I'm excited about this post because I just realised this platform is my small diary, I get to share personal experiences with the world and just like a fish discovering water, I realised I was swimming in an ocean of possibilities. I mean what's the worst that could happen right.
So I partly work with international organisations like the WHO, UNICEF and the UN in remote parts of the country, and this is amazing because I get to experience different cultures as well as see firsthand what the people in these areas go through. These trips have been nothing short of amazing and eye opening.
This is me in lungun Duniya, Zamfara State.
I speak very little Hausa, but know Lungun Duniya literally translates to "a corner on earth" and this is no lie as we had to drive for about 2 hours from Gusau, the capital city then took a bike(2 people plus rider per bike).
The bike ride was one and a half hours long and we crossed some dried out rivers. We were told by the bike rider that if not for the acute water shortage that they were facing, we'd have been crossing the river via canoe. Shocked much :o.
We passed pepper farms, sugarcane plantations, huuuuuuuuuuge watermelon farms and grain farms too.
See, one thing I learned from this trip is northerners are actually hardworking. We have been so alienated from eachother that we have allowed misconceptions about other regions become the norm. I saw large farms that produce enough to feed the nation. These farms are owned and managed by villagers. These same villages have been threatened by insurgency.
The picture below shows a watermelon farm. We saw nothing short of fifty of these and lucky for me they were harvesting!
Youth playing football after returning from their farms.
After Zamfara, Maiduguri was my next stop. Had to go back to Kano then take a cab from Kano to Bauchi to Adamawa then Yobe then Borno. Saw many camps for the internally displaced along the way, these and a lot of check points manned by soldiers. Unfortunately, I lost the pictures I took (darn memory card 😠)
Maiduguri town was so beautiful with a well planned road network.
Next stop,Abuja!
Felt good to be home!! In one piece😄
