New friends from different tribes that I met while in camp
One of the platoon officers asked a friend and I of how we met and we told him it was just fate because God had designed it that way. One of the sweetest things about life is meeting new people and learning more from them while understanding life from their perspectives.
I am always amazed at how God always make two people meet, either on a bus, at a concert, gym, new place of work, etc and the friendship begins. Some friends enter our lives to add meaning to our lives while some would leave a bad mark where we regret ever crossing paths with them. I am sure we have met those categories of people before. Nevertheless, what matters most is that in one way or the other, we meet somewhere as fate had orchestrated it.
I love meeting new people when I go out or have a long trip, but in a situation where nothing happened, I don't force it. When I was leaving for the North to serve my fatherland, I met different people whom we boarded the car with and had a long journey for over 13 hours, though we chatted for a while, it ended as we got inside the camp. But there is this lady in the above image whom I saw as fate that connected and brought us together. We only met at the last stop where we were to take a straight cab to the orientation camp. We didn't even interact much but greeted each other. When we got to the camp and our belongings were scrutinised in case there were any disallowed items, we were cleared in and given our bed spaces.
We even got separated as I was attended to first by the security at the gate and I went straight with my bed to the hostel. After some minutes, I saw this lady too, I asked which hostel number she was given, and I realized it was the same as mine. We had to look for a suitable and comfortable hostel room. Thank God she suggested one which we were happy she did because after 2-3 days, the first room we entered where we changed our mind, there were ladies who were stealing each other's pants, bras, buckets, water etc. I was even excited more because there was nothing like stealing in the room she suggested we take instead of the first one. We washed our clothes and fetched water peacefully without screaming the next day that our stuff were stolen.
Upon our registration in camp, my state code is 0284 while hers is 0384 which makes us to be in the same platoon group. So, we did things together, went outside for a parade together, went to the market together, gist and shared funny experiences. We were like people who had met even before coming to camp. She is from the South East and it was amazing meeting someone with whom we both did things together.
Unfortunately, she left some days ago because of her health. She kept falling sick due to the stress of activities, lack of good sleep, weather conditions etc. The camp director had permitted her to leave the camp to take care of herself. When she was leaving, I felt so sad because she was the only lady with whom I interacted much especially knowing we are almost the same age.
When she left, I made sure to keep calling to know of her trip and she told me she arrived at her destination safely and I felt happy. We chatted two days ago and she told me she missed me so much. I wished her a great journey in her service year and also assured her that we would keep checking on ourselves from time to time because our meeting was a great one. Her relocation would be granted automatically because of her health and to be close to her family, I am hoping that my relocation is successful too because I don't want to be far from home.
It's a great thing to meet new friends. I have made a lot of friends after her in the camp and collected each other's numbers so we can reach ourselves from time to time while sharing happenings and experiences of life.
All pictures are originally mine and taken with my phone and a friend's phone