The Corpers were known for different mannerisms in the village. The most notable of them was w..0manizing or I should rightly say, girlizing. It was very easy for the male Corpers to chase girls since they had little or no distraction in the village. The electricity project that was started was abandoned for three years; all we’d heard were promises upon promises by the Government. For this reason, the Corpers often got depressed in the village. They told us about the need to always charge their phones, watch TV to know what was happening in the country and the world. They also told us they miss watching movies.
All my life in the village, I hardly saw a lighted bulb in the afternoon. I often saw it at night, when the little generators made their annoying crackling sounds. For those that had fuel in their tank, they would always disturb the peace of the village with their generators.
Fuel was a big issue even for the Corpers. They found it difficult to keep fuelling the generators in their home every day. Even worse, the Government had increased the price of fuel by a whooping hundred percent. This meant that we had to pay extremely more than what we normally paid. The price of fuel in our village had always been more than the Government-stipulated price because we often buy from black marketers. Even when you go outside, to the main roads to buy from the fuel stations, you will be shocked by what you would see. They claim to sell per litre but the metres of their machines have been adjusted in such a way that they measure below one litre at prices that are even more than the stipulated price. The Corpers had often complained about this instance of cheating. According to them, everything in the village was ruled by corruption.
The day we all resumed for the term was when I saw Corper Tunde. He was one of the newly posted ones. I had an instant crush on him. It was like something steered me on the inside when I saw him. He was of average height, with smooth light skin and a deep voice. He taught us Literature and had often complained about our bad English.
Sometimes he would not be able to help the laughter that often crawled into his throat because of our poor English. Most of us knew how to speak only broken English. For instance, when we wanted to go out of class we would say, ‘I wan commot.’ He was the one that taught us how to say, ‘Excuse me, Sir, may I go out.’ He added that if we wanted to use the toilet, we should say, ‘I want to ease myself’ as against, ‘I wan go toilet.’
That was if there was a toilet. All we had as a toilet was the bush behind our school. That was where we relieved ourselves—both the minor and major call of nature. The Principal of the school tried to no avail to have us build an improvised toilet. I remember we had once gathered sheaves together and tied them over two large holes. Unfortunately, when the dry season approached and bushes were being burnt, our sheaves were burnt along with the grasses.
The principal eventually gave up on the plan. Because of this, the back of our school building remained our toilet and smelled really bad.
Continue Reading...
https://goetr.com/my-crush-on-corper-tunde-led-me-to-the-lions-den-will-he-devour-me/