HOW AM I ALIVE ?

Have you been in a car accident twice in one day? The craziest morning I’ve ever had in my entire life. Stick around till the end of my short story to find out why I almost burst into tears 😥.

I had no idea that my morning was going to turn out like it did because it was off to a great start. I went to bed early, woke up early, and did everything I had planned. I did some laundry, warmed up my leftover spaghetti from last night, took a shower, ate and prepared to go to the hospital for my clinicals.

When I was all ready, I headed out on my merry way to catch a bus. I got one and entered it without the idea that I had just made the worst choice I could’ve ever made. We zoomed off. The first 20 minutes of the ride was normal, your typical Nigerian bus passengers going about their business, the bus conductor shouting out loud “Abakpa” to every civilian we passed by on the road, indicating where the bus was headed in case they also wanted a lift.

Source: Pexels

20 to 25 mins into the ride, I had my airpods plugged in and was watching a random youtube video when all of a sudden, I felt the bus move to the side quite violently, like we were hit by something. I paused the video and pulled out my airpods, looked out the window and sure enough, we got hit by something. There was an Hausa man directly beside us with a very big wheelbarrow, and apparently the bus collided with the wheelbarrow so harshly that the sliding door of the bus detached from the bus and landed on the road. As Nigerians will say, Kasala ti burst! (meaning; problem has happened).

Normally, in a typical Nigerian situation, the driver would have come down from his car and held the Hausa man by his shirt and demanded that he pay for the damages done to his vehicle by fire by force. Fortunately for the Hausa man, we were just in front of the compound housing the Nigerian Army 82nd Division. There were military men scattered all around us, and the driver knew this.

So what did he do?

He had the conductor pick up the detached door and place it on top of the bus. He then proceeded to drive us a little bit up ahead, still in front of the Army Division, and parked his bus by the side of the road. With four passengers inside! This man left us there, and ran after the Hausa man. The Hausa man, on noticing this, decided to run backwards to the roundabout where some military men were stationed to control traffic. They followed him there.

Only God knows what was going down but that was the least of my worries because I was already running late to work. We had to wait blindly for them to come back because we had already paid for the journey upfront. The woman seated beside me grew impatient and left, mumbling something along the lines of “I’m late to work, I can’t deal with this”. Honestly I would’ve bailed too if only I knew the way to the hospital, but I did not. I had to sit there with two men and wait for the driver to come back.

Eventually, after 15 minutes or so, we saw them running back. They got to the bus and we picked up where we left off. Apparently, they explained the whole palaver to the military man and he begged them on behalf of the Hausa man who was obviously in the wrong. At that point, I was just happy we were on the road again.

Source: Pexels
We were almost at the last bus stop where I was to get off when we were met with light traffic. “ Huh 😓“. We moved with it, and then we heard another crashing sound, but this time there was a second crashing sound right after. The driver hit another car on the road and the door of the bus slid down from the roof and landed on the floor. I was ready to call it a day and just head back home to sleep. Thankfully it wasn’t serious. The two drivers involved cursed each other out and left.

I finally got to the hospital IN ONE PIECE ! I said hi to some people and headed to the nurse’s room to change into my uniform. When I was finished, I came out and noticed that the few nurses around were nowhere to be found.

In my bid to look for them, I stepped into the labor/delivery room and was met with the most beautiful sight that brightened my whole day and made me forget what I had previously witnessed on the road 😊.

Source: Pexels

I opened the door and was just in time to catch a midwife removing a baby from a woman’s vagina (probably the goriest way of saying I witnessed a delivery 😅). The sound of the baby’s cry was so pure I felt like crying. I quickly closed the door and moved to the side as I watched the midwife hand the baby boy to another midwife who proceeded to clean him, check that he was okay, take all the required measurements and dress him up.

All this happened simultaneously with the previous midwife pulling out the woman’s placenta, inserting her palm into the vagina to pull out any excess blood and cleaning her up.

When she was all done, the nurses congratulated the new mother and ushered her to her new bed. Then went back to the general room to resume nursing duties.

And that, my friends, is the story of my crazy morning!

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