WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO EXPERIENCE THIS MOMENT AGAIN!

WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO EXPERIENCE THIS MOMENT AGAIN!

MY TRIP TO CALABAR AND BACK.

It was two days before Devfest Calabar and I had always wanted to attend as I was a developer newbie which just joined the family. I told my dad 3 months before the program and he declined; which left me feeling so bad, but I got lucky two days before the program, with the help of my friend and mentors he agreed and I started preparing to leave my Home Town (Bonny Island).

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The next day being the 24th of October, We finally Left the house by (6 am) and we got the the Bonny Beach (Jetty), and boarded a boat (public transportation system), I was so afraid, to be on sea on a public boat but as God may have It, we got to the city of Port-Harcourt safe and sound, there we boarded a taxi that took us to places (I have never traveled before, so I do not know the places we stopped because I was travelling with GDG Bonny Organizers and members too). He took us through a place where vehicle tyres were dumped. There we got down and walked a great distance and boarded another bus which is a coaster which took us to another location which would be easy to board a bus to Calabar. We then got to the bus terminal and booked a bus to Calabar. It was so funny that some street hawkers came to us with flashes of Items for us to buy, most of them we turned down and more kept on coming. I was tempted to buy but I stopped myself as I do not have too much cash on me, but on second thought I decided to buy 2 Items, one which I really needed and the other was a gift from my friends. We got to the bus and everyone filled It up, the place was hot and we asked the driver to put on the Air Condition and he said that the AC Is N2800 If he would put It on, we all said no that we like the heat, then a preacher came and prayed and we all said amen and our Journey BEGAN…

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The Best 6 - 8 hours journey of my life. In the bus with everyone I know and don't, we talked, laughed, saw some amazing structures, fell in love with the road and most of the trees, we ate together, slept on the way, woke up and slept again because the journey was too long. We finally left Port Harcourt after crossing the bridge that links Port Harcourt to Akwa Ibom and after the long ride we then got to Calabar. We got to the first hotel, and which we declined because the hotel policy that prevents same gender in a room, this we wanted to do to ease cost, so we left. We then got to a wonderful hotel called Gracious Homes, where we booked our separate rooms and at night we were all freshened up and ready to go. For the first time I got to eat at a restaurant and it was truly amazing.

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The next day which was on the 25th of October #DevFestCalabar, we all woke up by 3 am, got dressed and talked and talked till the break of dawn, we got our various T-shirts delivered to our hotel, vehicles came picking us In groups and we got to Calabar International Conference center which Is one of the biggest structure I have seen and It blew my mind. The arrangement and all was explicit, during the program, and after the program everyone was so awesome, especially the speakers, and organizers and my new friends I made. Took lots of pictures with friends, and new friends, exchanged numbers, sat down and was smiling like I would not want to leave Calabar.

The next day arrived and we all packed our bags, we booked BOLT ride, which took us to a park where we were to get a bus that would take all 9 of us out of Calabar to Port-Harcourt. But it turns out that after we arrived there plans changed and we had to pay extra to get back to our hotel. The reason is that, it was a sanitation day in Calabar and as such movements are prevented, so it was easier for the buses to come pick us from the hotel, than heading to the park. Few minutes later we all got loaded up and in less than 10 minutes we started our journey back home.

We saw some beautiful places, had road issues due to the bad road covered in mud due to a heavy rainfall and dilapidated roads, but we sailed through. We bought snacks along the way, I myself who was telling people not to sleep found myself sleeping, I slept, woke up, ate, slept again and that’s how it continued till someone had to say that there’s a bomb in the bus. We were all surprised and the driver immediately stopped only for us to discover that he wanted to ease himself so we all joined in the fun and had a 5 minutes bathroom break, which was more like a 5 minutes road side stuff. It wasn’t long we got to Port-Harcourt pleasure park then we discovered that the driver was actually 1 hour ahead of time which means that he was fast while he was driving.

We then got to a stop and everyone came done, we all sat for minutes then our fearless leader said that it’s time to go, then we walked for a while to get a taxi which took us to bus stop called Lagos bus stop. There we boarded a bus that took us to the port Harcourt jetty to board a boat.

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We finally got to the jetty and got to buy things at a cheaper rate..most of my pals bought bread for their families but I bought nothing, I didn’t have money on me… We finally got on the boat, and the driver told us that he was going to carry one of his OGA as he called it. We drove for about 30 minutes when we got to Okrika behind the naval base waters….and he kept us under the sun for an hour which made us unhappy and which made me really scared,, because I had not been to that part of the river before. I had to put it together because there was a girl in our midst, if I were to be scared what will she do and the rest of my guys. We would all be scared together. Not long the OGA and his PARTNER came with their LUGGAGE we then loaded it up and Swoosh…we made our move…back to the lane leading to bonny island.

The wave at that hour which was about 3 - 4 in the afternoon was really rough, and hopefully the driver was experienced and we were able so scale through. I saw the yellow platform which I have heard many people talking about then I knew we were half way to bonny island. As God may have it I saw the shore line of bonny then my mind and heart was at rest as I was approaching my wonderful Home once again.

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