My NYSC Lagos Camp Experience

Hey guys!

I was so happy when I was posted to Lagos camp for my National Youth Service because I live in Lagos so I wanted to work here and also because, it meant that it would be easier for me to leave camp if I didn't want to stay for the entire 3 weeks of camp.

I got to camp on the 2nd day of registration because my call to bar ceremony was the day before camp started and it was in Abuja so I couldn't make it on the first day. People had already told me there was no need to be there on the first day anyway, so I wasn't too bothered but I wanted to get there on the 2nd or 3rd day at least.

REGISTRATION

 To register I was told at the gate that I would need 16 passports with a red background which I found out was a lie because a few people used their normal passports.. Anyway, anything to make money smh. I took the passports and went to register and the process for me took under an hour because I got there on the 2nd day and there was no queue. For those that were there on the first day it apparently took the whole day but at least they were able to get accommodation and choose their beds. Which brings me toooo

ACCOMMODATION

Female Hostel

Those of us that didn't have accommodation had to wait in the 'reception' which really was a corridor on the way to the girl's hostel to get our accommodation. We were told that if anyone takes an exeat we would be given their spot in the room so you can imagine how slow things were. It wasn't hard at all to get an exeat however, and they were practically begging people to leave because they had too many corpers so quite a few people left and I was able to get a room.

I was on the first floor and I got a bottom bunk with only one mattress which was really uncomfortable. We were 28 in my room and only one fan was working so it was very stuffy.

The toilets were really not the best but there were cleaners so I mostly used the bathroom right after they were cleaned.

On my first night I went to Mami market to buy a bucket for bathing, a bowl and a waist pouch. Some of my friends that had done Nysc had already told me how necessary it was to have a waist pouch because it was not advisable to leave your phone or money in your room even if it was in your box.

MORNING DRILLS 

On my first day at camp I woke up to noise around 2am. Most people start waking up and having their bath at 2am and they don't care if you're still asleep so they will gist away. I can sleep through noise so I just slept back till around 3am to have my bath.

They blew their little trumpet(bugle) at 4:45am for our morning drills and I saw them making some people do frog jump for being late.

From 5:20am  till 5:40am was the Nysc Anthem and Meditation. Everyone was singing "Youths obey the clarion call" and I was just like huh when did they learn this song.Then my friend told me they had to sing it over and over again on the first day till they learnt it.

5:40 till 6:20 was Physical Training which consisted of us doing exercise while the Dj played some songs from his playlist. I think his favourites were Wizkid's In my bed, Shake body and Shoki because I heard those songs at least twice a day every single day.

After exercising we would jog round the parade ground while singing songs like 'Shoe get size..okrika get quality' or 'All these soldiers gbogbo na mumu' lol.. and then there was 'Hold something' which the guys really loved because you were supposed to put your hand on someones waist or shoulder while running. One guy actually fell down one day because he was running so fast so he could grab a girl's waist.

To be honest, I actually enjoyed this part of the day..it was fun apart from the fact that it was really early in the morning. Once we started exercising though I don't think we felt so tired.

After this we would get a boring talk while sitting on the concrete floor in our white shorts because they didn't think we deserved to sit on chairs early in the morning maybe.

We would have lectures during the day from 9am till 2pm. I mostly used this time to catch up on some sleep.

From 4pm till 6:30 we would have drills where we practised marching while some people were in martial arts or sports for their platoon so they used this time to practise.

MAMI MARKET

Mami market had everything we needed in camp. Apart from food and drinks they sold white shorts, shirts, shoes, waist pouches, buckets, pillows, etc. I bought white shoes at mami market because the shoes they gave me didn't fit right and they were already getting dirty.

These were the only knives they had at Mami market

They had a place for charging our phones for 50 naira since the rooms had only one or no charging point. They also had laundry services with washing machines at the back, a place for reducing or enlarging our boots and at least 30 tailors with their sewing machines to adjust the khaki they gave us or our shirts and shorts.

There was a suya spot, places that sold chicken and chips and Chapman apart from the usual jollof rice. So in the evening we mostly chilled at mami while the DJ played music and people danced.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

We had different social activities every night at 8pm which made camp fun. There was the Talent show, Camp Idols, Comedy night, Mr. Macho and Miss Nysc competition.

We had like 4 different cooking competitions that turned into twerking competitions. They loved having dancing competitions in camp almost everyday. They were interesting to watch though lol.
We also had Camp Blast on the last night where different artistes came to perform.

I met so many cool people and made a lot of new friends at camp. I didn't think I would stay for the entire 3 weeks but apart from the stuffy hostels and the bathrooms I had fun in camp.