The diary game || 4-03-22 || Attending the traditional marriage of my Boss

Dear diary,

It was a blissful Saturday morning. The weather was quite unpredictable and stormy with low showers. The sky turned dark that morning and violent wind took over the whole place. All plans for that day seemed void. In a split of seconds, the storm stopped and I had hopes of attending the traditional marriage ceremony I intended that day.

My clothes were set in preparation for the marriage. I planned following an arranged private transportation which would leave by 11Am to the venue of the marriage which was at Ikono local Government Area in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria.

I left the house 15 minutes to the departure time and to my surprise, I arrived there with no trace of Bus arrival. I waited with other prospective attendees. While waiting, i saw people gathered at one point close to where I standing. The crowd made me curious to see what brought about that crowd.

On reaching there, I entered the crowd and saw that it was a hunted crocodile which a villager carried on his bike to sell in the market. They stopped in and started negotiating how much he would sell the reptile. Others came out just to see the Crocodile for the first time.

I took pictures of the crocodile which in my local dialect, it's called Efiom. 1hour passed, we were still trying to settle things. My mind wasn't bothered at all because irrespective of the distance, the marriage would hold in the evening. At last, we entered the coaster bus and the driver took off.

The journey was quite an interesting one. From the start of the journey to the end was just laughter. My cheeks felt pains due to my inability to control the humour from the conversation I had and heard. I felt no dull moment at all. On arrival, we were the first set of people that came and the atmosphere wasn't as if it would be start soon.

Arriving marriage venue

We had no choice but to stroll around to whirl away time. We explored the unknown the village. We were in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, Ikono in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria. We explored the nooks and crannies of that village. We saw how people lived their lives there and saw natural resources they used in sustenance such as fuel wood, palm kernel and the likes of them.

I took pictures of those resources as shown below. We then saw Guava fruit in a villager's compound. We begged them to cut some of the fruits for us to use and hold ourselves. We then strolled back to the Bus and sat down, waiting for the marriage to start. In no time, me and my crew were called to gather in a round table and step down.

Entertaining my stomach worms

I drank sweet, fresh palm wine from the source. Jollof rice was served to us. Me and my friends took turns in sharing our served food as we preferred eating together. After eating round 1, we took soft and fruit drinks to step down the rice. I then ate Fufu and Afang Soup. I ate to the point that I felt heavy and satisfied.

I couldn't step down another bottle of palm wine so I decided to take it home. The marriage commenced in no time. The bride's and groom's parents were introduced and brought to a canopy to settle down and wait for their children to show up. Me and my crew members went to a nearby house to match the groom to the marriage venue.

Arrival of the groom

A fitting song was play in our local dialect and we danced to the tunes with the groom. The groom was in his best cultural attire. He looked ever ready to take his bride from her parents officially as tradition demands. A drone was used to capture the dance. The groom danced energetically to the venue as he awaited his bride. A clown from the village came and danced with him too.

Arrival of the bride

The master of ceremony was another clown, he tested the groom to fitness to see if he could carry out a traditional dance. The groom did that successfully though. The bride came with her people as they danced stylishly to the venue. She was on pink and was dressed like a damsel. She was also tested to fitness. All the traditional rites were conducted and both parents blessed them and wished them a happy home.

Returning Home

The driver couldn't wait anymore as it was getting late, so he gathered all those he carried and accelerated with a speed of 50m/s. On my way back, I slept on the bus like a log of wood due to how tired I was. We arrived home in time and we alighted and head to our various homes. It was a successful marriage ceremony.

I wished them happy married life online and then catered for the tasks at home. That ends my diary.

Cc,
@ngoenyi