You have just returned to the city from your village where you spent the last holiday. In an article suitable for publication in your school magazine, compare life in your village with that in the city.

For long I had anticipated going to spend some of my holidays in the village but my parents always turned a deaf ear. I was opportune to travel to my village during the last Christmas holiday, I had dreamt of the village for weeks before we set for the journey. Interestingly, that was my first long journey outside Lagos since I was born. The journey started off at Ojota Motor Part in Lagos at eight O’clock in the morning. The bus was half-full of passengers as it was during the week. We arrived Ibadan at ten O’clock when we had breakfast. We continued the journey until we reached our village, Ero Ekiti in Moba Locla Council of Ekiti state at four o’clock. It was a great welcome for me. It was this day I started noticing the sharp difference between the city and the village life. It is that of a sharp contrast.

First, it was time to bath before I would eat. The water they gave me was coloured and just a third of what I normally use in Lagos. I could not use the water because I feared it could cause water borne diseases. However, the villagers said it is better than your Lagos water. I had to purify the little water before I could bath. Even to bathe we another problem as there was no bathroom except  the improvised one made of palm leaves and fronds. It was like one was  bathing in the open. Later the water I thought was bad was used by many children and adults  to bathe. It was incredible as they all bathed in the open without feeling shy. Groups of boys and girls too even bathed together without any misgivings. Such will never happen in Lagos where people live civilized life.

The night came and darkness enveloped the earth. There was no electricity of any kind. When I asked if there was NEPA blackout, my people asked me the meaning of NEPA. Thank goodness my grandmother later brought a traditional hurricane lamp. It was the smoky type. It made me to develop catarrh before daybreak. Throughout my one week stay, I never had the opportunity to watch  television or listen to radio if at all there was any in the village. Yet I never set my eyes on any newspaper  either national or local. Infact, this made me to conclude that the villagers were dead to their world. This is unlike Lagos where we watch a good number of channels on television, many stations on radio or even watch video the whole day. The newspapers and magazines are uncountable.

The following day I wanted to ease myself. I was led to the backyard bush where I was  expected to defecate. It was unbelievable the heaps of excreta I saw, were deposited there on daily basis by children and adults. The maggots were celebrating perhaps a festival. I had no alternative but to join in the act reluctantly. It was a strange event to me but to the  villagers it was a common occurrence as they had not known  the  toilet system used in the city. Refuse in the city is emptied at a central place where it is collected and conveyed outside the city by refuse vehicles but it is dumped at the back of each house in the village. I wondered whether there was no cholera in the village because half of what I saw there can bring cholera epidemic that will ravage the vast area in the city. The villagers are indeed very lucky.

However, the village is better than the city in the area of feeding. I followed my uncle to the farm on the eve of my departure to Lagos. We worked till about noon and then stopped. We started preparing food. I was actively involved in every process as I wanted to know all because I would get back to the city. Every food item was fresh-the palm oil was just extracted from the fruits, the vegetable was fresh, the meat of grass cutter was equally fresh. Infact, it was from the village I tasted corn fresh from the farm, unlike in the city where no food item is fresh. By the time the food was ready I began to think whether some special visitors where on their was as the pounded yam for only four of us was quite enough for twenty in the city. N wonder the villagers are robust, stronger and healthier than city dwellers. I came to the conclusion that the villagers eat better food but the city dwellers enjoy better life in terms of basic amenities.

In conclusion, there is a sharp difference between the village and city life in various ways of life. None has monopoly of everything. While the city dwellers have monopoly of infrastructural facilities, the villagers boast of better food. So if I hate the village due to lack of basic amenities, I cannot but admire it for the food I ate which will for a long time remain green in my memory.

t holiday. In an article suitable for publication in your school magazine, compare life in your village with that in the city.