A New Year's Day Full of Unexpected Blessings

Down here in Nigeria, the new year is always a joyous day with loads of celebration, sharing of food between neighbors, dancing, and making merry. This year's celebration didn't disappoint, despite being during a time when there's loads of hardship. Everyone in my neighborhood made it one to remember, and today I'll love to tell you how my new year's day went.

The first seconds, minutes, and hours of the new year met me in the church. Yeah, that's literally where most new year's days meet me, and this year's own was no different. After the church service, I walked home. Even though my house was pretty far from church, there was no means of transportation anywhere around, but the street was filled with people who were either also just leaving the church, the mosque, or just chilling around the street.   There was a loud noise of music in almost every street, and when I finally arrived home, I once again thanked my maker for the privilege to witness another year after which I slept. My plan for this day was to go celebrate the new year with some of my relatives who live not too far from my place at Ijebu Ode, but something unexpected came up in the morning before I could leave.     So in the morning, while I was bathing and preparing to leave for my relatives place, I got a knock on my door, and I had to quickly tidy up to know who it was. On getting to the door, I realized my landlady had sent one of her grandchildren to bring me small chops and fruit juices to step down before the actual food arrived, and I thanked them before going back to prepare for my journey, for which I had already put on my clothes ready to travel.   Within the next 5 minutes that's left for me to leave the house, I had nothing less than 7 knocks on my door, and each time I open the door, it's someone who's bringing me new year food. While I'm thankful for the kind gesture, it's like a barrier to my anticipated journey.

To cut a long story short, before 10 a.m., I had received around 8 plates of food, which comprised a variety of different dishes, from white rice to jollof and fried, swallowed like pounded yam, and egusi soup with a lot of meat.   Staring at the food, I know there's no way I can travel with all of this meal, except I want to waste it, which I don't think is an idea, so I came up with a plan to start giving Mr. A food to Mr. D and Mr. D food to Mr. B, and vice versa, until it'll all be given out completely. Well, I couldn't achieve that, I could only give out 4, and I had to just eat what I've left and then warm the other one to be eating at a later time or by the following day.     It's a funny incident that I can't be angry about, despite the fact that it affected my plans. I had to call my relatives and inform them I couldn't come again that very day and would have to come the next day. Even though they were surprised, I explained what brought about the change of plans, and they understood.   But if it were in my power, I would have loved to just spend the new year's day around my relatives. Even if there won't be food, the joy of being around your family is beyond what some special gifts and food can give. Well, that's how my new year's day went, and by the following day, I had traveled down to my relatives place as a reschedule.

Thanks so much for your time, have a wonderful year ahead.

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