by JUMAH IBEAGBAZI
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| Mbom Central School playing ground |
......The prospect of meeting other young lads and becoming friends with them was even more luring particularly now that I was becoming more aware of gender differences coupled with the physio-biological changes I was experiencing. Some weird interest or easy notice of the opposite gender and the rousing excitement at being friendly with them was becoming alarming too and discomforting...........
Just a few hours ago I had watched a video clip of my young nephew Joshua going through his routine soccer drills and I had a flashback to my young days. Several years ago while settling with puberty as a young lad, I was among the few selected to represent our local church tenager's group in an evangelical exercise. Our sunday school teachers announced it over a few weeks that our local assembly would be sending delegates and therefore volunteers were asked to indicate interest. Looking back , am not sure whether I was nominated or I volunteered , and what made the recollection a little obscure were due to few conflicts of interest. The evangelical exercise was called “ Soul Winners Train” which sounded very impressive to me even though I had no theological understanding what it was all about back then.
I had questions on my mind, what has train got to do with our church activities. I grew up seeing train pass behind my fathers house every other day, there were days it would be multiple times. The vibration of this massive locomotives would shake and rattle the foundations of our house largely due to proximity to the rail line. In my mind,” The soul winners train” might be joining a wagon or a mobile float with pageantry where we will be singing carols and jumping. I thought to myself that would be exciting. The prospect of meeting other young lads and becoming friends with them was even more luring particularly now that I was becoming more aware of gender differences coupled with the physio-biological changes I was experiencing. Some weird interest or easy notice of the opposite gender and the rousing excitement at being friendly with them was becoming alarming too and discomforting. I found myself dealing with sudden intense feeling of becoming shy attempting to seclude myself yet wanting to be close and noticed by them all at the same time.
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| Ugwunchara overview |
There was still another conflicting factor, a hidden interest that could fuel the reason for not appearing so zealous to volunteer. Juvenile interests, dreams and tendencies. Going for such meeting means forfeiting our late Sunday afternoon soccer sessions. I had consistently horned my skills that after the initial “I challenge you take one post”, our routine soccer protocols before selection of players, I always will be among the first to be chosen. Ofcourse the selection process was characterized by who brought the ball in the first place. If it was my ball, I would definitely be among those selecting who would be on my team. Sunday afternoons were usually days we played our invitational matches with neighboring villages, it was either we had the first leg or the second leg called return leg match. Not being around for such crucial matches means so much to me, I never like the burden or the weight of guilt that followed suit if my village or clan team lost such match in my absence. I usually would feel guilty because within me, I would have to process the thought and fight the self condenming thought that I abandoned them when they needed me most. We rarely lost our matches either home or away and I would always pride myself to be quick not to recall any of such match we lost. Charles, Emenike ( Rumenigue), Chi-Chi (Pianka), Ibenye (IBB) Chukwudi ( Hardy) Anthony (Sir Wule) our Goal keeper were the core frequent players back then. Once in a while we might have a few older lads like Echefu( Uragbe) Uwadi, Bekee and Monday who would join us to beef up our formation. Uwadi was the most skillful amongst them, very quick and could dribble so easily. Bekee was very militant in his approach that he automatically appoints himself as coach and stern technical adviser. Due to the fact that not all of us attended the same church or belonged to the same children's church group, majority of them did not find themselves with the kind of conflict I was dealing with. It became a common place for them to be available for all matches and normal training sessions.
Attending the meeting would mean I will not be in their company and therefore I must find something exciting to tell them just to be able to match the graphic details they will give me of their exploits while I was away. Sometimes I wondered if those illustrations were just to spite me and make me feel more miserable for being absent. Listening to their individual accounts and stories, everyone of them as characters in their story would assume the place of Pele of Brazil , or the Argentine Maradona acquiring and displaying skills I never saw them display either at our ancestral village play ground or at large the community primary school sporting field. If they had lost the match in my absence I am often saddened with the feeling that my absence had contributed yet a tingly sense of pride will be togging near the embers of my heart that my relevance to the team is obvious. Something so unusual was the different feeling associated with hanging out with my peers, it was purely a patriotic inclination while attending the church meetings was a complete different ball game. The church meeting was very solemn, an inner satisfaction that left me feeling that God is excited at my decision and devotion.
Let me get back to the soul winners train experience. When we arrived at the venue where all delegates were to converge. It was a large compound where the Presbytery resided. Ugwunchara a slum habitation at the fringes of Umuahia Metropolis . The compound was immaculate clean and quite, the walk ways were well swept, the lawns also well cut that you feel you can sleep comfortably on it during moon light tales. However I found myself wishing that this well manicured grass was the field were we had regularly football games. I quickly hushed my self for allowing such thought run through mind because this is supposed to be a holy ground not a playing ground.. to be continued
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