Back To A Camp Carnival - Memorable Efforts & Remarks

I knew right away when I was taking pictures of the whole event I was witnessing that I would someday write about it but I never thought it would take this long for me to do that. I guess I got lazy or felt it would be more exciting to write about it long after that day. Today being a throwback day seem to be the right time for me to look back and smile with these pictures.

I had never been to any carnival event until about 8 months ago at the service camp I was obligated to be part of as a graduate and citizen of my country.

The event took place on the last week of the 3 weeks we had to spend in the camp. It was called a carnival feast but I saw too much of a cultural day than a carnival but more than that, I had so much fun watching the beautiful display of different cultures of Nigeria in one place.

We were told before we entered the camp to come with our native wears (to show one's culture) but I guess a few of us didn't take that order seriously and I was one of them. I've only wore my native attire once but I can't remember what happened to those wears so I didn't have any for this particular occasion so I went with one of my ankara gown which just happened to fit in kinda.

While the whole event was fun, the preparation aspect taught me more about togetherness and creativity. I witnessed my fellow group members get together to make sure the culture given to us would be displayed in the best manner even though nothing was given to us to make these preparations.

We had little resources but we succeeded in displaying the culture (Efik) as you can see in the pictures above. It's a tribe in Nigeria that has fish as a significant part of their culture. They are also known for canoes making, we came up with an idea on that as well. The guys made sure to put themselves to work on it.

There was a masquerade, I wish I had taken a picture of him. He was a close friend back in camp so I knew who was behind the hideous looking thing we came up with for him to wear 😅 we all could tell he was enjoying his part of the show, running around and chanting words that didn't make any sense as we tried to display the culture to our judges.

Words would fail me if I try to explain how lovely I thought the King and Queen looked in their attires as they danced to the big stage. There were six ladies who danced in their attire to show how the culture dances too, it was remarkable.

_{These are two from the ladies and I tell you, the one in front did it way better in the moves haha.}

It was a fun day but our efforts got paid when the judges left the memorable remark that we did the best in creativity, my group came first in cultural display. The jubilation was loud, I can still remember how happy we were as we congratulated each other for our flawless win.

Other culture did well, very well actually and I loved that I had such an experience to talk about today. What about you? Ever been to a carnival or one that looks like it? Haha.

_{Images used are from my phone gallery}

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