About me
A little introduction before I get on with my post. I’m Folayemi Evelyn Aina, from Ondo state Nigeria (Yoruba Tribe), I’ve lived all my life in the South of my country (Rivers state).
I live life simple and within my means. I own two small businesses I run from home and that keeps me busy enough.
I also make clothes as a tailor in my spare time. Never traveled out of my country but I’ve been to a few states within it. I hope to one day do that (who doesn’t right?). I have a few places on my bucket list and I am working towards making all those dreams come true.
The journey
Purpose of this journey was to attend a wedding of one of our own. We had set out by 7.30am to travel of out of the state as it was a three hour journey by road or as you call it ^road trip^
The journey along the way went smoothly but due to the recent surge in insecurity in the country we had to by pass a lot of security check points which made the journey a bit longer by an average of an hour. Also loosing our way minutes before getting to our final destination didn’t make things better.
Ukanafun, Akwa Ibom state
Akwa Ibom is one of the states in Nigeria amongst 36 of them. The state was created in 1987 with Uyo being its capital. The state has 31 local government areas.
Ukanafun being one of them. There are a quite a number of villages within the local government with sometimes a street separating one from the other.
The local government is mostly open field and untouched forest and trees with houses dotting a few areas.
The villages are not so populated as the state’s capital and it showed. Only a few people walked the streets and the houses along the road could be counted.
Some of which is made out of mud or wood held together by ropes or vines.
The main source of income and livelihood for them is farming, especially planting and harvesting of yams and plantain.
A lot of the women I saw were either riding a bike or a bicycle which I really find interesting.
I can’t ride a bicycle to save my life
The Ceremony
We arrived by noon for the wedding a bit tired I might add but the events of the occasion soon made me forget about that. There was the typical white wedding conducted in church which held in the morning up until 2pm. The traditional wedding also doubled as the reception of the wedding.
Recently to curb cost of having a double wedding, couples have both their traditional wedding and white wedding on same day.
While guest waited for the couples arrival they were entertained with live music performed in the local dialect along with dancers dressed in the cultural attire of the Akwa Ibom people. Their attire is very much similar to that of the Cross River people and a few times they are both taken as same thing.
Food
The most famous food served at any Nigerian wedding is jollof rice. No matter the state or people, it’s almost a tradition to have jollof rice served at your wedding.
But I decided to try some things for the first time, I even had the chance to try a drink that I swore I would never see again as i believed production for it had been stopped over 10 years ago.
Limca drink
Didn’t taste as good as I remembered it but I loved trying it.
Tried roasted Pork for the first time ever!
I also tried locally made Corn cake or Epiti as it’s called here. Made from Corn and Plantain
Being there for an occasion didn’t leave me much room for sight seeing sadly but it was all a fun experience, and it was a break from staying home all day almost everyday.
To summarize it was a beautiful journey and I am looking forward to visiting the state’s capital someday.
Thank you for reading