THE REAL NIGERIA 2

Wait! Where are we? Did we just pass Oshodi? What happened there? I saw the sign Oshodi Shopping Mall and a truly beautiful structure as we drove past, when did that happen? Plus the roads,all smooth like! Come on! What's really going on? Its made worse by the fact that my husband and kids are not at all surprised and seem to be wondering what it is that's making me so agitated. The girls ask their dad if they can have a meal at Mr Biggs' and I roll my eyes. The girls like fast food like all other children but I try not to indulge them a lot but my husband has no such qualms. We stopped at the Mr Biggs' on the expressway as you leave Lagos and they opted for the drive-through (we have drive-thru?). I asked for a strawberry milkshake sarcastically and the voice wanted to know if I wanted it in small, medium or large, which caused my jaw to drop. Someone must have answered for me as I came to with a medium strawberry in my hand making its merry way to my mouth and tasting even more wonderful than the last one I'd had at the airport as a sort of goodbye to the milkshake's awesomeness.

We were on our way and as soon as we started moving at a good pace, the girls started to droop and fall asleep and I cleared their food away and looked out at the expressway and gasped. There were miles and miles of well built apartment complexes off of the expressway in well-laid out rows and some were gated, others not, but all looked very enticing and inviting and I looked at my husband with a question in my eyes. When did all of these happen and he smiled at me like he does when I am being my very inquisitive self. When we approached the Redemption Camp, I could see what appeared to be a train station on the opposite side of the expressway and an overhead bridge. It appeared like a train had just stopped and was depositing passengers who filed onto the overhead bridge on their way into the camp. The driver, unaware of my desire to gawk, sped past and I turned my head to get a longer look and I could have sworn  I heard that distinctive 'Mind the gap' that London train stations are famous for. I turned back to my husband with even more questions but he had fallen asleep like his adorablettes. 

Had I been gone that long? Could change have happened so fast? Was it not just last August I left here? What is going on? Someone please explain it all to me! While I did not want to distract the driver from his  driving, I truly needed to know and I was sure it cant wait. 'Mr Yusuf, when did the train start going to Redemption Camp?' I asked and he answered that its been very long. Yes very long noni! 'When?' I insisted and he said he could not say really but that what is even more exciting is that the train arrives in Ibadan faster than the car could. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets! The train goes to Ibadan?! 'Yes', he said and laughed as if my reaction was very funny. He usually takes 'Oga' to Lagos and returns by train when he has appearances in Lagos. And when Oga is ready, he will call him and he makes the 35minute trip to meet him at the toll gate (of old) and drives him back to Ibadan. He continues, 'the last time Oga had a court appearance in Abuja, was my first time of travelling from Abuja on this new train and I pray he goes more often oh! ha!Mummy Morenike, igbadun wa n'ilu yi oh'!

I start to pinch myself furiously without alerting Mr Yusuf to what I am doing. Haba! This is too much! Of course this is a dream and when I awake, I will go back to the way things were (not that I wanted things to, but....but...) and even though I pinched hard, I remained awake to see the train zip past us on the highway and disappear into the horizon. Even the expressway was a joy to behold, flat and straight and uncluttered by the men in uniform that I was used to. I remember driving on this expressway exactly once from the Lagos to the Ibadan end. It convinced me that my husband was right to bar me from doing so. The undulations on the road are better imagined! It undulated sideways and could claim your steering wheel from you like a bully would snatch your candy at lunchtime in Junior school. Sleep must have claimed me because when I next awoke, we were home!

My house! I had missed this house. I love this house. Now I am beginning to understand how the girls feel  every time we return from a trip and they start to kiss the floor to let me know how much they had missed the house, even when they had had fun on our numerous trips, they loved their own home! It wasnt much of anything but it was ours and we made fun memories here!. Getting out of the car, I was almost knocked down by a ball of white fur that slobbered all over me. Waoh! he'd obviously missed my chicken that I fed him on the sly. I, on the other hand had not missed him except maybe in the same way I missed my washing machine that I was familiar with.
I had too many questions but I knew that I would need to catch up on sleep. Luckily, in the time I had been away, my body had never really adjusted to the time in America. I woke when they woke in Nigeria and started to feel sleepy when my people were preparing for bed in Nigeria. I felt a big yawn coming up and I allowed myself the luxury of being tired.

I had missed my bed! I would blush if I could! I love that bed. Too many happy family times were buried on it but none could compare with that hour on the day it was delivered! I had had to leave work to come deal with getting it set up,so I did, and four guys is what it took to set it up. Grand in design, of the finest wood to be found in the forest, it 'occupied' our room royally! I saw the guys off and locked the gate behind them and hurried back to the room, undressed (skin needed to be in contact with this bed!) and lay sprawled out on MY bed! And we bonded, for one whole hour, this bed and I......such that when the girls came back from school and ran in to see it and declared they would be the first to lie on it, I could swear that bed guffawed and winked. When I sunk into it, I exhaled and understood the title of that Whitney Houston movie all over again, Waiting to exhale. Its the nicest warmest feeling! I was finally home!