From the East, with pictures and a weird gist..

On the 27th of September, I and my large family buried our 90 year old grannie who had passed away a few months earlier. We had gotten past the sadness and all so we just celebrated the life of the matriarch.


Here are some pictures from the event which took place in Akama Oghe in Ezeagu Local government of Enugu state, Nigeria.



Mum, Berl, Lily, Dami[my bestie] and Ursula[at the back] Berl and Ursula're my younger sisters.



In my room after dressing up for the ceremony



'Abacha'. African salad. Yummy!




A cousin, Ursula, Berl, Lily and Andre[younger bro]



Dancing!!





The 'udu'




'Ogene' [Metal gong] and a drum




The 'Ichaka'





This guy can dance!




A sort of local gun or something called 'Nkpo na ani'



A Fulani woman turned Igbo



She danced vigourously with that calabash on her head and it didnt even shake!





Masquerades. I and Dami werent allowed to take this picture because we were women so we got Andre to do it.



The guy in the Tee shirt and brown trousers is the 'rainmaker'

However, I witnessed something really weird and thought I should share it with you guys. One of my uncles called a ‘rain maker’ to make sure that it doesn’t rain on the day of the ceremony. On the day before the ceremony, the man staggered into the compound like he was very drunk. My dad had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with anyone playing ‘god’ so the man came to see my uncle. When I saw him, I tweeted ‘The rain maker is here’. The tweet to my surprise, didn’t post. This continued for a while. Then I tweeted ‘Rainmaker’. It appeared on my TL. So anytime, I added ‘the’ before ‘rainmaker’ , the tweet would disappear somehow. Twitter might have had problems then but it was weird that it happened only when the man was around and I did tweet about other things and they didn’t ‘disappear like those tweets had.


The rainmaker’s name[let’s see you disappear here] was Romanus. On the day of the ceremony, it was drizzling a bit. He brought out some herbs, put them inside water and started ‘chasing away’ the rain. It did stop raining a few minutes later. Throughout our stay, it only rained at night. According to the villagers, it was the ‘rain’ in his stomach was what was making him stagger all over the place and not alcohol. And when he sleeps at night, the rain would be released.

Dear reader, isn’t that one of the weirdest things you have ever heard?

We didn’t even know what to think about the whole things but allowed ourselves to be puzzled for a while. Like really? This guy is not a herbalist but he could stop the rain from ruining this day? Okay!



The man in sunglasses is my dear father.





Set for church service on Sunday




Monday morning. Waiting for the bus. Wearing hairnets, no make up whatsoever and as tired as hell!



We did have a great time anyway. And drank a lot of fresh palm wine too.

Hope you guys are okay.

Lily Johnson





Normal people??

It is funny how some people live their lives believing that their stupidity is going to affect the people around them and make them really lose their cool. It is just plain funny to me when you meet a person in a public place and for one misunderstanding or a little mistake; the person just goes ‘gaga’.

A friend of mine was on her way to the market and because a lot was on her mind, she mistakenly stepped on this lady’s toes. She turned back and was in the middle of saying sorry when this lady exploded! She called her all sorts of names and actually created a little scene. My friend just looked at her and told her that she had already started apologising before but she wasn’t going to go through with it and was on her way like nothing happened. This lady began to follow her, abusing her and stuff. She wasn’t like insane or anything because she looked and acted completely normal if you know what I mean. She made sure she was like a few steps behind my friend and kept making crazy remarks. My friend turned and told her to get off her back and get a life and that was when she really lost it! She started calling people to come see that my friend had gone mad! My friend just kept walking until she stopped following her.

I was in a bus one day and just because I told a man to sit well so I could sit well too, he just hissed and started talking about young people not having respect anymore! You would think he would stop at that. No! He went on and on talking about how fashion and music have destroyed the basic morals of young people. This man wasn’t exactly a grandpa! I just sat there and wondered what I had said to get that kind of embarrassment in a bus packed with people.

                                     Seriously why would anyone want to do this??

One man gave a bus conductor a 50 naira note that was torn in several places and when the conductor complained instead of him to say the normal thing we say (Use it at the fuel station), he just started calling the poor man names. He called him illiterate and ignorant. I was just shaking my head throughout that short trip. The man that claimed to be well travelled and well read kept making grammatical blunders that were deafening. The nerve on some people!

I have also seen responsible people being dragged into a fight with this kind of people. A lady I know got into a war of words with one foul mouthed young lady after she had answered her boyfriend’s call. The chick just started making remarks that the lady was showing off and wanted to let people know that she had a boyfriend. Then the lady lost and the war of words began.

I don’t know why some people choose to take out their frustration on other people. And I have always believed that the best way to deal with these people is to completely ignore them. Talking back may not be a good idea as they might just ruin your day for you with their nonsense. Don’t even think about to it, just zone out. They are not even worth the trouble.

Glide through your day and shut out negative people.

Lily Johnson.