The Diary Game; A Long Morning, canceled Classes… and Ugu Rice to Save the Day

Hello steem4Nigeria family 👋
I hope everyone had a calm and beautiful day. Here’s how my own day went on campus.
Some days on campus just have a funny way of playing with your energy.

I had an 8am class today, so I woke up a little after 6am. I was still sleepy, so I lay back down and told myself I’d get up by 7. When I finally stood up, I was cold and sneezing, so cold water bath was not an option. I borrowed an electric kettle from my roommate and boiled water — thank God there was light. That’s one thing about hostel life: you don’t have to own everything. You’ll always need something you don’t have, and you’ll always borrow something from someone.

All the bathrooms were occupied, so while waiting, I brushed my teeth outside. When a bathroom finally opened, I rushed in, bathed and headed out. I got to the class venue by 8:15am, thinking I was late, only to find out the lecturer hadn’t arrived. The hall was even occupied by another level also waiting for their lecturer. In the end, our lecturer came first, so they vacated the hall and our class started close to 9am. Honestly, all that waiting made me wish I had just slept a little longer 😅.

We had two classes scheduled: 8–10am and 10–12pm. After the first one, we waited over an hour for the second lecturer, only to later discover he wasn’t even on seat and was probably teaching in another faculty. So the second class got cancelled. That was it for lectures today.

A selfie while heading to class

I hadn’t eaten all day. First, I’m participating in my church’s ongoing 21-day fasting. It’s an annual thing. Second, I’m also trying to train myself to skip breakfast on most early lecture days. But by the time I got back to the hostel, it was almost 2pm and hunger was loud.

Someone was already using the hot plate, so I went out, bought chin-chin and cold water, came back, mixed garri with milk and sugar. Garri is truly a lifesaver — if you know, you know 😂.

While that held me down, I remembered I had bought ugu (pumpkin leaves) earlier because I hadn’t eaten vegetables or fruits for almost a week. I needed something fresh and healthy.

I washed and sliced the ugu and onions — those were the only things that needed prep.

Sliced onions

Sliced pumpkin/Ugu leaves

Then I washed and parboiled my rice. After draining the first water, I put it back on the cooker, added fresh water, salt, pepper, maggi and the sliced onions, and let it boil.

I washed some fresh eggs and dropped them inside the same pot to boil along with the rice — no time to start another pot because someone else was waiting to cook.

My eggs (protein)

When the water was almost dried, I added the sliced ugu leaves. I always add vegetables late so they stay fresh. Then I added a little palm oil and let it steam for a bit before bringing it down. I removed the eggs before adding the vegetables so they wouldn’t overcook.

rice is done

After a long morning of rushing, waiting, cancelled classes and hunger, that plate of ugu rice felt like a small reward. Simple food, but it hit differently.

That’s campus life for you — unpredictable, tiring, but somehow always teaching you how to adapt. 💚