THE INNOCENCE & DILEMMA OF A GIRL IN LOVE...A True Life Story

Work was a bit slow today; being Friday, scanty workload is an expected phenomenon in a typical Government establishment like the one I’m presently doing my compulsory National Youth Service program.

My Place of Primary Assignment isn’t really a big Hospital per se, but always quite busy.
Though the daily flow of Patients into the clinic is constant, I still find time to log online to read the latest gist from the numerous blogs in town.  The good internet service in the workplace serves as a bonus for me and always makes me lose track of time even on Fridays with scanty Patients load…

5pm is the official closing time for the Commission and thus for the Staff Clinic as well.
I really didn’t mind the closing time of 5pm as opposed to the NYSC speculated 2pm for corps members because I was comfortable working in the tiny air-conditioned space niched out for me to perform my daily consultation on the ever friendly patients trotting in to see the new ‘hard working ever-smiling gap-Toothed-Pretty smallie ‘Corper’ Doctor….

I must confess working in the commission has been fun and challenging at the same time….

Unfortunately, today PHCN decided to hold their power and the Generators were all out of service… the heat in my small cubicle-like office was becoming so unbearable that I decided to open the adjourning window with the nurse’s section: that was when I heard two tiny voices involved in a tete-a-tete….

It isn’t in my habit to eavesdrop on people, but the sobbing from one of the ladies caught my attention, so I decided to go ahead and listen to their discussion.

One of the two ladies discussing is the nurse I work with, Nurse J. as I like to call her…In the few months I have spent here in the Commission, her office section can be describe as the gossip center; as much patients troop in to see the doctors, so do ladies come to listen to latest gossips in her office…

“Ya Jane, I can’t live without him; I’ve sacrificed so much in this relationship to end up this way”… the lady said amidst sobbing…

I guess the young lady is younger and look up to Nurse J. as an elder sister who is mature and experienced thus the use of ‘Ya’ in addressing her… I have manage to learn a little bit of Hausa culture in my few months in the Commission as the predominant tribe here is Hausa; so it isn’t surprising that the language most spoken aside English is Hausa Language…Nurse J despite been smallish in statue was already married and having 2 kids in her arsenal…so a lot of the unmarried ladies look up to her for advice concerning relationship.
‘Yaya’ (or ‘Ya’s for short) is the adjective Hausa people use when addressing a female older than them; just like the Yoruba uses ‘Anty’

I could see Nurse J. trying to console her while she sobbed uncontrollably

 “You need to live beyond this stage of your life… in my honest opinion, I don’t think this guy loves you as much as you do love him….I think he is only a childish egoistic male chauvinist” a**hole not deserving of a good girl like you”…Nurse .J could be heard saying...

I struggled to peep through the small slit in the barricade separating our offices so as to get a better view of the little drama unfolding behind the walls…I was able to catch a glimpse of the lady crying….a beautiful fair-skin curvaceous, full breasted lady; probably in her late twenties… the color and glow of her skin show she isn’t an ‘ajekpako’ like most of the girls in the commission; even the sadness in her face couldn’t hide the radiance of her outstanding beauty and elegance…from her looks and attire, you can easily deduce she is from the northern extraction…despite her modest dressing, her well-endowed  body was still quite visible to the unaided eyes…

                                                                                                                             

“Yaya, I have been in love with this guy as long as I can remember; I was thirteen, my world evolves around him and I doubt if I can do without him’’. Walahi ta lai I’ve been totally faithful to him… If he leaves me I swear I’m gonna kill myself….

“Allah ya Kiya ye” (God Forbid)…Nurse J. replied almost shouting…
she drew the lady closer to herself while stretching her hand to fetch an Handkerchief from her handbag lying on the table

“Kada ki taba yi irin wana bazan magana a gabana kuma (don’t ever say such nonsense in front of me again)”
You wanna kill yourself just because of a guy?!!! My dear no man is worth such sacrifice”…Nurse J continued…

“What should I do yaya? I’m totally confuse and lost…where will I begin from?….I don’t know what to do again”…I really love Abu walahi”…the lady replied… now crying profusely like someone who has just been told she has only but a few days to live…

I suddenly started feeling pity for the poor girl…………. I could imagine what she was going through.

I stood there for quite a while listening to her story with keen interest.

She continued sobbing as she poured out her heart to Nurse J…………….. You could feel in her voice and narration that she was indeed in love with the Hausa Dude she was complaining about... I think his name is Abubakar

After eavesdropping on them for about 10 more minutes, I felt I have had enough of the gist and decided to go back to my seat.

