ABADI BABY!

Kamau COMMANDED me to write about the TOK trip. This is long overdue and I'm sorry but i WILL blame it on the absurdly hefty workload that IB decided is necessary to get my 45. However, i guess this will serve as reminder of a time when it wasn’t so bad to be an IB student and bring back more pleasant memories...

So we left the school like a minute or two after 3pm (so technically we were OFF SCHEDULE, YES I was looking forward to that) and got to Abadi at roughly 4:30pm, I believe. Sadly we left the charming females by the lake and looked for encampment further up in the dark dangerous hills. Much to the dismay of certain people who thought themselves a trio of wise men, they got to sleep in the village huts on HAAAARD beds, the lucky ones got the ever-so comfy chalets and the hardest bunch of 22 guys got to sleep in the bar surrounded by a myriad of booze bottles, [shout outs to Mr. Togbor and the female bartender (was her name Esther or something?)] a TV with DsTV which was unavailable and an AC which decided to breakdown when it was most needed.

OK, so we settled in and then the charming females came up to join us on our side where we had supper and then went on to do an activity. Firstly, we were shown a jar of candy and told to estimate how many pieces were in it -at this point I thought this was pretty dull. Later we did another activity. Surprisingly (for me at least), i found this quite interesting for many reasons- Firstly because the task was unusual and secondly because our initial idea underwent mind-boggling modification before our final answer. Also, it was quite amusing and intriguing as to how other peoples ideas made so much more sense(and vice-versa;) that it made you wonder what kept you from thinking further. Oh almost forgot the task: We were split into our different class groups (for some reason green was supposed to disperse so I joined Blue) and each group was given a black box with something in it. We were supposed to describe the structure of the box and what could be in it.

After this we were advised to break up into our groups to prepare for the presentation on Saturday morning. Needless to say some did, others didn’t- C'est la vie. I met with my group by the bar (strange location...?) and we were done in like 10mins. Everybody else was done at about then and somehow the barroom turned into some mini concert hall with me and Ibi on the vocals and Elom on the strings and Zahra and Nah D.....well i guess they could pass for the video girls. Oh yes, all this while Mrs. Hutchful hung out with ‘The Boys’ trying hard to not look thoroughly bored at being surrounded by an excess of testosterone

OK, ffwd, the girls eventually leave *sniff* and it’s literally Boys Night Out. Between ordering countless plates of chicken and drink (nothing naughty, pinky swear), Isaac telling Mr. Togbor about IB HGIC and his whole life story, James browning Isaac, Albert and Jerry thinking they were too deep to let go of their earphones and Leonard just causing havoc among other things we somehow got through the night up until Kamau decided that people needed to sleep and so the lights had to go but the voices could remain below hearing threshold. Consequently, Albert got into deep philosophical discussion with Kimi, Jerry stole my sleeping bag even though I was lending it to him, I tried to steal Caleb’s pillow and at about 3am I DID steal James’s cover cloth- sorry blad but I was cold. Oh yes, I did see Mr. Togbor boozing and then picking a mattress of me to sleep on (this resulted in my pilfering of James’s cloth- his expression was priceless in the morning!)

The next day we were supposed to get ready at about 6: 30, before the girls arrived. The chalets’ water wasn’t running (its called karma) and hence all bathing was done in some basement-like bathroom and a hut serving as a bathroom further down in the Village. The charming members of the opposite sex arrived and we had breakfast. Do I need to state that at this point I was a bunch of nerves because the presentations started immediately after breakfast?

Anyway the presentations started with the Red, Blue and Purple groups beginning the day. I cannot remember which group I joined but it had presentations from Paapa’s group and Harriet’s group and was evaluated by Kamau and Mwalimu. I was very entertained, informed but mostly intimidated especially by Harriet’s group which was especially impressive with an in depth dissection of the subject of Knowing Beauty or The Perception of Beauty (they flagrantly exceeded the time limit though. Ha!). Sources say the other groups were also very good but I can only base this knowledge on language…After this session we had snack.

Drum roll, trumpets blow, my group is the first group for the second session (At this point we had been split into two groups-Green, Yellow). Contrary to my expectation it went better than expected. We talked about language as a way of knowing and it’s role in limiting or redefining knowledge with the Biafra War as the case study, David dropping a couple of jokes(?) here and there. Sadly, Mr.Kitching felt that the topic wasn’t completely dealt with*sniff*. Zahra’s group talked about knowing when killing is justified and Dwayne’s group talked about Mathematics and the mathematician lack of the ability to express himself – Gartaa, trust him, would not take this and this made for some comic relief. I hear Yasmine’s presentation and Ibi’s presentation, both on History, were engaging and insightful (respect!) We were then asked to evaluate our own presentations.

Lunch was next- a choice between banku and jollof. Those of us who considered ourselves European/ Asian/ American/ (any other appropriate description) opted for jollof which by the way someone described as ‘horrid/cardboard-tasting’…. Me, I was hungry and had a third helping as did many others of the male gender (and some females too…). Next thing I knew I was sleeping as were many others until Mr. Kidane came to force us out of Dreamland and all the way to the female encampment.

Here we sat by the lake feeling all exotic and in touch with nature till another activity came along. We broke into our larger groups again and were given profiles of a tribe which we were supposed to act like. My group, Green considered itself divine descendants of a king-deity, Gbalazu who was given divine status and grace along with all his descendants by the river god, Abugri. We were then supposed to interact with the other groups bearing our identity in mind. Later we were given another scenario where our island was sinking and we had to share another island with people from other lands. We were shuffled such that there were 4 people from each group in every group. Bearing, our identity in mind we were supposed to come out with a constitution for the island. After arguing our divinity out ¼ hour the meeting somehow disintegrated.

Some guys played soccer while others hung out in the girls’ rooms…well, until Mrs. Hutchful seemed to think that this was risky (lol! with a large number of both sexes in an uneven ratio). Eventually the guys left to shower and get ready for supper and the looooong -awaited jam.

Supper was Fried rice and Chicken which could definitely have done with some spice. Then somewhere between trying to fix the obdurate AC and Jerry and Edwin doing things with the music the jam, started… it was insanely hot (the weather, that is) and the speakers bungled twice. Eventually, it was moved to Chalet 1(or was it 3?), where I can only say it was a success, thanks to HAMJ. All this time, Paapa, Anna and Edwin (Buddha himself) were making the kebabs- thanks guys, Bra Albert is proud of you.

The girls left after exchanging jets of water from water sachets with the guys outside. The night ended with more chicken and a discussion on dwarves (yes, its true) among other things by which time I had seized Leonard’s sofa.

Sunday, we had breakfast and got back our estimates of the quantity of sweets and were supposed to come up with consensual estimates (experiential ones) for our groups (the Black Box ones). Sefa then won the jar with an estimate of 214 sweets, which was actually 210, I think (London juju) and all hands were on deck for its consumption. Next, we were supposed to make 2min evaluation-presentation of the blog. Reviews were generally good but EVERY group wanted facebook unblocked (hint, hint). Some more chicken and then we hit the road. En route, Isaac organized a turkey-backside (chofi/kyofi) feast at the back of bus. I’m not sure when we got back but expressions were ambivalent.

This trip taught me that the idea of 22 boys sleeping in a bar is not as absurd as it sounds, opening one’s mind to other opinions does wonders and that I have to get out of IB!

Pretty long; guess I got carried away by the memories

*Did I mention that the bus left 2 people and that the dwarves had their revenge on Isaac? -Only in the graduating class of 2010!*