Comprehension: This is Lagos

         It was a moment of jubilation for Zuma when she learnt that she was going to Lagos to further her education. Zuma had completed her Junior Secondary Education in the only secondary school in her village, Mokwsi Community Junior School, Mokwsi, but there was no Senior Secondary School where she could continue her education. The neighbouring villages of Ojoku and Daku also had no Senior Secondary Schools. She had longed to go to Lagos of all the cities she had heard of. Her Social Studies teacher had taught her many fascinating things about Lagos – its streetlights, its ports, its high-rise buildings, its industries, its lagoon, its ocean and so on. Lagos therefore held so much attraction for her that she usually dreamt of going there.

          When she got the information that she would be proceeding to Lagos, where she had a very strict uncle, Chief Mewoyeka, to live with, she became quite excited. Indeed her excitement made her lose her sleep the night before her journey to Lagos. She told all her friends that she was going to Lagos. Her friends began to call her ‘Lagos girl’ not because they admired her but because of envy.

          And so the day came. She was leaving for a city of her dream. She woke up as early as 4:30 am and packed all her belongings – clothes, books, shoes, etc. into two bags. At 7am, she was accompanied to the bus station. Her bags were kept in the luggage compartment of the bus and she boarded it. Not long after the bus left the station, she fell asleep. That was precisely why she did not know when a passenger mistakenly took away one of her bags. The bus eventually got to Lagos. She alighted from the bus only to discover that one of her bags was missing. A thorough search yielded no positive result. She was quite disturbed but then she endured it, after all she was already in Lagos. Her uncle’s househelp, Dana, who was to guide her home had been waiting at the bus station for hours on end.

          She got the first shock when she reached her uncle’s house. She knelt down, as she had been taught to do, in her excitement to greet her uncle, expecting a warm reception. Her uncle in reply asked her what foodstuff her parents had sent him. She replied in the negative. Her uncle then began to rant: “Are you going to feed on ‘air’ here? Do your parents not know that I have my own burden? I doubt if they want you to stay in Lagos”. Zuma was quite embarrassed and her excitement gave way to tears which rolled down her cheeks.