An unexpected win at the carnival festival

Carnival has been one event I have looked forward to since the very day I put on my all white signifying the beginning of my servitude to my country. It not only represented the day all 10 platoons fought for absolute supremacy, it was also the point where corpers realized their stay on camp was coming to an end.

Today was carnival day all over all 37 camps in Nigeria and Ikare Akoko NYSC orientation camp was no different. I woke up early just like I always do but this time it wasn't from the sound of the soldiers whistling and shouting, rather the sweet aroma of the typical Nigerian jollof rice my platoon was preparing had me twisting and turning even in my sleep so I had to get up. As usual, I was still part of the cultural committee so the first thing I did was call our president to get the costumes to avoid any funny business from the rental stall.
By 9:23 am everything was already well set up, all the dancers were already fully dressed, the food was ready, supporters were screaming our names and all we had to do was: win the other nine competing groups and end it all with a bang solidifying our position as The supreme overlords. From the beginning this felt like an easy win as the very culture we were representing was called IKARE, the tribe of the very place the camp was located and we the dancers put in massive energy to see that this dream becomes a reality.

The competition kicked off about an hour later in a descending order starting from the 10th platoon. They performed extremely well so did 9, 8, 7 and I am not gonna lie the energy each platoon gave out made me realize this was not going to be as easy as I thought it would be. Finally, it was our turn to shine but the moment we stepped out of our shade, the weather became our enemy. The skies opened up and it started to rain heavily yet the show must go on regardless. My team had to dance in the rain which really affected our performance.

We could barely make out the commands from the lead dancer pushing us out of sync and disrupting chakra flow. Initially our performance was supposed to last for 15 minutes but the rain slashed it down to just 6. We rushed back to get some shade from the rain signalling the end of our presentation and the moment we were all safely out of the storm's reach, the rain stopped almost immediately. It was at that moment I concluded the universe simply wanted to teach us a lesson.
The remaining 5 platoons did theirs as well but not under the same conditions. Results came out almost immediately and my platoon 6 came third which surprised even the best of us as we were already anticipating last place. I celebrated the win like it was the best thing that ever happened to it and it was worth it. I am definitely going to miss this place when I leave. Some faces I might never see again but the memories will always stay with me as one of the best I've ever had...
Cheerios and until next time I still remain my humble self @coderaikiri.

PS All pictures were taken by me