CROSS CULTURAL WEDDING

Hello everyone, hope the Christmas holiday has been fantastic. Mine has been pretty eventful with lots of places to go to and people to visit. I attended a traditional wedding here in Lagos yesterday and it was fun. The groom is from Anambra while the bride is from Akwa Ibom. When my father showed me the invitation card, I jokingly told him that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have my own traditional wedding (Igba-Nkwu) in Lagos. At least, it would save us the stress of travelling and all that. He said Mba,,,, that in our culture (Igbo), the traditional wedding must be done in the girls' village..............I just smiled because I already knew that would be his response. My father loves his tradition ehnnnnn. Chai. :-)

Anyway, back to the wedding i attended. I love the idea of cross cultural weddings. The fusion of both cultures adds color to the event. The wedding was held at the poolside of a hotel. At the entrance of the venue, we were welcomed by two ladies who beckoned on us to come and sign the couple's tree. Below is the picture:

They politely informed us that the couple requested that everyone should thumbprint and write their names on their paper tree. It was my first time of seeing that and it was amusing, but we obliged them. I guess the couple would later frame it. We were given baby wipes to clean the ink from our fingers and then ushered to our seats to enjoy the wedding rites and all. I loved watching the cultural troupe from Akwa Ibom as they entertained us. Below are some pictures I took of them:

I like their dance. The way they twirl around with that round thing on their waist and all was fun to watch. I also appreciated my Ndi Igbo people when they came out to do their traditional dance and usher the groom to his seat..:

The group had almost passed where I was sitting, before i remembered that I wanted to take pictures. :-).

It was an interesting wedding with parts of it done in the Akwa Ibom dialect and parts done in Igbo. I admire people that marry outside their tribe. Aside from the love the couple have for each other, I think it takes a whole lot of courage too, especially if you do not understand your spouse's language. Using myself as an example, even though i grew up in Lagos, I can't speak Yoruba. *covers face in shame*. I understand a bit of the language, but that's about it.  So imagine if I were to marry a Yoruba guy, I would feel kindda weird if we visit his people or friends and they are gisting in his language. Oh well, yeah, I know i could always learn it and all that.

My sister is married to an Edo man and i sometimes ask her how she feels when they are in the midst of the hubby's people and they are all gisting in his language. She just shrugged and said it's not that bad and she is also learning the language, but in the meantime, once they remember that she doesn't understand, they quickly switch back to English. :-). I think that's really nice of them ooo. :-)

I wish the couple: Emem and Okezie a fabulously blissful marriage.

A NEW BEGINNING

I woke up excited that I was resuming in my new branch. The excitement was more because I would no longer be facing trailers with their containers and tankers on my route. It's such a relief to me. I got to work at about 7:30am and thankfully, saw a familiar face there. *Steve is a relief Cash Officer/Funds Transfer guy and he would be the one to put me through on my F.T duties. I freshened up and patiently waited for my Head of Operations *Lekan. When he eventually got to the office, he gave me a shocker. Apparently, he and the Hop of another branch had some sort of agreement. And the Group Head was in on it too.

Let me make it easy for you all to understand. Let's call my new branch A and the other branch B. *Steve is the Cash Officer in B. He is presently at A relieving the Cash Officer and also doubling up as the F.T guy. The F.T guy in B has just been transferred effective today. So the Hop of B pleaded with the Hop of A to send me (the new F.T lady) to branch B to act as their F.T lady pending when the original Cash Officer in branch A resumes. When the Cash Officer in A resumes, *Steve would come back to his original branch B and I would go back to my new branch A. (I hope I didn't confuse you all with this ramblings:-)). When my new boss told me this, I actually thought he was joking, but he wasn't. I looked at him long and hard (in my mind, i was saying.... You guys must be kidding me right), bid *Steve farewell and left for my second new branch.

Thankfully, it's also not too far from my home. On getting there, I met my newest Hop *Dinma. She is quite nice. She immediately told me that I would work with them until the second week of January 2012. She also explained to me that for this week, my system right would be amended to that of an F.T person. However, effective next week, I would become a relief Customer Service Officer because the C.S.O guy would be proceeding on his leave. As soon as he resumes, I will be switched back to my F.T rights and I would go back to my initial new branch A. While she was talking, I almost started laughing because this wasn't what I bargained for at all.

The problem I have with my bank and I guess it might be happening in other places too is that, they don't want to employ. There are loads of unemployed youths out there, but Mba, we are not employing. I hear phrases such as "We are cutting cost" and it just annoys me. In cutting cost, the bank can use an individual to do several job functions. And at the same time, the staff is supposed to deliver excellent and prompt service to the customer, be forever smiling and cheerful and there is zero tolerance for errors. Mschewwwwwwwwwwww......

