A VACATION RENDITION……

Time and chance can sometimes be the best description of the ethereal entity we call world. Time and chance describes us beyond our countenances and where we inhabit in measures beyond mere rhetorics. Time and chance knows no bound in our everyday world, no doubt.

The same time and chance would bring a humble vacationer to the walls of his alma mater after about five years post graduation.

He had originally planned out to spend his vacation with his brother, Baffyand a friend, Debola who both reside in Abuja as more exclusive vacation spots were not an option at the time.

So Abuja it was meant to be. Save for the little coincidence of Baffy’s fiancée and Debola’s girlfriend being present at their different residences in the Abuja metropolis at the same time, the vacationer would have dined with Oga Jona and associates in Aso Rock. Not that it mattered, however, that the fiancée or girlfriend were around, one just likes respecting boundaries and spaces. 

An unscheduled call to Yomi, a friend who now lectures at the Faculty of Pharmacy, OAU where we both graduated from, for a holiday invite proved positive. Yomi, whom one used to call Prof from undergrad days, was honored to play host.He was well on his way to becoming a Professor with one tailing behind him.

Harmed with one’s copy of Wole Soyinka’s You Must Set Forth at Dawn, one’s scrap books, Ipad and laptop, one journeyed to Ilé-Ifè, the dubbed origin of life according to the rich Yoruba mythology. The myth itself fascinates and intrigues one. However, one was more presently interested in the serenity the University campus and Staff quarters had to offer.

And that’s what one got. A trip away from the bustling city of Ibadan/Lagos was nothing but rewarding. “A soul searching trip” as @toinlicious eventually christened it. Maybe that’s what I really did need at the time. Not sure I got that eventually though.

One’s day usually started with early morning jogging accompanied with subtle ruminations. On returning, one watches a little TV and then drift back to sleep. After all, one was on vacation. Peace of mind is when one does not have to think about work and its numerous encumbrances. Talk of bliss.

One usually lazes at home for the rest of the day. Except for the time one had to help Diran, one’s close friend, process his transcript from the transcript office in Ife. One would notice that the process still remains as slow and elusive as ever. One had to squeeze a thousand naira into some hand to ease the process.

In the evening, one might take a walk around the Road 20C staff residence of one’s host or drive to the University Conference centre to relax over a bottle of water or Coke while one continues reading You must set forth at Dawn. A wonderful book by the way.

One remembers one used to gather at the same Conference centre with Diran and Foluso to feast on their fantastic moin-moin elémi mejé which was quite difficult to resist. The moin-moin remains available. You may try it out if you ever find yourself in Ilé-Ifè. One caveat though: Go in the late morning.

At 50, the landscape of the OAU Campus has changed tremendously, one observes. There are several new buildings, lecture theatres and roads with several other constructions ongoing. Even one’s old faculty of pharmacy was getting a new wing. The OAU Campus still remains the most organized university in terms of structural lay out in South West Nigeria. Talk of GREAT IFE!!!

An excusable trip to the legendary “Buka” brought back some memories of a boisterous past. One was a regular caller in those days and it wasn’t necessarily to eat. Oneengaged in other self gratifying and inebriating hobby of drinking with one’s league of Medical student friends.

One would remember a precarious situation in which it came to one’s ears that some people actually thought one was in the department of Economics or Sociology at the time. And not Pharmacy or Medicine like my cohorts. One was indeed fortunate to have graduated on time and with a very good grade too. Youthful exuberance was unhindered back then.

That same me would become a teetotaler having abstained from all forms of alcoholic beverage for almost two years now and counting. Some miracle, people who knew one well back then would say.

Great Ife has always been dear to one’s heart and it remains so.  Maybe because one was able to find one’s self in the vacuous little cocoon one had always been situated. Great Ife laid the foundation for whatever one had become or hope to become. And one definitely plans to return to Ife either fully or on holiday again.

Many thanks to Yomi, my able host.

Foye.