Old man talking here:

1. Service year: 1988 (that's 35 years ago).
2. Service state: Imo (when imo and Abia were still one state)

3) orientation camp duration = 6 weeks!

4. Allawee = ₦200 which was increased within 3 months to ₦250.

5. PPA at a village in Isiala-Ngwa which is now in Abia State.

As a northerner who schooled in ABU Zaria, it was very exciting traveling down south for the very first time. There wasn't much restriction in the orientation camp back then, so we got to hang out in the mammy market playing chess and draughts up to midnight. I made so many friends in the camp and up till today, I still occasionally bump into some.
Although the PPA was in a village without electricity or pipe-borne water, we had a swell time. Not long after I arrived the village, I got a girl friend. She had finished school and was helping her mother sell stuff in the market. I used to call her Gold and she was very beautiful. Eventually, in the second batch of corpers, I became close to another female Corper. She eventually became my girlfriend and Gold understood and stepped aside. There was no mobile phones back then and we kept in touch after the service. Gold wrote to me until I learnt later that she married a business man in Lagos. I lost touch with Flo after she passed out. At a time, we even mulled marriage but nothing came out of it. Perhaps I should have stuck with Gold because looking back, I think I really loved her more than Flo.
Service year is the time to enjoy yourselves. There's no other time in your life like it. Participate in camp activities and make friends. One day, like me, you'll have very sweet memories to to share with your kids.
And lest not I forget, I have to mention that I drank palm wine for the first time during my service year. Eme took me and Flo in the evening of an overcast day to where the tappers are on the trees. They gave us two litres and refused to collect any money. It was the sweetest thing to taste and had no alcohol smell. It even tasted chilled. When we reached the corpers' lodge we gulped the rest. Nobody warned us what would happen. We became drunk within a couple of hours. But it was a very memorable night.
I sometimes look back on my life and wish I could transport myself back in time and live one week in the NYSC orientation camp and one month at my PPA.... the fun we had cannot be compared to life afterwards.