Sunday
I wake up 6 am, I don’t even care that OBS have cut my sleep short with their incessant music blasting. In less than 36 hours they won’t get that privilege, so they can as well blast away.
At mammy market, I branch the picture stand and find that over 200 pictures of me exist. I laboriously go through each of them and delete as many as possible until I’m left with 58. Just fifty-eight.
Since I don’t have a picture in my khakis I decide to dress up and shoot myself. It’s fun. Three minutes of fun to be precise. I quit on account of the heat. The rest of the day is a blur like the others until four pm when the state coordinator comes to debrief us. They call out all the camp officials and he has the good sense to save the best for last. Platoon 1 guys are agitating for him to call their guy as soon as possible. Not only platoon 1 but also the rest of us. Only one official really made impact on us. They finally call him. He is the RSM. Regimental segment major. AKA camp hype man.
This man is one hundred times my energy. He is there gingering us every morning during the drills. He makes them fun. And when it’s his turn to sing and chant, he selects fun songs. Just the ray of sunshine we need. As soon as he is called, the DJ starts to blast music which is something they did not do for the other officials. A lot of people run out to the stage where he was called to and they hug him.
In no time, they have him hoisted up and they are dancing to party-after party. It’s an emotional scene. The man wasn’t expecting it. He gives an emotional speech afterwards. He states that never has he been publicly celebrated and then thanks us. We cheer and holler back at him. Suddenly I’m nostalgic.
At the clinic, we group ourselves and play cards, I clown all through it telling them I’d be giving them some home training with my legendary skill.
I lose my first round, and calmly tell them I’m still warming up as they try to tease me on my failed magic.
I proceed to win the subsequent rounds because all I do is win.
At ten pm, a host of drunk people come to the hostel and just start to shout. The excitement and disinhibition is palpable. Even the soldiers are disinhibited.
