A weekend at LAUTECH 's final year brethren event

This last weekend, I set out on a journey for my younger brother, from Abeokuta, Ogun State, to Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria, destinations Ladoke Akintola University of
science and technology (LAUTECH) for the final year brethren (FYB) dinner and awards night and thanksgiving for his fellowship Christ Apostolic Church youth fellowship (CACYOF)

As the saying goes, whatever has a beginning also has an end, so the weekend marked the end of a phase for my brother and many other Lautech graduates who started their academic journey of acquiring a degree from the prestigious university in 2019.

Some weeks before the end of my brother's final exam, he reached out to me and told me that his fellowship CACYOF Lautech FYB's are planning a dinner and awards night and also a Thanksgiving, so we discussed it in terms of the decoration and planning of the event and also the possibility of me supplying some tomatoes since we were currently harvesting tomatoes planted from a school project during my farm practical year.

The journey
I set out very early in the morning on Thursday, the 3rd of October 2024, and it rained very heavily that morning from 6 a.m. till about a few minutes before 7 a.m. Once the rain stopped, I went to the bank close to my hostel and withdrew some cash.

And set out on the journey. I had to wait from about 7:10am till about 8:30am to get a bike to the bus stop; the vehicle was full in no time, and we set out for Ibadan once I got to Apaata, Ibadan. I took a bike after a long fruitless search for transportation that morning due to the rain. I finally got a bike that took me to where i first dropped some tomatoes, which I harvested for a friend, then I detried out to the bus terminal at Ojoo, where I finally got a vehicle going to Ogbomosho after a long wait for the vehicle to get filled.

The journey from Ibadan to Oyo was stress-free, but from Oyo to Ogbomosho was tiring as the road was in a terrible condition with holdups of heavy duty vehicles, which according to words from the driver have lasted over two weeks.

I arrived in Ogbomosho at about 3:30pm after about 2 hours plus, and I took a bike to my brother's hostel at UnderG, as it is called. I quickly poured out the tomatoes from the sack, which I carried into a big bowl later that evening. After I freshened up, I followed my brother to the fellowship venue, as that day was set aside for their prayer meeting.

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Later that evening I tried to put a call through to some of my friends students of Lautech whom I met during a three-month IT training on soilless farming at the soilless farm lab in Awowo.

*** setting up for the dinner ***

Very early Friday morning, I and my brother set out since he was the chairman of the planning committee for the whole event. We arrived at the event venue, which happened to be the auditorium of one of the campus fellowships in Lautech, with instructions given that their alter shouldn't be touched. We decided to do our set-up using one side of the auditorium as our stage.

I went around the building and got some wood, which I was able to put together to form our stage, after which I pleated the cloth for the background and then made some drapes at the back and also cut the side of the alter using a bigger drape, and then we added some balloons to the stage, arranged the tables and chairs, and placed flowers.

The event

The event started at about 5 p.m. that evening. An opening prayer was taken, then the MC took over, played games, and made jokes with the FYB's, and everyone present. Some of the games played were Survival of the Fittest, where participants had to dance around a chair till the music stopped, and the last person who didn't get a chair to sit would be out of the game.

Some of the stalites were called upon to mimic some of the FYB's; food and drinks were served as the DJ trilled everyone with melodious sounds; there was a giveaway section where recharge cards of various networks were called out, and the fastest person to type won the airtime.

After the awards were given, it was time for the chairman's closing remarks, and the event was brought to an end.

Preparing for the Thanksgiving

Since CACYOF Lautech hasn't gotten their permanent site, they use an auditorium in the school, which is the faculty of agricultural science lecture hall. The color theme of the FYB's for Sunday Thanksgiving was black and orange, so for the decoration, those were the colours we used with a touch of gold.

While I was at it, two of my friends from the training at the soilless farm lab in Awowo Abeokuta, Ogun State, visited me, and it was a time to actually rebond and talk about our various experiences after the training at the soilless farm lab.

The Thanksgiving

The service started at about 8am with the Sunday school, but before then myself and members of the organization department were there very early to setup the sound and also assemble the new drum set, which the FYB's got for the fellowship after the Sunday school, then the opening prayer, praise, and worship because of the special nature of the service. Time was overshoot, but it was worth it. My favourite part of the service was when the FYB's had their Thanksgiving, after which they rendered a special song before they were inducted into the alumni forum. The man of God who preached during the service admonished the FYB's and stalites to always seek God's direction for everything they do in life after the service. Lots of pictures were taken as it was the last time many of them would see themselves in a long while. We packed up the whole setup to return everything back to their location for safekeeping.

Monday morning I set out even though I was still having some fear of how the journey was when I was coming in, and although the journey wasn't so smooth, I went through it, and I arrived in Abeokuta earlier than the day I traveled to Ogbomosho.

All photos were taken by me