Travelling to Lufasi Loving nature was one of the most peaceful and wonderful journeys of my life. Lufasi Loving nature is a place where different people from different organizations come to visit. The day we went, there were thousands of people in the garden. It was a well known garden.
On that fateful Day, the organization I was working with which was Teach for Nigeria organized an excursion to Lufasi Loving Nature.
I was aware of the trip but I didn't intend to visit the place because of the traffic; and the organization did not make it compulsory for us.
When I woke up in the morning, my friend was already dressed up for the trip; he knew I wouldn't go unless I was pushed by someone.
He sacrificed to come to my house early in the morning; he was already in my house by 8:00am. I was still in bed then. He knocked on my door; I opened the door for him.
He said, Chris, why now? This is the end of a year, you know how this trip is very important to our company; common! Get up and dress.”
That was how I got up, showered and dressed for the trip.
By the time we reached our pick up junction, the company bus was there for us.
Guess who was our driver, I thought it was going to be the company driver. I saw my friend, that's my second friend.
Herbert, can you drive, “of course, I drive also.
I was fortunate to sit at the front with him. It was a big bus, with two persons in the front with a driver.
After all, the workers boarded the bus, who started our journey. Herbert the driver was a jovial person; even though you are sad, he would make you happy.
Why we're traveling, there was traffic on the road to the extent the bus was not moving for an hour. Herbat was a kind man, he bought me Pepsi and eggs 🥚, he also bought Pepsi and eggs for himself.
Lufasi Loving Nature was not that very far, but the congestion of the road made the place far. We got there by 12:00 noon.
It was a worm welcome from the workers that were working there; they welcome us, took us to a garden to fresh up. I live the attitudes of those workers; they brought us water.
We were in sport center; since, I love football, I joined others to play football. We were 5 in a team, while we were playing, others were play other games such as worth, draft and ayo olopon.
This is ayo olopon
This is ayo olopon, since I don't know how to play it, I took the picture and left the place.
The Ducks
These ducks were playing by the side of stagnant water. Some of the ducks were swimming in the water.
While some of my friends were eating, they gave the food to the ducks; the duck were not in rush to eat the food just like ducks outside and some of the ducks did not eat the food.
Herbat said, “ducks in this place are big men, they don't know what is hunger. If it is outside, they will begin to fight each other because of food.”
Picture of the Dirty Water
This is the picture of the water were the ducks swimming and playing. It was very dirty water as you can see the picture.
Plastics was used in this art
Why I was playing football, i saw a wall were they used plastics to draw the picture of two fishes and the net. I was captivated by the art, I went to the picture, snapped the picture and began to look at the art for 5 minutes.
The down structure represents is a net and food to capture fishes.
The Net and Food To Capture Fishes
In this art, you would discover that there is a man paddling the canoe. The whole symbol was a representation of our father occupation in those days.
The major occupation of our father was occupation; even up today, some of our father in the land are fishermen.
A Man Paddling Canoe
We were called by the managing director of teach for Nigeria to gather together for tourism. A lady was assigned to show us things in the garden.
We she came to us, she introduced herself.
“Good afternoon everyone, my name is Helen, I will be taking you around the Lufasi Loving Nature today. Adhere to the rule and regulations in this garden.”
The rules are:
Do not stone animals,
Smoking is not allowed,
Do not beat any animals, and
Walk im group not alone.
A Horse
The first place he took us to was the horses 🐴
She said, “the horses here are for competition, in case if you want to rent horse, you can come here for rentage. We also give opportunity for people that come here for tourism to ride on those horses. The horses are well kept and treated.
Our customers have rented horses here and won prestigious awards”.
Donkeys
After she finished the section of horses, she took us to the section of Donkey.
“Hello everyone, here are the donkeys. As a toursist we realized the numbers of donkeys are really decreasing. There are animals that does not longer exist, they are extinct because our fathers failed to preserved them.
We don't want such things again; we want to preserve them for generations yet unborn, that is the reason we kept these donkeys. Today, in the northern part of this country, donkey’s meat is one of their best meat. They kill donkey for meat.
Art of iconic woman
In every community, there is an iconic man or woman: in any country there is iconic man or woman.
The woman in this picture is Queen Moremi, a daughter of one of the bravest hunter-warriors. A woman like man, she stood up for her people when the kings were powerless to liberate his people from slavery and oppression.
In her prime, she led the war and defeated the invaders. She was the most the strongest of her time. She never afraid of anyone.
Her stroy can't be forgotten in the history of Yoruba liberation.
After the war, there was no peace in the land, the gods were angry. There were deaths everywhere without guns and swords ⚔️. Some people would sleep and not wake up again.
After consulted the gods; the ifa told them that the only sacrifice was human.
Well! Nobody wanted to die; there was no one that could voluntarily give himself/herself for sacrifice.
