Vindicated

My school happened to love going out to discover new things. Unlike some other schools that only deal with theory rather than practicality, my school was exceptional.

Going by the look of things, we have to go for outings individually just to discover the map of some villages. On the outing, we had to go in pairs, and so I was paired with Blessing, the stubborn girl. She has been considered the naughty fellow in the class, but I had no choice other than to manage her since we are in the same group.

We were given the task of locating three remote parts of the northern part of Nigeria. There were twelve in the class, and they were grouped into six. We must find out new things as well as sketch the map of our journey and the remote area we would locate.

We were to carry a camera as well as our phones and what we would sleep on. The journey would take us five days since our visit was to a strange land.

We started our journey and were happy to embark on a journey to the North, although it's not an easy task since everyone is afraid of going to the North just because of the kidnapping issues. Still, we were able to make the journey possible since we were just students at the university.

When we got to the first village, named Ula, we saw so many old buildings, and the people there were so kind. They gave us shelter and food. However, their food was this village kind of food, which I could not give a name to. Ula people are engaged in crafts and farming. They only have one real cemented building, which happened to be for the richest man out of the men.

We got the details and the map of the village. We find our way to the second village, Uku village. The road to Uku village was rough and did not look like where people were living. It has skeletal mud houses, which we can count. The number of people living in the village can be counted.

“What kind of village is this? I thought the first one was bad, but now this one?” Blessing said, with her face seeming like someone who had just seen the worst thing ever.

“It's part of our findings. We need to note it down instead of complaining, I said while trying to put a little mind on Blessing's face.

Nikita Belokhonov

We saw a woman coming from the bush, and we decided to ask her to tell us about the history of the village, but we were unbelievable.

“Good afternoon, ma,” I said.

The woman ignored her as she was carrying firewood on her head.

I thought maybe she did not hear me so well.

Blessing greeted her, “Good afternoon, ma.” She was still on the move without answering, even though we were following her. Before we knew it, she threw the firewood away and started running. As she was running, she was shouting and speaking a language that we could not understand.

When she got to where some men were sitting, she began to speak some kind of the same language repeatedly to the men. The men came after us and began to speak again in the same language that looked so strange to us.

“Good afternoon, sirs,” I greeted, while Blessing followed suit. They could not answer and instead kept speaking about what we could not understand.

Before I could say a word, one of the men landed some dirty criminal slaps on my face. Blessing began to shiver as well as myself.

“Sir, why did you slap me? What have I done wrong?” I said, trying to hold back the tears that had gathered in my eyes.

They could not understand the English we were speaking, instead dragging us to places we did not understand. They took us to a cave and locked us under the cave. There is no way out. One of the men was kept at the doorpost just to guide us.

After two days, one of the men whom we have not seen before came around to see how we were faring. Although we have been fed some of their native food, The food tasted nice, but we did not know what kind of food that might be.

The man drew closer, and Blessing, who was the stubborn girl, kept mute for the first time. She was just mute, and immediately I greeted the man. I knew he would not understand English.

“Good morning, sir,” he did not respond, and immediately, Blessing said, “All these bunch of idiots who do not know how to speak English just kept us here without reason.”

Immediately, when the man heard this statement from Blessing, he turned back. I saw his look, and immediately I tapped Blessing, “It's as if he heard what you said.”

Blessing could not wait before responding, "They are all idiots and fools; how would he understand English when he doesn't look like one?”

“But his appearance looks like someone who can speak English, if not correctly, remember its the first time we are seeing him here.” I said to Blessing.

The man came closer and was speaking the same language.

“Are you talking to us?” I responded.

“No, I was talking to the guide.” We were shocked to hear him speak in English.

“Why were you insulting me, especially you?” He asked as he was directly talking to Blessing.

“Yes, I was. It's the way your people treated us. We did not do anything wrong. We were trying to ask the woman if this was just the whole village or if there was still another part outside this one; immediately, she started running, speaking a language we did not understand, Blessing said.

“Why are you here in the first place?” The man asked.

“For an excursion, We are students of the University of Nigeria, I responded.

I tried hard to explain the nature of our excursion to him, and he understood us clearly, even though he was not understanding English clearly.

He left us behind but later came back with the keys. He opened the cave and took us around the village. Likewise, he called everyone together and started explaining to them the reason we visited the village. Likewise, he was speaking in his language but later interpreted what they all agreed on. After some minutes, they began to apologize. We achieved our goals. We got home fully after four days.

Not only that, but we presented our findings, while others could not present anything. Furthermore, we were the only ones with a map and completed work. This was how we got the full mark. Our findings enticed our lecturer, and he took them to the dean of our department. It was later taken to the state governor, who visited the areas. After some months, the people in those areas began to receive development and palliative care just to sustain themselves and their families.