Jos was relatively hot and dry (as opposed to oppressively humid like Lagos had been a few days earlier), it was a nice sunny day in the middle of the week and these were the scenes from our drive. We left around noon from our house in a convoy of three led by my uncles arm guarded Hummer, after a quick fill-up at his gas station we hit the road. The ride was absolutely beautiful, just as I remember, the landscape is almost surreal at times, complex rock formations and vegetation littered by small huts and 1 story buildings mainly constructed form the locally available materials.
Langtang is located about 180 kilometers south-east of Jos, which is the capital of Plateau State and is the home of the Taroh people (which I am as well..). It's primarily a farming village populated by mainly christian people within a fairly close knit community. I feel like I may be related to more than half the village..ha..ha. In Langtang, it always felt like time stood still, there was land and we spent our days exploring it, climbing things, walking around, picking things off trees. It was probably the best times I had as a child. It was truly leisurely, something I have never been to do again since then. I remember my dad retreating to Langtang when he could and longing to be there under the itilum tree while we were anywhere else. Maybe its the air, but it really ( at least for me) feels like the only place to relax.
My memories of the place are fond, our home shares demising wall with our cousins so we always had a great time there on the holidays when our families would return "home" for several weeks. It really always felt like home somehow, everyone always seemed to reside in a really mellow state when we were there, my father was for once able to forget about work (which at the time could have been something fairly critical). We would go hiking, we'd go to our farm (Taka-Lafia), we'd go to visit Wase rock, we'd sit outside for hours on end eating itulum from the very tree providing us shade from the hot sun. At night we'd have roasted meat (usually from an animal that had been walking around earlier that day) and we'd play games, play squash..There was absolutely nothing on the agenda just leisure and it was fantastic.
As we drove through town after town, it seemed like we drove straight on the road for about 1.5 hours then turned left and about 30 minutes later I started to recognize the surroundings. I knew e were close to my home. At the moment we drove by St. Augustines church ( a Catholic church my father constructed here so we could have somewhere to celebrate mass on Sundays) I knew we were minutes from this place which held so much joy and tension for me all at once.
We made the left and approached the gate, as it opened images of my childhood walking up and down this very driveway over and over came rushing back..letting out fireworks at New Years with my cousins right at this very spot. We drove in and a weight was lifted, I finally made it back. Its been ten years and even so my previous visit ( 10 years ago) had really been quite tough on me so this held a lot for me. We made it home. We were greeted by various members of the extended family, drinks food..a lot of people going "wuwe..wuwe" (Taroh version of "oh shoot"..."kangkang.roh?" (Taroh version of hello, how are you?) and holding their hands over their mouths in disbelief. This was all understandable for many reasons. We (the kids) have grown up quite a bit since they last saw us, we have also multiplied (5 new kids) and we came escorted by several Americans (our husbands). As the evening festivities continued, this all became controversial. But for now..everyone in..fast..looks like a storm is brewing! to be continued..
