Boat tales / Traveling on a speed boat in service

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Hello, my fellow steem members. I am new to steemit and I am very glad for this topic. It is an opportunity to tell one of my stories during my service.

I served in the Nigeria Youth Service Corps in the year 2018/2019. I was posted to Odofado in the Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State. On arrival at the office of the local government inspector in Igbokoda, my colleagues and I were told that some of us will continue our journey to our primary place of assignments on a boat. You can never imagine how I felt that day. I had never been on a boat before, nor have I been close to a river or stream. I got very scared. Then, on hearing that I was the only one posted to Odofado and the trip on water will take me about 45 minutes to 1 hour, I broke down in tears. I cried so hard and insisted that I cannot go there, which was impossible. One of the rules in the service then was that we have to report to our primary place of assignments before the end of a week from our leaving camp. At the end of the day, a male colleague of mine volunteered to accompany me to the place.

The next day, we embarked on the journey. When we got to the park along the riverbank, we booked for a boat at N1,000. (I would have used a laugh emoji for this) I was helped by my colleague and another passenger into the boat we booked. My heart was pounding so fast, and I was extremely scared to the point of peeing on myself. My colleague by the name of Treasure told me to calm down and that he will be beside me. That gave me a tiny little comfort. Now, with all the comforting words spoken to me since the previous day, I was not calm. It will marvel you what made me relaxed on the journey; it was a little girl child. Yes! A little girl child about the age of 3 or 4 that sat at the edge of the boat in front of me got me calmed. I was puzzled at the child's temerity and calmness. She was like someone sitting in a bus, without being scared of falling off. At that moment, I got the feeling that there's nothing to be scared about travelling to my primary place of assignment on a speedboat.

We started the journey after about 30 minutes of waiting for other passengers to arrive. On our way, rain started, and we quickly covered ourselves with a tarpaulin. On getting to the marine police base, we were asked to raise our hands while the captain of the boat rode slowly. After some minutes, we arrived at a naval base. We were also asked to raise our hands as the captain rode very slowly. After about an hour, we arrived at Odofado, a village dominated by water. After reporting to the principal of the school I was to teach, we headed back to the corp members lodge in Igbokoda. I had to change my primary place of assignment to Igbokoda, as I couldn't stay or live on water for one full year.

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In 2019, during the general election, I was among those posted to Ayetoro, another riverine village in Ondo State, as an APO 2 to conduct an election in the ward. I had to travel on a navy speedboat. This time around, the experience wasn't like the first one; it was more fun and fast.

After these two experiences, I have been longing for another trip on a speedboat or, possibly, on a ship or ferry. I look forward to having another trip.

I'm inviting my friends @okere-blessing, @mercybliss, and @ngoenyi to join in this contest.