I hail from Koro in Ekiti local government area of Kwara state, my state is located at the North-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria, my state is known as the State of Harmony. Koro which is my hometown, can't be called a city neither a hamlet but I do referred to the place as a mini city cause it's a convenient place to live with various basic amenities that one needs for survival.
My parents only told me that I've gone there when I was around 2years of age, so I don't have any memory of my hometown at all because I was born and raised in Ilorin the state capital. The fact that the proximity of my hometown to the state capital is just 3hours drive, it doesn't freak my Dad at all to take us there, all because we have already lost our grandparents when we were little so he counted traveling to our hometown as a waste of time.
Then something interesting happened
As God will have it, my state did a teaching recruitment in the year 2021 which I applied for and I got employed. When the time comes for us to be deployed, the deployment was done according to each applicants local government area. To my surprised, I was posted to Koro my hometown as a Chemistry Teacher, I bursted to laugher when I saw my appointment letter. When I got home and showed my parents they were also laughing, like seriously my hometown which I've longed for to visit....wow
I can emphatically say that the first time I visited my hometown was June 2021 cause I needed to visit the school where I was posted, so as to collect assumption of duty letter, then I resumed work fully in September 2021.
The Uniqueness I noticed since I've got there
Accommodating
My people are accommodating and friendly, they don't term anyone they see as a stranger at all. Both young and old relate with everyone they see in a respectable manner and doesn't discriminate in as such you don't cause any trouble.
When I first got there, I hid my identity so as to know the people there to an extent. So majority of the villagers didn't know I'm from the town, they all thought I'm posted there as a Corp member, they treated me with kindness. There was a time I missed my way to work, I asked for help from an elderly woman, she immediately volunteered to lead me to work I couldn't belief the act of kindness.
Hardworking
There are still some lazy individuals but almost 85% of people here are hardworking and they are majorly farmers and traders. By dawn almost all farmers will have gone to the farm to work. There are lots of harvested agricultural products in my hometown which can be gotten at a cheaper rates, products like yam, cassava, maize, guinea corn etc, females here both young and old knows how to fry garri (cassava flakes), I do admire how fast they are in peeling cassava and also the processes the peeled cassava went through before they start frying the garri. I admire the frying process a lot but I can't near the frier cause of heat and smoke from the firewood.
Fruit Lovers
Another unique thing I noticed here is that my people are lovers of fruits, hardly will you see a house without a fruit tree. There are different kinds of fruits here that people planted both at home and on their farms. In my grandma's house where I stay, we have 2 orange trees (one at the front and one at the backyard) and 4 banana trees at the back of the house too.
Currently, we are in cashew season. And everyone in Nigeria knows that cashew nuts sales is a lucrative business, so my people also engage in cashew nuts trading. Peradventure you didn't have a cashew tree in your compound, all you need to do here is to pluck as many as you can consume with a condition that you will give the owner of the cashew the nuts immediately. Eating fresh fruits in my hometown isn't a problem at all, we have it in abundance.
Food
My people are lovers of *pounded yam and Melon soup (egunsi) with stocked fish or bush meat. When I was still at home with my family, myself and my siblings always pray not to have yam at home because Dad will surely demand for pounded yam and you can't give him any excuse than to prepare it, so it's my hometown's favorites food. They can eat the food at any time of the day, all what you will be hearing is the sound of their mortals and pestle from different houses at various angles, I don't really like the food because of the stress of pounding.
These and more are the unique features I've noticed amongst my people. Do have a wonderful weekend 👍
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