Frozen 🥶

Every day is just another day. At times, it’s surprising that we can’t go back to our past to live it again or to change some things that have happened.

I can remember the year 2020 when the coronavirus hit the world. It was just like a joke at first but with time it became something so serious. I was still in my penultimate year at the university and working on my final year project work.

My supervisor was a strict woman, and she really focused her attention on my project work. She told us to complete our project before vacation. But since the coronavirus came into the circle, she gave us two choices to make. Either we pause the project and continue when we resume, or we stay in school and work on it, but she won’t attend to a
ny of us.

Many other lecturers out there have been giving their students the option of working from home. They can work on their project, submit and send it online for corrections and assessment.

Hello ma! Hello ma!

Can you hear me ma?! I repeated it on the call I had with her.

I have tried her phone number several times but she never picked it up. When she picked it up, I couldn't hear anything from her.

I was frustrated and full of anger. I almost regretted having her as my supervisor.

I decided to complete my project work before going home. All my mindset was that the coronavirus wouldn't last long, maybe at most 2 weeks and it would be over.

Little did I know that it would even take months. And there will even be travel restrictions.

I got stuck at school, everyone at home also witnessed the same thing. Since dad and mum couldn’t go to their workplace there was no way they could send me an allowance to feed myself. It was that time I knew the definition of being starved.

Even the project work I claimed to focus on and a reason why I stayed got a pause because there was no money to even eat, not to talk of continuing with my project.

I was dumbfounded in my hostel, all alone, I tried reaching out to people who would help me, no positive response, they all claimed they were having it hard too. I was left all by myself.

All I was expecting was an angel that would fall from heaven and help me back then. I have never felt so miserable as such in my life. But what could keep me going forward was the phrase that “nothing lasts forever”.

I have been eating the same meal for about two weeks without any meal cutting in between. I got tired of it but at least it was still serving a purpose. I wished I had something different but there is no means of getting it even if I wished to.

The fear increased the more the food kept decreasing. I was trapped and hoped for a miracle to happen out of the blue. But nothing happened until my foodstuffs finished. Then I realized the definition of it was over.

To charge my phone was even something difficult, only a few times and a few people put on their generator. So most of the time I will have to charge at any opportunity.

I went to charge that day and then I got a notification on my phone. I was credited with 10,000 naira. Wow! I was so overwhelmed with joy that I even forgot to check the reason I was sent the money or who sent me the money.

I went to get myself some vegetables and prepared vegetable soup, I ate to my satisfaction, slept, and woke up the next day. I knew the money would finish too. But at least I can still travel home if I want.

I started to think about who could have sent me the money at a time like that and what the money was all about. I called my family and close friends but none of them knew about it. I tried to check the bank account description but I just couldn’t get any information. I also expected some calls from anyone but I got none.

Wow. Is this a miracle or something? Maybe the angel I have been expecting came in a different way. I was able to feed myself for about four weeks till when the restriction was lifted and there was movement. That was how I survived that phase. I wish I could know the whereabouts of where the money came from. If possible I could repay the grace I got that day.