So at the moment, I'm familiarizing myself with my second new branch (even though I will be there for just three weeks), learning and working as the F.T person before flipping over to the C.S.O desk (grinning widely while flexing my muscles).

In all these happenings, I say this to myself: "Every single thing is working together for my good'. Even if I can't understand the how or why. One thing I do know is that even though I am not where I want to be, but I'm definitely not where I used to be. I just know that God is aware of the present happenings and is masterminding everything to work out for my good.

Stretching and Yawning.......Goodnight y'all.

Loads of love and hugs.

IN THE SPIRIT OF XMAS AND OTHERS

Work has been very hectic this past weeks. This season is especially busy in the banking sector, because a lot of customers are determined to make the most of the remainder of the year. Two weeks ago, we started planning our end of year party. As the assistant service co-ordinator, I had to be actively involved in the planning. At first, majority of us wanted a beach party, but after some deliberations, we decided to visit an orphanage and also have a Xmas TGIF. A group of people were delegated to represent the branch at the orphanage and yours truly was among. We chose to visit an orphanage in Surulere because of proximity to our office. We went there today and it was a rewarding experience. The kids were fun to be with and some of my colleagues that also went were so sober. Lots of thoughts such as: "How could people just dump their kids"?, "Hope those deformities can be cured" were going through their minds. We played with them, asked their matrons some questions, prayed with them and presented our gift items. Sadly, we couldn't take a lot of pictures with the children, because it is against their policy. We could only take pictures with one child, who would represent all the children. A very friendly and beautiful little girl Chichi* by name was asked to take the pictures with us. We had a nice time with them and on our way back to the office, thanked God for our lives and the families we have.

Our Xmas TGIF will hold tomorrow. "Yaaaaayyyyyyyyyy"

I can't wait ooo. I have mandated all my colleagues to add extra speed to their jobs tomorrow. We need to balance all our transactions early, so we will have enough time to groove. :-). We gonna party hard because we have every reason to. God has been good to us individually and as a branch. In this year, one of us got married, some of my colleagues put to bed and some were promoted. Armed robbers were far away from us and no fraud passed through my branch, none of us died or had accidents to and from work and other places we went to. I could go on and on about God's mercies and kindness towards I and my colleagues.  

On a different note, I got a mail this afternoon informing me that I have been transferred effective Monday. I had mixed feelings when I saw the mail. I would miss my friends (the few that I'm very close to) :-(. I was happy however because I would be in a new environment, face new challenges in terms of my new job function (Funds Transfer desk) and generally start anew. The best part for me is that my new branch is not too far from my house and I would always be going against traffic. *dancing around*. If you live in Lagos, you will understand why I'm so happy about that. Since my boss saw the mail, he has been singing with my name that they are going to miss me :-). So tomorrow, I will send my hand over note to the service co-ordinator (She resumed today from her maternity leave), tidy up my desk, hand over my other duties and GROOVE (for me it will be Xmas/ Send-forth parryyyyyyyyy) :-).

I'm off to polish my dancing shoes. :-D

MUSIC, FOOD AND ME

I love music. Be it singing, listening to it or dancing to it, I simply love music. There is a very old radio in my house that I'm sentimentally attached to. I'm pretty sure it's older than even my eldest sister :-D, but it is still functional. The knob used to tune to different stations is spoilt, so we replaced it with a pair of scissors or a key or anything. The radio is portable, so we just move it around. It's semi permanent position is in the kitchen. Well, this is mainly because of me. My popsie calls me the kitchen manager, because I'm the eldest in the house now, so I'm in charge of the kitchen. :-).  I love food, mostly the eating aspect, not the cooking. :-). So the radio keeps me company when I'm cooking, washing up or generally fiddling around in the kitchen. Below is a picture of the radio in my kitchen:

The radio is not that bad abi. That radio you see in the picture has kept me abreast of what's happening in terms of music, news, traffic report and general gist. Somehow, with the radio blaring loudly and me shaking my booty while cooking or washing the dishes, time just zooms past and before I know it, I'm through with what I'm doing.

 Below is a plate of fried rice garnished with tomatoes and boiled egg prepared by my humble self :-) and a tray of salad prepared by my sister and I.

I just love the colorful combination of the veggies in the salad. I love colors too. Yummy looking ehhh.......

Merry Xmas to y'all.