My Advantage
I returned to the polytechnic the next day to open the file as directed by the coordinator. He signed my letter of acceptance and introduced me to the secretary, who opened a file for me.
The secretary handed me some forms to fill out while he attended to some students who were having issues.
I left the polytechnic feeling let down by my ppa choice. This was not what I was expecting. Ms Enoh had painted a wonderful picture of the polytechnic for me, and I jumped without hesitation.
I stepped outside the school gate and took a look around. There were numerous private hostels that provided off-campus housing to mostly students. I went further and saw a variety of houses. Some were built by locals, who occupied some of the rooms and rented out others to students.
I was already exhausted, so I planned to return the next day to look for lodging. "otondo!" someone said as I was about to cross the street to catch a taxi to the corper's lodge. Otondo was a slang term for a new corp member who had just left camp.
It was more like a military jargon used at recruit training to indicate a new recruit, most likely someone who is still unfamiliar with the norms of his new environment. When I turned around, I saw an unfamiliar face smiling back at me.
With his blue jeans and white polo, he appeared young. My initial thought was that he was a corper. I was correct. He introduced himself as Mike, an ex-corper who had passed out just before our batch arrived at camp. I introduced myself and informed him that I had been assigned to the cec unit.
His face was animated, and he screamed in an excited voice. "Congratulations, bros!" he exclaimed. "You don really hammer!" I wasn't sure what he meant, so I asked for clarification. He said the cec and pre-nd units were the best and easiest places to make quick money.
When I told him about the money the guys were offering to pay me, he brushed it aside. "Forget about that chicken change!" he exclaimed. "CEC students are big boys and girls; that is where you make your money; from organizing weekly tests to being strict on attendance to selling lecture material!" You'll be grinning to your bank by the end of the semester." He said this while smiling at me as if I were the bank.
I needed to understand what Mike was saying more, so I followed him to his room. Mike explained to me that he had also served at the poly, but had been assigned as an admin staff member working in one of the departments. He insisted, however, that the best places to serve were in the part-time program, the pre-secondary program, and the exams and records unit.
Mike was the one who opened my eyes to the realities of the polytechnic and the various ways to extort money from the students. When a girl entered the room, we were interrupted.
Mike introduced her as his girl friend, who happened to be a student of the polytechnic. “what are you still doing in idah since you’ve passed out?” I asked mike, after wondering why he was still hanging around the school vicinity.
“wetin I dey go find for house?” he replied and his girl friend chuckled. “there is no work in this country, so I have to hang around here and see if anything comes up.” He said. Mike explained that he has enrolled to do his masters program at the kogi state university, and he was keen to hang around the school to see if employment opportunity could open up and he could fix himself.
The girl friend entered the kitchen to prepare food, having been picking beans since she entered the room. It was a cool self-contained room in a nice student hostel filled up with students andsome corp members.
I inquired about the room's rent, and he did respond. It was quite pricey, but he insisted that it was fine because any cheaper room nearby would have one or more issues; if not light, then water, security, or a small room space, and so on. "Are there any empty rooms available?" I inquired.
If he said the room was adequate for the price, there was no need to look for a house.
"Not for the time being." However, some residents will be leaving soon." I made eye contact with Mike and then exited. If what he said was true, my service year would be back to the promising year of sex and comfort that it was supposed to be.
*************************************
I got back to the corpers lodge that afternoon and chifawu was waiting for me as usual. She asked how my day went and I informed her. We entered the clo’s room once more to talk. “I’m travelling this weekend.” She informed me.
“I will return before the school reopens.” I nodded; she had been postponing her travell because of me. It’s only fair that I let her go. “I want us to have that HIV test before I travel.” She told me. It was a good idea. We could walk up to any lab centre and have a hiv test.
I’ve not gone for one before, but I heard it doesn’t take time. We agreed to do the test the next morning so she could travel after it. The next morning, we went to the lab at the city centre.
The attendant asked us to wait for the lab scientist and we sat and waited. The receptionist chew gum loudly as she entered some data on a book at her desk. I wondered what serious organization would have its lab scientist absent from work close to mid-day. Later on, the male scientist came and apologized for his absence.
He went straight to the lab and beckoned on us to follow suit. He took blood samples from both of us and labeled the samples as he carefully placed them inside a glass shelve. He handed us forms which we filled. He asked us to return in three days time for the result. “three days?” I enquired.
“I thought it would be ready within 24 hours?” I had envisaged the possibility of collecting the result the next day, and use it as a valid claim for my trophy – Chifawu’s fine and warm c’u’nt before she travels.
“we have to move the samples to our headquarters inside town.” He interrupted my unholy thought. “we don’t have the facility to run the test right here.” He concluded. We left the lab and returned to the lodge.
“I can’t wait for that result.” Chifawu informed me. “I will travel tomorrow, when I return, we can collect the result together.” It was a nice idea, I just had to wait for a few weeks, I thought to myself. I hope it was worth the wait. The HIV result was going to be my password for the ultimate price. So I thought. That result was a disaster that shattered her world, MY WORLD!
The wait for Chifawu was longer than I anticipated. She called that she could not return to idah right away as she was still at her place at Auchi in Edo state.
She said some new developments had caused her to extend her stay beyond what she planned. “I’m really missing you here!” I exclaimed. I wasn’t exaggerating, I was really missing her.
I grew more attached to her and I never paid attention to any other female folk around. I had started work at the cec centre in idah poly. They were mid-way to the end of the semester and I was helping out with Mat 112.
It had to do with primary differential equations for students of physical and biological sciences. Dr Ani had informed me that the lecturer that was to handle it was on sick leave, so the students were really lagging behind in the course. That was why he was excited that I was posted to the school.
The course content was large and the lecturer had barely scratched the surface before I started. I had to fix 4 hrs of lectures per week, 2hrs on Friday afternoon and 2 hrs on Saturdays to cover up for the lost time. Worse still, the population offering the course was too big.
It was difficult to find a suitable lecture venue. We had gone far and covered more ground in two weeks and four lecture days and an accumulated 8 hours, so I took the initiative and split the lecture days; Friday afternoon for students in physical sciences, Saturday morning for students in biological sciences.
On one of these Friday afternoons, after two hours of lectures, Mike called to tell me that a student had just moved out of a hostel room.
I dashed down the stairs, and he led me to the caretaker, who showed us around the room.
As the caretaker opened the door, we both inspected it. The room was the same size as Mike's, but the previous occupant was a pig, as evidenced by the pig-themed walls, bathroom sink, toilet seater, ceilings, and tiles. The situation in the room was dire. It needed to be completely cleanup and a proper overhaul! I consented to take the room.