Day and Night in NYSC Camp

Hello pretty people!

Today I want to address the typical day and night in NYSC Camp. In my experience, the days were much easier to handle than the nights - I will explain at the end of this post.

Day
3:00am - 4:00am: This is when the the average day in camp starts (yikes!). At this time, you will begin to stir from sleep because your roommates have started waking up, rushing to bathe and use the bathroom before the rush of people at 4:00am.


4:00am - 5:00am: About 90% of the camp is awake by now, and lines begin to form to bathe, brush your teeth, and whatever bathroom needs you have (yuck!). Also at this time, the blasted OBS (Orientation Broadcasting System) team begins their daily broadcast. They start off with the Nigerian Anthem, then the NYSC Anthem, and whoever's on duty makes way too much noise about how it's time to wake up and get ready for Early Morning Meditation and Drills. Since they are a radio station, you will be subject to whatever music they decide to play... Much to my chagrin, the OBS team in my batch favored Mariah Carey and Celine Dion - No, my heart does NOT want to go on, you wicked people!
Everyone starts to assemble on the parade ground by 4:30am. Truthfully, most people get to the parade ground  by 4:55am, just in time for...

5:00am - 7:30am: Early Morning Meditation, Drills and Lectures. The first official order of the day is singing the Nigerian anthem, reciting the pledge, and then singing the NYSC anthem. Trust me, by the 4th day in camp, you'll be sick and tired of said anthems - especially the NYSC anthem, which is sung before AND after EVERY SINGLE program. After that's taken care of, the platoon on duty is responsible for prayers and meditation. Beforehand, the platoon leaders would have selected a Christian and Muslim representative to lead in prayers. The meditation is a short poem/essay written by another representative in the platoon. The general topic has something to do with Nigeria and/or NYSC.

After meditation, the corpers are addressed by the Camp Director or other official in charge. Here's where the schedule for the day's read aloud, and corpers are scolded for bad behavior from the night before (lol). Then it's time for physical training by the soldiers. Now, I don't know about other camps, but in Lagos, all we did were light calisthenics - quite disappointing if you ask me. Physical training goes on for about 20 to 30 minutes, after which it's time to sing and dance a la Man 'O' War staff. Most people enjoy this portion :)

Next up is lecture time! Now, it can be a series of back-to-back lectures, or one looooooooooooong lecture on whatever. Topics range from Language (they teach you simple phrases in the dominant language of the region) and Health to Community Development and more. You may or may not catch up on sleep at this point.

7:30am - 9:00am: Breakfast Time! After lectures, corpers are released for breakfast. If you haven't taken a bath, now's the ideal time because while the early morning meditation's going on, the bathrooms are being cleaned. Besides, you may sweat during the physical activity, so... I quickly learned to wait until this time to bathe. If you want to wash your clothes, now's a good time to get it done too.

9:00am - 12/1/2:00pm: Not another round of lectures?!?!?! This is the second most painful part of the day. You will be subjected to hours and hours of lectures. I don't know if you've noticed, but the art of public speaking is quite absent in Nigeria. People like to talk, hearing their voices, while delivering little to no pertinent information. You should attend with a friend, book, phone, hat to cover your face while you sleep off; if you're genuinely interested in the topic, it's advisable to have a pen and notebook for notes.

12/1/2:00pm - 4:00pm: Lunch and Personal Administration. This is downtime and very needed. You can take a nap; have lunch; complete "chores and errands" you have; hang out with friends; read a book; watch people; participate in any platoon activities if interested; make phone calls; etc. Really, it's a good time of day IF you can keep yourself entertained in one way or another. If you're bored with nothing to do, you'll hate yourself, camp, NYSC, Nigeria, and whoever talked you into signing up.

4:00pm - 6:00pm: Marching! BYYYYYYYYYY THE RIGHT, QUICK MARCH TIME, LEFT RIGHT, LEFT RIGHT, LEFT RIGHT, HALT! I quite enjoyed marching. Lol, I was actually made my platoon commander because I apparently have a commanding voice - *giggles* Lil' ol' me? Commanding? HECK YEAH!

6:00pm - 8:00pm: Dinner. Yes, it's time to eat again and more down-time to shower, have dinner, go to fellowship if you've joined one, etc. At this point, the "bad" corpers head over to Mami Market for a jolly good time. Food, drinks, dancing, gisting, hanging out...that's really it.

8:00pm - 10:00pm: See above. There's really no difference, unless there's a general camp activity, e.g. Drama and Dance competition, Miss Camp pageant, Welcome Party, etc.

Night aka practically Hell
10:00pm: LIGHTS OUT! I hated having to go to sleep every night. Remember what my bed/room situation was like. Having to lie in that uncomfortable bed, in the heat, without my close friends/family was as good as Hell to me. If you're lucky, you fall asleep as soon as you hit the bed. If you're like me, you stay awake for the next hour praying to God to knock you out, cursing the very idea of NYSC, crying for the comfort of home, until mercifully you drift off into sleep... I hope you prayed to sleep THROUGH the night. God forbid you wake up because you're covered in sweat, or you can feel the mosquitoes chomping away on your body!


Really, camp isn't that bad. Well, at night it is. During the day, it's not. Some people got passes to leave and would only come in the daytime - lucky sissies that they are!!! But you are a die-hard like me with Tiger blood running through our veins, ready to conquer anything and everything like Chuck Norris... This is where I stop.

Hugs until next time!
Berry.