liadanslyre

our weekend
and how basically,
i'm nigerian.

we had a very eventful weekend. for starters, as i wrote in my previous post- it was our anniversary. we celebrated friday evening with some time at the book loft, schiller park and dinner at the old mowak. i took friday and tuesday off which was particularly great. i got some gardening done which is a labor of love for me. we also witnessed the vows of a dear old friend of mine teresa kobelt (formerly crohen) on our anniversary. that was very meaningful.

the highlight was saturday when we attended the anam development foundation buisness meeting. this is the equivelent of a county of nigeria where charles hails. jennifer (my sister in law) came in for the meeting (from new york city) and stayed with us over the weekend. the meeting was held in dayton. it's very cool to see how common and foundational the 'give back' mentality is in immigrant culture. member families pull their money in the form of a 'due' and tackle a problem at home. the availability of electricity was something that we (really they- the meeting was mostly in igbo so i got only a little content) talked about. in the past- the emphasis has been on education and mobilizing kids to goto schools.

i was the only non nigerian person there... i've decided that i think everyone should be a minority for some alloted portion of life. maybe a day, maybe a year, maybe more. but it was a really good experience for me. my sister in law was kind enough to bring me a new booba (traditional garb). saturday night we had a party and everyone was totally decked out in tradtional wear. we ate lots of different stuff and i am continuing on my quest to learn igbo.

one thing that was particularly wonderful was how warmly i was greeted. charles assured me that being an inter-racial (or intercultural) couple in nigerian culture is not stigmatized as it is in american culture. i was happy that the first context proved to be incredibly gracious and welcoming to me and to us as a family. i got a lot of hugs and kisses and chances to charm with my limited vocabulary. the little yoraba i know also stunned a couple of people.

everyone that's older than you is called an uncle or an aunt (out of respect); peers are called cousins. regardless of blood line. while this served to confuse me a bit (b/c i'm still not sure who we're related to); i understood it's not as important to know that (who we're related to)- the most important thing is the interconnectiveness and responsibility to help eachother. i got a good dose of other centeredness and remembering that american society has lots to learn.

if you've known me for one day- you know that i love being irish. saturday made me so happy that i get to own another proud heritage. i loved being immersed in nigerian culture. granted it was only a day- but it was wonderful.

i will post pictures soon.

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addendum:
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i also just wanted to add that i learned that if someone appears to be yelling at you in conversation- this is not an indication that the someone is angry- it is simply an indication that the conversation is a good one.

this is a repeat leason from albania.