When Will The Smells End?

Let's call him Nengi. Nengi just got admitted into the prestigious University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. With joy he stepped into the great institution of learning happy that all his dreams were being actualised. He was assigned to Kenneth Dike Hall, Room I110 he couldn't wait to go and bond,” perhaps they will also be freshers he thought to himself.”

As he stepped into the hostel, he was disappointed that the floors were all littered with all kinds of rubbish, the walls filled with cobwebs and worst of all, the place smelt. He couldn't believe his eyes”is this how Lions and Lionesses live” he thought to himself. He knocked on the door of the room and to his amazement the room was filled with people, that didn't bother him as such he was a foretold that they would soon leave.

He dropped his bags “please where can I urinate?” he asked, “down the hall” he was told. He walked down the hall and found it and just as he entered another shocker, the toilet smelt terribly with maggots on the walls coupled with the floor being wet. He looked around for the urinary it was too far away and the smell couldn't let him breathe so he urinated on the floor and ran out.

Letting out a big sigh “when will the smell end” he said to himself. The next day after the necessary bonding he received the call of nature he asked Damiete his roommate and whom he now called brother because they share the same kalabari blood and he was told “down the hall the same place you went yesterday” sadness gripped him as the last sight was awful.

As he opened the first door, he literally threw up because faeces had overflown on the water closet and was everywhere including the floor, the second door was no different but with the addition of maggots feasting, the third had a slight number of cockroaches, he wanted to leave but by faith he opened the fourth door which was a bit clean only that the floor was wet and the last user(s) had used a different kind of paper and had them stuffed in inside the toilet. “This one you just dey stand anyhow if you no one use comot abeg” Uchenna, a third year Law student told him.

He was taken aback “this cannot be a normal behaviour, Damiete, Pasisi ke Tamuno (Please in God's name), is there another place to go” He asked. “Don't worry” he replied, there is another place. Damiete took him to the bush and told him to find a spot as there were lots of faeces in a supposed farmland with flies all around, luckily he found a spot free from flies in front of a cassava stem he bent down receiving the call of nature with nature's air conditioning.

He returned from class around 11am and suddenly felt pressed, taking a deep breath he entered but was so shocked to notice that there was no single smell, the place had been washed and transformed like Cinderella by the fairy god mother. He walked to the urinary to pee in happiness and he saw Edet his neighbour “urinating”, immediately Edet left he walked to pee and was aghast as he found a big mound of faeces in the urinary, he could not contend it he urinated on the floor while shouting “this is MADNESS.”

So now to answer his question when would the smells end gee I honestly don't know perhaps when Nengi stops urinating on the floor and if Damiete stops going to the bush, if Edet can carry his buttocks to the water closet and if people like Uchenna carry water to flush and tissue paper to clean up. Perhaps the smells will end by then, who knows?