Phone rings;
“Kim-kim, wetin you dey do?”
“Ummmm, nothing much. Just pressing phone…”
“Come out now, let’s hangout with my friends. There is a cocktail at…”
“Ha” I thought, just like that? Make I leave the comfort of my bed at this time for a cocktail or whatever and…
Somehow, I found the willpower and told him “okay, I’ll come”.
Then they came to get me! Oh boy! I had a good time.
Mature conversation!
Good music!
Made new friends that are still in my life to date and relevant.
You see, I’d gone to visit Josephine aka Khandhee in Kainji. She had just started working with UBA. She had been there for months and no one from home had gone to visit and she had been begging ” Dan Allah ku zo mani yawo mana? Please come and visit me?”
The thought of going near border for visit was still cooking but I assured her I’d visit one day.
I was in Lagos for a conference, IPPC, that had just ended and was planning on going back home to KD. She had been following up on my stay in Lagos as per concerned sister na. I had some issues with the bank and couldn’t withdraw, that delayed me for a day or so. It’s been so long, I can’t remember. This was November 2011? While we spoke she was like, “Aunty Kim, ki zo ki gan ni mana? Aunty Kim, come and see me now?”
She calls me Aunty Kim when she wants to manipulate me but na Sister K she dey normally call me on a normal day under normal circumstances. Chai. I know this but yet I always end up getting manipulated.
So I decided, ‘why not’ and changed my arrangements. I informed the parents about the plans and they were cool with it, glad ‘someone’ was going to finally visit Khandhee. I had to get to Ilorin from Lagos before entering a car going to Kainji.
That was the year I passed right in front of FGC Ogbomosho for the first time after graduation.
Nostalgia!
That feeling of being locked up In a very small space engulfed me for a moment. The tension and fear of knowing I’ll be locked in there for months visited after many years… That’s how I used to feel back then on resumption days.
I got to Kainji and was taken to UBA, that is United Bank for Africa. She was so excited, she nearly fall me for grown. Her colleagues knew her sister was coming. They all came to say hello. Ali! Ummmm, Ali Baba is what I call him. He came towards me smiling, and hugged me with enthusiasm like..
“Jesus, it’s like I’ve met him before and I can’t seem to remember” I thought and began to scold myself for this terrible habit of forgetting people. I covered up by returning the hug warmly too.
“How was your trip? How them mumsy? How is…” He asked after everyone knowingly, you know, like he knows them. “Hian. I don cast be that” I said to myself. “Maybe he has been to the house in Kaduna and …”
Well! I covered up real good, planning to ask her later where I knew him from. He has that aura around him, it gives this feeling of ” e be like say I know this guy somewhere…”
“Sister K you no know am oooo. That’s how Ali is” wow!
“Are you serious?” I asked her, shocked.
“Gaskiya ba ki San shi ba. Haka ya ke! (Honestly you don’t know him, that’s how he is)”
Phew! I felt relieved. At least I no show myself. His warmth set the tone for a lifetime of friendship. I thought I was the only one but Joy and Dennis met him eventually and they both confirmed the ‘feeling’ I felt.
It was a Saturday and one of Khandhee’s colleagues was celebrating her birthday in Mouka. I didn’t want to go. That was like travelling back the road I came and I wasn’t up to it. I’m not much of a traveller, unlike some Nomads I know.
So it was while I was lying down and pressing phone, home alone that Ali called to tell me about the cocktail. I’m so glad I went. A Federal organisation in Kainji had a series of competitions and that evening they were going to award all the winners and then have a cocktail afterwards. He was kind enough to remember that JoJo’s sister was home alone
Ali Baba ❤️
So they picked me up and we went. He introduced me to Carl, who was the person driving. He is also the one that extended the invitation to Ali and his colleagues. Everything went well. After the cocktail Carl asked,
“Do you want to go home or would you mind hanging out with my friends and me?”
Remember Carl? The one that gave me that needed vacation in https://kimbysvoice.com/2022/03/27/debb.ie-dear-debbie-my-extra-aburo/ ?
That’s where and when I met him. I was alread having a great time and going back home would mean being home alone with TV, which I no dey too watch, and phone. I opted for human company. We waka that day.
Kainji is kinda backward in terms of social activities. Surprisingly, it houses a lot of Federal organisations, some only have branches in Kainji. All military and paramilitary bodies have branches there. and institutions as well as foreign bodies. That was the town I met someone dealing in raw gold and diamonds. Wealthy but silent People dwell there. You would assume they are poor till you hear about their investments.
Anyway, so that’s how that one momentary decision altered my life forever. I had a good time and made friends for life.
My heart fails every time I think of opportunities I missed because i was ‘thinking’ too much and ended up missing certain opportunities.
Oh you don’t want to know. Sometimes just leaving the house for a moment has altered things for me but when I overthink? Hmmmm. I end up not going and missing out on lifetime opportunities, some I still regret.
I’m learning to live at the spur of the moment knowing that ‘Now’ is all I have and ‘tomorrow’ is not promised me.
I’ll tell you about the hangout my friends planned in Lagos. I’ll tell you someday.
Some of the best moments of my life (so far) happened when I made ‘spur of the moment’ decisions ‘to go or not to’, ‘to do or not to’. Most times in trying to decide i realise it’s just anxiety eating at me and a phobia for meeting new people and having to talk ‘by force’ or be seen as anti social. But I do not actually have a problem with communicating with people. I just like to do it when I’m in the mood for it. It’s not that hard.
So…
Live in the moments!
Enjoy the moments!
Don’t be too hard on ‘You’
Life is too short for that.
That may be all the opportunity you get or even the one you need.
You never can tell who you’ll meet where!
Have an amazing week but please LIVE!!!
Originally published on https://kimbysvoice.blogspot.com/2022/04/live-in-moments.html