Moremi was the only person in the town to give herself for sacrifice, so that peace could be restored to the town. That was how Moremi was used as a sacrifice.
These are the other arts
Tortise: Mama T
She took us to a tortise that had spent more than 150 years; and her name was Mama T.
From where I was watching her, Mama T. was living alone.
For me, it was a biggest tortise I have ever seen in my life. I have never seen a tortoise as big as Mama T.
Mr Alex
He took us to a monkey called Mr Alex.
“Mr Alex suffered heartbreak some years back; her wife Elizabeth died and since then he never wanted to see man and man together”.
No one believes what Helen said: as a young men and women, we all said with loud voice, ‘it's impossible’.
Helen said, “I want volunteers- man and woman that we act as a husband and wife.”
About six of us came out: but she said only two.
The both volunteers, joined their hands together; and Alex raged from the cage, and forced himself to come out of the net. We that were very closed to the net ran.
Miss Becky
She was brought from Canada, she likes to kiss very well.
To confirm what Helen said, one of the man in our group came near Miss Becky. He kissed from the distance and missed Becky kissed from her cage. We all laughed.
Theses are the other species of monkeys
Hooded Vultures of Lufasi
All the birds in this section were carnivores: they eat fresh. Though we didn't see any bird at that time but she said most of the bird migrate from one place to another since nothing hold them in that place.
Helen said, some of these bird come back during winter; and the moment winter is gone, the migrate to another place. They travel to other countries and come back.
Bird of Lufasi
Looking at the forest, I was hearing the noises of birds from different angles. Believe me, I can't walk alone in that forest in the afternoon. The forest was so scary and noises of bird and fallen of leaves everywhere.
The pictures above were the birds in the garden. She said, “these birds are here, they live here as you can hear there noises”.
Buffalos
There were buffalos here some years back. We can't walk like this in this forest some years ago because of dangerous animals like buffalos, Python, lions, Tigers, etc.
Lake
The lake was here since inception, according to her, “the lake is more than 2,000 years.
There are millions of various fishes inside. I saw many fishes inside the lake.
Forest Bathing
“This place is set aside to bath. The water here is medicinal in nature. We don't allow people to bath inside the water; and we don't allow anyone to go near the water. If you want to bath, there is a man in-charge the water, he would be the one that would bring the water. We don't want ant hand to touch the water because thousands of people that there diseases and sickness could not be cured medically came here”.
From the far distance where we were looking at the water, we saw leaves on the surface of the water; the leave covered the suface of the water.
We asked a question that, why the leaves covered the surface?
She said, “from the beginning, it was so; some of the leaves on the surface are the trees in the surrounding of the water. The leaves are very medicinal, they are leaves using for different medicine. If you look at the water, you will see different trees inside also”.
The water prevents and cures the following sickness and diseases;
It reduces the risk of heart attack,
Protection against obesity and diabetes,
It gives more energy and better sleep,
Clear skin diseases,
Soothing relief for sore muscles,
Reduces stress,
Increase flow of blood,
Reduces high blood pressure,
That was an end of our tour.
We head back to were we packed our bus, boarded the bus and heading back to pick up junction.
Though, we were given foods also.
As we were traveling back to our destination, Herbert who was my friend and driver started to pollute the whole bus.
After 20 minutes on the bus, his fart cursed ruckus in the bus where as we had to stop the car for 5 minutes.
The smell was so strong that one of our colleagues vomited.
Though, it was a bus with air conditioning; you don't expect us to wind down the glass.
We all boarded the bus after the first scene, we just moved for 10 minutes, a foul smell was everywhere in the bus; we wind down the whole glass. This time around, the bus wasn't stop.
Though, no one was thinking it was Herbat, and I couldn't say it was Herbat. But, I knew it was Herbat.
Also, the manager director with his assistant and other came with their cars.
In the third time, this foul smell was so strong that people forced Herbat the driver to stop. By the time he applied brake and the car was stopped, about seven employees alighted and took another car to their destinations.
Since it was a free bus, I don't have plan to board another bus; and the seats were very comfortable.. not like taxi that about four passengers would occupy the seats for three passengers.
By the time we move for about 15km, the foul smell was everywhere in the bus. This time, I don't have a choice than to get down from the bus.
I and 17 employees came down from the bus; only Herbat was left in the bus.
In the second day, when I met Herbart in the office, he told me that, “all those foul smell was coursed by me.”
And I knew it was you.
I stand up for success, and success is not achieved by merely making mouth, No room for laziness, no room for idleness. Success comes to the people who are desperately and consciously searching for it. When it seems unsuccessful or you smell failure around you, never discourage yourself from being successful.
“Discouragement and failure are the two surest stepping stones to success.” - Dale
Thank you for reading my post.
The pictures here are from my phone which I posted in my blog sometime ago.