Heading back to my seat, the ladies story invoked a nostalgic feeling in me… my past relationship immediately came to mind and induced ‘dysgusia’ giving me a sour taste in my buccal cavity. I became sick and enraged in an unimaginable anger.

I couldn’t place my head on why a lot of good girls will give their body and soul to a guy… make him their world…. Invest emotionally, physically, psychologically and sometimes even financially in a relationship and still get treated like piece of shit by these same guys.

I’m sure a lot of ladies pass through similar experience in the hands of heartless dudes like Mr. Abubakar…

Wonder why a guy will allow a lady suffer this much all because she chose to innocently love him…
Little wonder the popularity of the phrase ‘Men are Scum’…. SOME MEN ARE INDEED SCUM!!!.....

I was just 12years old when I first met him back then in secondary school.

He came as an angel at first, promised me the world; a future filled with so much hope for a long lasting relationship, glamour and expectations….

He made me believed I had found my Knight in shining armor, my Prince charming that will always love and protect me…. But alas, he ended up taking away my innocence and leaving me with ‘just imagine’……

What would you expect from a twelve year old…Lol... MEN...

I am sure you will be wondering if I knew what true love meant at such a tender age. Believe me when I say I was in love….Yes I was in love.

I will be sharing a bit of my story here…hope you get to learn something from me….

…At age 11, I got enrolled into secondary school; I was so overwhelmed with joy when I learnt I was gonna be a boarder student; I had nursed the fantasy of staying in the dormitory as long as I can remember….I was so happy going far from home for the first time in my life….Finally I was gonna be independent; not waking up to see my nanny do everything for me; not having to participate in the morning prayers with half-closed sleepy eyes (funny this part of my expectation turned out to be the reverse…lol); not having my elder siblings bully me around and most importantly, the thought of meeting new friends was heavenly….

It turns out Dormitory lifestyle was a bit different from my expectations…. It was challenging and interesting as well…

I made new friends; helped a lot of them and did stepped on the toes of quite a few…

I was liked by a lot of people so it wasn’t surprising that most of the seniors were fighting to have me as their school daughter… ended up having a handful of them from grade 2 to 6......that helped me evade unnecessary punishments and errands…. You dare not punish me if you don’t wanna end up in the black book of my numerous school mothers….I was their precious little baby…

The first year went by so fast and before I knew it, I was done with grade 1. Got into grade 2 with excellent grades….

Dormitory life was exciting… it helped enhance my jovial nature…. I was that type of girl that enjoyed a lively environment… no dull moment around me; always cheering people up with my endless jokes; I was loved by all even though few senior students saw me as a noisemaker because whenever I was in a gathering I was always the one talking while others listened and laughed uncontrollably… I was the human chatter-box.

On one faithful night in my grade 2, all the students, juniors and seniors alike were in the prep hall reading for the third term exams…. suddenly there was total lights out; the environment became so noisy as students were wondering what could have caused the power outage since it wasn’t time for lights out yet. The senior students tried calming down the unrest in the hall while some senior prefect stepped out to find out what had caused the unusual phenomenon...

As we were waiting patiently to know the cause of the sudden lights out, the school patron and matron walked into the hall using torch-lights to navigate their path.

‘’Good evening students, we sincerely apologize for the lights out;  it was due to a breakdown of our Generator; several efforts have been made to see if we could resolve the problem this night without success. We promise to have it fixed by tomorrow morning. Those of you having any source of light like rechargeable lamps and others should go pick them up from your hostels to enable you complete your studies for the night. Thanks for your understanding’’....Mr. Mbabie the patron, said with his loud husky voice.

After the announcement, the hall suddenly became like a market-place…students and their usual habit of murmuring… before you know it, tiny giggles and grumbling started coming from different corners of the Hall……..

Trust yours truly, me, to always seize such an opportunity to crack my unending very funny jokes to the listening pleasure of my ever loyal ready-for-a-good-laugh classmates’ goons…

As I was dishing out my usual jokes, my classmates were laughing out so loud that we became a side attraction in the hall…I was in the middle demonstrating my narration with hand gesture when he spotted me and asked a junior student among my audience sitting close to him to call me…

I suddenly froze with fear when I realize it was the prefect in charge of the Prep/Dining hall that asked to see me…

“ye mogbe (I’m in soup)…I shouted under my breath….This my big mouth has finally landed me in trouble”

To Be Continued……………………………………………………….