Leaving Home by Awongo Amachree - HTML preview

The Mountains and Plains of the North

They had to make a brief stop for petrol refill just as they got into Nassarawa state. While they waited, one of the passengers asked to be excused for her to get something from someone. She took longer than expected. This made everyone in the bus very angry. Some of the passengers even suggested that she should drive-off and abandoned. Finally, the driver gave in to the pressure from the passengers, and decided to drop the girl’s stuff at a nearby bus station where she can get them. Fortunately for the girl, one of the passengers saw her from and beckoning the driver to stop.

This incident got Brandon thinking just how careless and insensitive people could be. On the part of the young girl, she shouldn’t have left her things in the bus. “What if the driver decided to drive-off, what would she have done” he thought.

The next few minutes in the bus was characterized with what Nigerians will say as bad bele for the girl. Whispers and hisses were heard here and there, however the girl in question appeared to be unperturbed about any of it, especially as she was sitting in the front seat with the driver.

Slowly, they made their way into a smooth, and what later turned out to be a long stretch of road. Brandon tried his best to savor every aspect, he thought just how beautiful the scenery was in this part of the country. There were high mountains and hills nicely garnished with beautiful trees by nature.

There were some particularly Rocky Mountains which really caught his attention that he had to quickly take photos of them. These mountains had bigger rocks sitting nicely on way smaller ones, they were practically hanging like an elephant would a little tree branch. Amazingly, these mountains have been there for centuries he was later told. 

The long stretch of road led them through the ancient northern city of Kaduna. The driver chose to take a different route in order to avoid getting caught in traffic in the city center. Brandon wasn’t too pleased with this little bit of information. He had always longed to see Kaduna city, even if for bragging reasons.

The bus got noisier even as the passengers became more at ease with each other. They began to chat away but for Brandon he was too carried away by the sights outside the bus that he barely noticed the boy sitting next to him. He wasn’t on this journey for sole reason of making friends but to know new places.

Suddenly the bus stopped, and then people began to alight from it. It came as a surprise to Brandon because he didn’t hear when the driver informed the passengers of the development. They were in the middle of what appears to be nowhere, all that was before them was a long stretch of narrow road with thick forest on both sides. This got Brandon really anxious even as a thousand and one thoughts ran through his mind in that split second.

What if this was another ploy by boko haram to have people carried from different places of the country just to kill them in this desolate place? What if they were ambushed and killed? While he was on this line of thought, one of the passengers tap him on the shoulder, Brandon jerked! To his greatest relief, it was just another passenger who was only trying to get his attention.

After a while, the driver signaled everyone to return to the bus, and then they drove off. There next stop will be a village just at the outskirts of Jos. This is where a number of the passengers resides. The village had a lot of agrarian products like fruits and vegetables. Even as they got to the bus stop, the familiar chattering of a typical Nigerian market became louder, which got thinking just how people of different places are essentially similar.

At this point more than half of the passengers alighted from the bus. Brandon felt a little envious of the passengers who have reached their destination. The journey has been very exhaustive for him.

Leaving home for Brandon has come with few challenges which he successfully surmounted. However, this will prove to be the easier part of the journey as he would later find out.

………..sequel, coming soon!