NYSC registration

Towards the end of August, I got a call from my mommy saying that I had to push pause at work, get an approval for a 1 week vacation and come to Nigeria so that we can go to Abuja to register for Batch C 2012 youth corpers. Ofcourse I wondered why someone couldn't just do it for me, I mean, it's Nigeria, there is always a way around such things.

Anyways, I went.

A little background on my lifestyle here. My parents moved back to Nigeria a couple years ago and my only sibling and I stayed in Toronto. He went to school 3 hrs away from home so my parent's house was usually empty. I had my own apartment downtown Toronto because it was closer to my school and work. While I was in my 3rd year at school, I got a part time job as a leasing specialist within a property management company. I stuck with it and I became a full time staff after graduation. Now, it was a valuable experience and I enjoyed what I did but there was no way I went to school for 4yrs to end up at that job. It was a great job and paid alright at the moment but if I plan to buy that babyblue Bentley Continental GT, that crib in Ikoyi, those condos and lofts downtown Toronto, in Paris, Dubai and a vacation house in St Marteen, buy each of the unborn children private jets and pay cash for their university education, this job just won't cut it. I'm sure you see why I quit and decided to follow another path.

Prior to landing, I had been told what documents I needed to bring and I had them all. Good thing mom used to work for NYSC and still knows people there because the women in charge of registration were very rude. They were eating roasted corn and peanuts(I think) while they pushed me around between one another. 

Here is a list of what I brought with me:

• Passport photographs (just always bring lots of these whenever you are asked to bring 1 or 2)
• High school Transcripts
• University first degree diploma and transcripts
• Nigerian & Canadian passports indicating the first departure from and re-entry into Nigeria (which was ridiculous because I have been through 1 or 2 passports since I left the country. This is another situation where knowing someone inside comes to play)
• A pen because you will fill a couple of redundant forms and no one likes to let you borrow their pens in this office.

This list varies depending on what you studied and your status in your country of study and a couple of other factors, so please refer to the NYSC website, which actually gives you some information. I was appalled when I realized that someone actually updates the site even if it is once a year.

http://www.nysc.gov.ng/forignnysc2012.php

My next post will be on takeoff day or when I land in Nigeria. Which should be followed shortly by the picking up of the call up letter. Seriously, I have not been sleeping, I am terrified of going to camp.

~Kdamsel~

The BIG surprise

I had often wondered why women cry when they were getting married and I always said I was not the type to do that but I cried at my going away surprise party and I can't even figure out why I did :s. But my closest guess is that it was due to the shock and the fact that I saw most of my friends all in one place. People I didn't even expect to be there were there. They rounded up everyone and I had no idea. I am a really difficult person to fool but I guess the stress and the thoughts of moving have left me too exhausted and overwhelmed to play detective.

The party made me feel loved and made me realize how much change I am about to pass through. I realized that I will miss my life in Toronto. Memories from middle school, high school, college and university(I really didn't do much but they were all memorable stages of my life). My apartments on Fort York, Market street, downtown Toronto movements, different phases I have evolved from, pretty much everything I've known for the better part of my life.....the last 14yrs.

Nostalgia!!!!!

I know I have made it sound as if I'm about to go to war with Hitler but I'm just imagining how great and how disastrous the change could be. Personally, every decision starting 4 years ago have been and will continue to be extremely crucial and critical and must be properly calculated.

~Kdamsel~

A little more...

A little more introduction...

So, I just graduated from the University of Toronto and I am seriously considering , actually, not considering, I am moving to Nigeria. I have semi-packed my bags and all that is left is to suff them up properly, zip and lock them up. Pick up Jagger to board our flight tomorrow. So I thought until Hurricane Sandy ruined everything. The countdown now is T minus 2. Not too bad right?

Oh yea, meet Jagger. He is my (almost) 4 months old pomeranian puppy whom I am quickly growing fond of. He is a charmer.

My primary purpose of moving to Nigeria(where I was born and raised up until I was 11yrs old) is to continue where I left of. Well, not exactly. I left Nigeria in 1998 but I have been back a significant amount of times to decide whether or not I could survive there.

However, I am fully aware that going away to Nigeria for a vacay is totally different from actually living there. Now, will I survive or not? and How will I survive? The answers to those questions are what my blog is supposed to reveal.

My next major concern is the NYSC program, which I went back for a week to register in Abuja (by the way, that was my first time in that state and I have no opinion about the place, partly because I didn't stay for long, but they have some proper kilishi. Best believe I brought a lot back to Toronto with me. I bought from Baba Sweet at the Kilishi junction-lol).

Anyways, I decided to start blogging after reading many great blogs on different foreign students' experiences as they moved back to Nigeria and signed up for NYSC and seriously, that shit is scary as hell. I have this bittersweet feeling about it. I am excited because many people admitted it was fun and they met great people and made new friends and all that good shit. I am terrified because of the oversized uniforms(I hate looking stupid in my clothes), the nasty bathrooms, the 1inch mattresses, the mosquitoes, the early morning activities, the boring lectures, the shoving and rushing, the rude civil servants(ever noticed that customer/civil service workers are ridiculously rude and impatient in Nigeria?) and most importantly, the physical activities under the scorching sun.

I'm sure you realize that I was able to list more cons than pros. A FILTHY SHARED BATHROOM? WITH NO SHOWER OR HOT WATER IN THE MORNING?? Don't get it twisted, I'm no diva but a girl can only compromise so many living conditions.

I have been told that I will be posted to Lagos. Times like these, I'm glad for the "connect rule" that is deeply embedded in the Nigerian society. I cannot imagine being anywhere else, I might just not serve. What if I pick up my call up letter and it's not Lagos?? Something's gotta give.

I feel like NYSC is going to be a waste of a whole year out of my precious life. I mean, I cannot choose what company to serve with and I will be stuck at a school, teaching or a local government dealing with miserable civil servants as colleagues. Seriously?? But I guess that's the whole point of serving your nation. I just can't help but wonder why the rule changed the year I graduated. Seeing how I studied Criminology, I really wanna work with some sorta law enforcement organization like the EFCC, SSS, Customs, Immigration, the Police intelligence department, any company's fraud department, u get the gist. We'll see how that plays out eventually because you can imagine how many people try to discourage me because I'm a woman (I actually called myself a woman-lol).


So Help Me God (SHMG).

~Kdamsel~