check the kind of cars which were parked outside the structure.
Sometimes the uniformed men caused this, some sometimes it was due to accidents or other unnecessary road blockages. No one liked traffic congestion. It was another deciding factor in the course of a journey. Traffic congestion could delay a journey by 3-4 hours or even more, depending on how lucky one was.
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https://unsplash.com/@darmiedr
Vehicle drivers would keep honking impatiently as if the congestion was only affecting them the most. Cars would slow down, some would put off their engines in order to save fuel. The glasses of some cars will be wound down for people to take in fresh air. It was usually an uncomfortable but inevitable moment. After a few seconds, every car would begin to move slowly, and then the driver would ignite the engine and move for a few meters, then they would all stop again and he would stop and turn off the engine. A sorrowful cycle.
Petrol Filling Stations;
There is this saying that; if the car which you’re travelling in, doesn’t stop at a filing station to be refilled, then you’ve been kidnapped.
In the course of long journeys, you would see cars at different filing stations of their choice, lining up to get their tanks refilled.
Sometimes the queue could be long and frustrating. Other times you would just drive into an empty filling station and get your car filled, within minutes.
Once, when there was a hike in Petrol prices, it was only NNPC that sold the cheapest in the country. As such, every NNPC filling station had over a hundred vehicles queuing up to buy from them daily. Whether it was half a litre or a drop. As long as it was cheaper than other filling stations. The drivers just wanted to save money at all costs; their hard-earned money.
Heavy Duty Vehicles;
(I’ll call them the kings of the Road). They possessed every feature which deemed them fit to be called “kings of the road”.
They had enormous sizes and their horns were probably designed to cause deafness. Trust me, if you weren’t used to such sudden, loud and frightening sounds by heavy-duty vehicles, you could have a heart attack.
At night, their headlights were something else; you had to cover your both eyes while driving for you to see past them. In fact, whenever you were in a smaller vehicle like a bus or a car, everything about the heavy-duty vehicles would be so uncomfortable to you.
Photo by Zetong Li on unsplash
Such gigantic cars were very dangerous on the road. Whoever designed such vehicles did a good thing in limiting their speed. If not; half of humanity in Nigeria would have been crushed on the road by these vehicles. They were always moving slowly and lazily on the road. Despite all these, they were still having the most accidents. And those cyclists which I told you about, were sometimes the victims; because they were never precise and thought they could play games with the heavy-duty vehicles.
You would be fortunate to see a heavy-duty car not moving at the centre of the road. Over the years, most of these drivers had learnt to be so selfish. Maybe they felt bad that their moving speed couldn’t match that of other lower vehicles, so some of them decided to always drive in the middle of the road.
They weren’t moving fast, and they wouldn’t let you move faster than them. You see, that was their mindset. Lame and selfish mindset.
Horrific Accident Scenes
If you never came across an accident scene -due to reckless driving or some other factors- then you hadn't started your journey yet.
To me, driving, itself was a daily risk. And whichever driver taking passengers on a trip for several hours, was taking a risk.
It was always nobody’s portion, but accidents always happened. And the sight of a very fatal accident always brought goosebumps., a moment to pause and reflect on one’s life.
You see, You see why there was nothing fun or special about embarking on trips during the festive period.
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