Tuesday 20 August 2019

A Home Away from Home

For my NYSC, my PPA was a school - Community Secondary School - in a remote town called Mbeke-Ishieke in Ebonyi state. When I reported there the first time, a day after I left the NYSC camp at Afikpo, I didn't quite believe that people lived in the vicinity of the school. As the okada man who brought me turned from the bad road and joined the bridle path which led to the school gates, all I could see from my vantage point on the pillion seat were an expanse of cassava farms, goats with triangular wooden crisscrosses hanging on their necks, a stretch of rice fields, an expanse of uncultivated land, no houses or huts, no humans.

But I didn't feel quite downtrodden. I knew I was going to stay, maybe I even wanted to stay. I stayed, for close to a year, and discovered the most hospitable community of human beings. After my service, I never wanted to leave. Now, miles away from Mbeke, I often miss the place, the people, the students, the well-read principal, Mr Dominic Ezeh. One day, I'm sure, I'll visit Mbeke-Ishieke.