A Walk In The Hood

Primary Assignment

it has come to my notice that people in the hood are more content than outside the hood, don’t get me wrong it depends on your definition about the hood. When somebody who grew up in the hood makes 100 thousand naira, everyone will definitely know.

When you see someone who makes 100 million naira in lekki he still wants to make more, a ghetto man can throw a party over 100 thousand naira while they live in shanty, they live in mud, tattered wood buildings and some at the backyard near the gutter I’m sure you’ve seen the “Abule” song video by patoranking, that should describe the image here.

Another thing that fascinates me most about the hood are the children playing on sand and dirts. immediately they get back from school for those that are lucky to attend a school. they never fall sick, it is a part of them already, a part of there lives and existence.

During the election in a ghetto at Ibadan, a lady police officer, a female corper and I were appointed as an assistant to monitor and watch over the ballot boxes. INEC officials got there around some minutes to 9:00 because there bus was the last to leave the INEC office.

As we were coming down from the bus, one of the hood boys confronted us and was like “ Eyin kilode te pe de” meaning why did you come late to the polling boot? The female corper wanted to talk, I tapped her not to say anything, not to give a response but rather let go set up and prepare for the voting section. As we were preparing one of the ghetto men, a boy actually but we call them men because they smoke.

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{ switch to pidgin}:- when you don see boys wey them cut cotty before for face or has a mark on any part of there body, na then you go know say no be joke.

I moved closer to them and was like “ baba o ekaro sir” raising my hands in the air in a way of paying respect to them. He was happy and surprised at the same time, he wasn’t expecting me to greet him or be polite with him, but for the fact that I did that, he was happy and responded “ehn ehn iwo na ran wa abi, shey dada ni?” meaning na you dem send come, how you dey? Do well ooo”. I responded with a smile and said “ No problem, I will be at my best”. He shaked my hand asking if I was going to “trophy” he asked twice before I responded and “ Yes” but after I’m done with my primary assignment here main reason for being here, he smiled out his brown decaying teeth and asked if he was sure for an assurance that I was going take the “trophy” because if I had said no, I would be in serious trouble with the guy. We got friendly before he went back to his corner smoking his nicely jumbo moled size weed.

Along the line, one of the opposing party came to where we were set up standing close to the polling unit, I said to him in pidgin “Oga, you cannot stand there leave that place” meaning please excuse us you cannot stand there. Everybody was amazed at my outburst wondering where I came from, I stood my ground confidently and told the guy to leave..he came back the third time, I yelled at him to leave where he was standing, he left angrily while every other person had a peaceful voting.

You remember my newly made friend who offered me a bottle of trophy earlier, he said “ omo aye nie, carry on ko si anybody to ma fowokan e nibi bayi”, meaning “ continue, “nobody will touch you here today”. As the voting was going on, one old man came to meet me and said” oshey gan iru e ni mo like, ti ko gba nonsense”. Meaning thank you, you are the kind of person I like”. That is what the ghetto does to you, it gives you confidence, you can face anything,anytime, politely anyday and still make your point.

Some people see it as shouting and irrational behavior forgetting that not all human beings are calm and sensible enough to relate with or should we say they are making there presence known, because you are in the territory.

You can never be scared in the ghetto, what do you want to be scared of, things that you see everyday or things you have seen before? If it was before, i was going to be scared as that guy was shouting, but this are things I see everyday.

I said from the beginning that “ A place where light never comes up and chaos never goes off”. There was a scene of me sitting with my friends outside and some boys were passing-by, they were like “ Adugbo yi ti daju” meaning “ This area is too quiet, they must know say we dey around”, they broke bottles and disturbed the peaceful moment just to scare people.

If you have the chance to go see things for yourself at the ghetto, by the time you get back to your comfort zone, you would be filled with joy, sadness, pity and a lot of memories hard to let go, memories that makes you smile uncontrollably because you learnt new things and made new friends that at a point made you comfortable and happy. Pity that not everyone in the ghetto desire to be there but had to take what life throws at them. Sadness that you might loose all your gadget at a go and you hear the thiefs saying “ wetin don lost don lost they no dey find am meaning “one’s it’s gone, it’s gone don’t bother looking for it”. As old as I am, there are some places I go in the ghetto that I keep my phone at home. I am not a big girl at that time and I’m definitely deaf to any sound or whistles that doesn’t relate to me, anyone that wants to speak to me should call my name.

I focus basically on where I’m going, I don’t listen to anyone except for my destination, because these boys can just send a ten year old to come insult you and trigger your anger. You see a very small boy of ten telling you “ you dey mad” definitely sure none of your younger siblings could have surmon that courage to tell that right to your face and you wouldn’t do anything. You get angry and slap the boy Woii! You will just see the men that sent him come outside.

If it was just one or two of them, it is very easy to beat one and other one beat you while you transfer the pains you’re getting from the other one to the one you are dealing with. When you go deeper into the ghetto, you’ll see an old man still believing in his dreams of becoming an under seventeen in the country’s football league, an old man for that matter. He had other oppurtunities but he focused on his dream.

When I tell you the ghetto is filled up with dreamers who believes and trust in themselves so much that might want to or not want to change there destiny’s.