A friend of mine by name Peace Ukaegbu reached out to me for an ushering job at Abiriba, it was slated to take place on the 20th of last so we arrived on the 19th.
Our attire was a white long sleeve shirt on an Ankara Palazzo trouser. Everything was taken care of: transportation to and fro, feeding and the sewing of the dress as well.
On Tuesday morning woke up by 5am, packed my bag, had my bath and dressed up waiting for 6:30am so I could head to Aba park(I stay in Umuahia and we were to leave by 9am to Abiriba). By 6:30am I left the house, boarded a bus heading to Aba . We got to Aba roughly 7:30am, went to a shop to get food before heading to where we agreed to meet which is Abiriba Park.
On getting there no other person had arrived, dropped a message on the WhatsApp group noone responded, I was pissed, it was already 8am when someone said she was on her way. Growing up as kids we were always punctual be it school, events ; as an adult it's no different , even if you must be late at least you communicate.
9am one person arrived, which was Peace cause she went to pick up stuffs we would carry to the village. One after the other they all began to arrive and each gave flimsy excuses why they were late.
We finally left by almost 11am, had a smooth ride to Abiriba, met with the lady who contracted us for the job; we rested then we took our lunch. I ate rice(whenever I'm at an event I prefer to go with rice) after eating we helped them arrange food for some dignitaries, set tables for the caterers that were to serve that evening , we hung around for the wake keep, had our dinner and finally went to bed by past 1am.
Burial Day*
Woke up, prayed then it was time to hustle for water cause the water was about to finish. Finally had my bath, dressed up and we headed to the venue. We had breakfast(rice 😃), after which I was assigned with another lady to find the man who had the key to the chest freezers so they could pack drinks and water ; when we were done with that the guests had already started to arrive so we went to our stand.
After the sermon and all other proceedings the bodies were laid to rest and it was time to serve. As ushers our job wasn't to serve but to ensure that everyone that came for the burial was fed, we worked with the caterers making sure that they served one table after the other to avoid confusion. There was a lot to eat; jolly rice, fried rice, white rice and sauce, moimoi, afang soup, vegetable soup, salad, etc.
When my partner and I had our section covered we ate to our satisfaction, rested and then continued our work. We rounded up by 5:30pm, went to the house picked our bags and headed to the park so we could get a vehicle heading to Aba.
Got to Umuahia by past 8pm, had my bath, ate banana and groundnut and went to bed.
This is my Abiriba Experience.
Great experience you had there.. I can see you had fun except for the incidence of lateness. I enjoyed reading through.