A Valentine to Remember...

I arrived at my CDS location past 9 am on the 15th of February and that was because I intentionally left home late than normal. On another day, I would have been there even before 9 in the morning but I notice there isn't anything to begin with until it is almost 10 am and that is when other corps members would be arriving too. So, I took my time to do some undone tasks at home before I left. My CDS (community development service) group is called NDLEA, which means National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. The group aims to incentivise people especially students about the misuse of drugs and to let them know the dangers of taking drugs illegally.

I don't want to digress much because I am here to describe how Valentine went for me. The 14th was the day when individuals celebrated love together and shared gifts too to mark the day. Before then, we were informed of celebrating love among ourselves at the CDS on Thursday which was on the 15th, since we wouldn't be meeting on Wednesday. We were told to bring gifts for our partners whom we were paired with some weeks back.

The leader of the group emphasised the amount of gift to buy which shouldn't be less than a thousand naira. We were told of different games and songs we would listen to and dance to. So, everyone started looking forward to the day and many of us including myself had a tough time thinking of what gift to buy considering the economic inflation, and what can a thousand naira get?

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Fast forward to the day......

As I said, I arrived at the venue at past 9 am and met just a few members on seats. It was already going to around past 10 with the same few members and we thought people wouldn't show up like they had been doing, taking excuses of not being around and begging for their names to be recorded in the attendance list, but I guess I was wrong when I started seeing other members trooped in as if they were just released from a place. Well, they made it compulsory for every NDLEA member to be around because it was a special day, and not like other days.

We didn't begin the program until it was 10:30 am and at this time, I was already getting tired, watching my wristwatch to calculate how much time it would take us to finish up and go home. Well, we began the program with us standing up to recite the NYSC national anthem and prayer, and then the secretary read the minutes' book of what was said in the previous meetings. After that, the leader reminded us of what would be happening that day as we all chorused, "We know what today is"

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The next thing was for the leader to call each person with their partners out as we sat accordingly. Those who weren't with partners were the ones who had been absent from when we were paired, and they got their partners that day by merging two ladies with one of the NDLEA bosses in the office and it went on till everyone was sure of getting someone to celebrate valentines with. We were given names like "The family of..."

Once that was done, the game began with one of the members who acted as the MC and started calling each person with their partners out. A person would be called out, asked a question about his or her partner and then, he would face the partner to confirm if he or she was right with the question and if it is a yes, a sweet was given. Before that, we were given just 5 mins to get to know our partners; their best colors, the school they attended, their PPA, their favourite food, etc. My partner had two ladies — myself and the other one. We started asking ourselves questions and it got to a stage, where we decided to go for one answer, which means that if a question was asked, the answer one of us picked would be the right answer. It was so much fun at that point.

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When it got to our turn, I was picked and stepped outside. The question being asked was "What is your first wife's favourite colour?" My first wife in this regard was the other lady since she was the one picked to partner with the guy before me. I didn't even think about it before calling out "Blue". The leader was like, I was confident with the question and when the first wife was asked to confirm if it was true or not, she nodded positively and 3 sweets were given to us. This went around until the last family was called out.

The next game was to play a song and each family would come out to dance. A boss from the NDLEA was called to be the judge in giving scores and at the end, would rate and choose the best family that danced well. Every family was called and we all danced. At the end of the game, a family was chosen as the best dancer with a percentage of 75 which was the highest percentage.

The next thing on the agenda was to cut the cake as time was already running out and many of us had started murmuring and complaining about going home. Before cutting the cake, we went outside to take group pictures and the cake was cut at the mention of NDLEA which was done by the family who was chosen as the best dancers. Though the cake was small, it went round. I gave my cake out to a friend because I was fasting at that period and it was of no use taking a small piece home to eat later.

Then it got to the stage to exchange gifts with our partners. Each family were called out to exchange their gifts openly so everyone saw what we brought for others. When it was my turn, my partner brought two gifts; toothpaste and perfume. He was confused about which one to give to one of us since we were two ladies. With his wisdom, he wrote each gift on a piece of paper, wrapped it and told us to pick. Whichever paper we picked was the gift we would take. So, I picked toothpaste which he handed to me and I gave him my gift of a body spray.

It was such an amazing day and one of the best valentines I enjoyed, and being one where I got a gift made it more fun for me. I got home with excitement on my face and realised how great it is to celebrate the month of love with other people in my group. The aim was to spread love around which was done and organised in the best way.

It was a Valentine to remember 😊😎

_{All images are mine}