Pictures Can Speak

Happy weekend friends. It's always nice to our word on paper for everyone to see and know that you have a story to tell. Your story however can inspire.

Every time I come around this place to share a blog or two, the feeling still comes alive, making me feel that life has happened here and can still happen again. Today, I looked for what to share until I came across the lead image and it struck me something quite amazing that I'd be sharing with you all.

Sometimes in the year 2020, when the world was in a season of lockdown due to the threats posed by the covid-19, we decided to volunteer to sensitize the people in our locality on the dangers of the virus and how to live in that time. Sincerely, we did not consider our lives in danger, we were all about growth, sustenance, and survival for all.

The call to volunteer was sponsored by USAID and I gladly gave my word to be included in the list. Back then, there was no income and the government of our beloved nation was playing politics with the distribution of palliative. We were ready to give it all our best for humanity and to also put food on the table for our families.

The Journey To The Unknown

What counts more now is not death but survival. We were tutored on safety precautions for one week before embarking on the sensitization programs in the villages. During the time, the normal life procedures were still ongoing. There was no lockdown in villages as men and women still go about their usual business of farming and fishing.

My first encounter with a villager was when we reached Ita-Mapako. A suburb somewhere in Ogun state. The villager named Ibraheem was not aware of the pandemic. He was a local fisherman. After a brief discussion with him, I felt the pain in his eyes. His first statement got me shocked:

Nothing like that is happening here. All of us in this village have been going about our usual business. And I am not sure they would want to stay back from farming. That's our only survival means around here.

To Ibraheem, COVID-19 was only a fiction created by the powers that be to control a lot of things around the globe. Despite this nostalgia, I summoned enough courage to still speak to some more people.

You know, Ibraheem was right. He knows the village dwellers more than I. He was speaking the mind of the people. I did not bother to convince them. I just made him know what the world was suffering and the wanton destruction the disease has already caused around the globe.

For several weeks, we engaged the villagers in several health talk shows, majoring in the teachings of hand washing, sanitizer application, covering of the nose and mouth with face masks, social distancing and all the remedy factors that was taught during that period.

Some of the people laughed over it but with time, they all accepted and played along by observing all they had been taught. Our stay their was productive. And none of the villages was every reported to be sick for the whole of that period.

Soon, things began to ease down by bit and we were all incorporated back to our communities where neighbourliness and love is what we all shared.

The picture above was our passing out parade from the sensitization programme. Each time I browse through it, I look back and remember the good old days when the virus swept through the world and kept everywhere silent.