The Ilorin Shock Episode 5

Episode Five: Lost in Translation

After the kaa incident, I told myself something:

Keep quiet. Observe first. Don’t be too fast to talk.

But Ilorin had other plans.

One afternoon, I was sitting quietly when someone called me,

“Go and bring buga.”

I stood up immediately.

Buga?

My mind started searching. I knew bucket. I knew bowl. I knew drum. But buga? In Oyo State, what we used to fetch water from the well was drawer.

So I asked carefully,

“Which one is buga?”

They looked at me with surprise.

“Buga na. The thing for fetching water.”

Ahhh.

Okay.

I went to the backyard and saw many things bucket, bowl, broken rubber, even old pot but nothing called buga. I picked the drawer we normally used and brought it.

The moment they saw it…

Laughter again.

“Ah ah! That one is not buga!”

“See Oyo boy!”

“Buga is igba!”

I froze.

Igba?

In my head, igba was something else entirely. In Oyo, igba could mean calabash, or even time. My brain was tired.

They brought it out and showed me a round calabash used to fetch water.

So buga = igba.

I nodded like I understood, but inside my head, confusion was doing marathon.

Just when I thought it ended there, another one followed.

They sent me to buy ikan.

Ah! This one, I was confident.

In Oyo State, ikan is garden egg.

No argument.

I walked out proudly, bought fresh garden eggs, and came back smiling like someone that passed WAEC.

I dropped it.

Silence.

Then one person asked slowly,

“Why did you buy this?”

I replied confidently,

“You said ikan.”

They burst out laughing again.

“That one is not ikan!”

“That is garden egg!”

“So what did you think ikan is?”

My voice reduced.

“Ikan is this na…”

They shook their heads.

In Ilorin, ikan was not garden egg.

Igba was garden egg.

My head started spinning.

“Wait,” I said. “So igba is buga… and again igba is garden egg?”

They nodded.

I laughed weakly.

“So which one is which?”

They said,

“You will know by context.”

Context?!

At that moment, I realized Ilorin language had levels. Same word, different meaning. No warning. No apology.

That day, my brain nearly overheated.

But something funny happened.

Instead of crying, I laughed.

I laughed at myself.

I laughed at the confusion.

I laughed because if I didn’t laugh, I would feel too lost.

By evening, everyone in the compound was already teasing me.

“Oyo boy, don’t help us buy anything again!”

“Explain well before sending him!”

“If you say igba, specify which one!”

Even me, I joined the laughter.

Because slowly, very slowly, Ilorin was entering me.

And I was beginning to understand that survival here didn’t require perfect language

It required sense of humor.

But I didn’t know yet…

The next misunderstanding wouldn’t end in laughter.

To be continued… Episode 6