Between fear and duty an island decoration experience

Describe a moment when you felt threatened, either physically or emotionally. What led to the scenario? How did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself?

Hello everyone, Welcome to my blog.

Sometimes life throws different situations at us, and our response to such situations and trying times determines how far we go in life.

Some years ago, when I was starting out in event decorations, I got a call from my boss telling me that we had to travel for an event in a riverine area. Obviously, it was going to be my first time traveling on water, and I was scared. I told my parents, whom I thought wouldn't let me, but to my surprise, they didn't even think about it before they said yes. I got excited, but I was still scared because I couldn't swim.

On the day we were to travel, I got to my boss's place, we packed the stuff we needed, and we set out for the waterside where we will take a boat. We boarded a boat, and once the number of passengers was complete, we set out, and for the next two hours it was just water, and at some point you see the water like the cloud was meeting it. At some point the journey was smooth, and we arrived.

Now the event was an event hosted by an oil company that did offshore explosions and had a base in that community. They had just installed a transformer to enable the community to have light, so the event was to commission the light transformer that had just been given to the community.

On arrival we learned that the main reason we got the job was due to the fact that in the past when the company did something for the community and they wanted to commission it, they would give all aspects of the event, like catering, decoration, canopies, chairs, and every other thing needed for the events to be successful, to community members, but the quality of service was usually very poor due to the fact that they always found a way to cut costs and increase the percentage profit.

So this time around, because of the number of dignitaries that will be in attendance, they didn't want any form of embarrassment, so they contracted everything out. This made the community folks angry, and by the time we got to the venue where the event was going to take place, the youth chairman sent boys to stop our work, stating that they were supposed to give the decoration to one of their own.

We actually had to stop because we were outnumbered—me and my boss—and also because most of the boys kept treating us by saying stuff like "Na water una dey, if anything do una here, nobody go come find una," which means you guys are on an island, so nobody will bother to come look for you if anything happens to you here.

The public relations officer of the company later held a meeting with the guys, who were still furious, but after much persuasion and also on account of the youth president's younger brother, who later recognized my boss as his junior secondary schoolmate.

The younger brother of the president happened to be the one whom my boss assisted. Every time they went to school, he would tag along with my boss to sit in the attachment part of the vehicle. For this reason, he was able to convince his brother to let us do our job, although the company also had to give them a tip. That adventure was one in which I have felt the most threatened, but in the end we're able to do the job.

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