The Christmas season is not only a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it is also generally a season that gives many people the opportunity to travel and reunite with their loved ones in other locations.

In Kaduna, some travellers narrated stories of their activities preceding the day, including a youth corps member who had to sell his shoes originally meant to be worn on Christmas day to enable him travel to his village to have a taste of his grandmother’s local delicacy.
Kwasu Zutung, 26, a youth corps member serving with the Niger State Ministry of Lands and Housing in Minna said he travelled to Kaduna for an onward journey to his village, Boro in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State but had some hitches as he had to sell his shoes to get enough money to proceed to the village. “The people I planned to travel with had gone when I arrived Kaduna and I can’t afford to miss watching different kinds of dances, church programmes and visits to some natural sites in our community,” Zutung said.
“In order not to get stuck in Kaduna metropolis, I had to sell the black Moccasin shoes I bought for N4,500 in Minna to enable me travel. It was a pair of shoes I planned to wear on Christmas day and the New Year but I had to sell it in order to raise some money and travel to the village.”
On some of the reasons why he had to travel, Zutung said: “I can’t afford to miss my grandmother’s local dishes. In the village, you see natural things you’ve not seen for a long time including palm trees.”
“If the economy was good, I won’t have sold my shoes,” Zutung said, adding, “Politicians have hidden the money getting ready for campaigns to kick-off next year”.
For some Women, the mention of having Christmas in the village with their mothers-in-law sends chills down their spines while to others, it’s fun. Mrs Christiana Ade, 39, said: “We normally had Christmas at the home of my mother-in-law, with my husband and children. But as soon as I arrived, she stopped doing the work and asks me to take over. Imagine preparing a huge mound of matooke and other dishes for about 20 people!”
Mrs Christiana who always travels to Kogi State said, “We usually arrive on Christmas Eve and I am expected to start cooking right away. I do not sleep that night and in the morning, the whole family leaves me behind, cooking, as they go to church but it’s all fun. That is what a woman should do.”
Mrs. Salama Ishaya, 45, said she always travels to Plateau State for Christmas because most of her husband’s relatives in the neighbourhood converge on her home and she would always be pleased to serve them the Christmas meal.
“I hardly enjoy the food since I am always on my toes attending to them. Immediately after lunch, I have to do the dishes, clean up the kitchen and put the house in order. This usually takes about four hours and by the time I am through with that, my husband has already left with his friends to have fun.
“Since I am too tired by this time, I always take a shower, jump into bed and sleep. I hardly have time to go out as my husband does but its still fun. This year, we have to travel again,” she said. Pastor Caleb Ma’aji of the ECWA Church in Kabala West Kaduna said Christmas celebration goes beyond eating, dancing and visitation. “In celebrating Christmas, we must show love as it is in John 3:16. For the world to have peace, we must love our brothers as ourselves. We must share what we have with people who don’t have and one must not have before he celebrates Christmas. Let’s be contented. In everything we do, let there be the fear of God,” Pastor Caleb said.http://dailytrust.info/index.php/news/13001-youth-corps-member-sells-christmas-shoes-to-travel-to-his-village

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