Cheers to village living! After a short flight from Lagos to Owerri, Chuck and I were greeted at the airport to be escorted to his home village of Okpofe in Imo State.
For the next six days, we stayed in his family’s compound, which was a surprising delight. Like cabin life, but in extreme heat with palm trees instead of jack pines.
The delicacies from Igbo land
On our drive to the family compound, we stopped in the closest village to pick up garden eggs, ose-oji (peanut butter sauce) and meat at the markets along the road.
Then Chuck and his brothers Cyril and Simeon showed me their family’s compound and the huge beautiful garden surrounding it, which included many plants, trees and vines that produce foods like bananas, guava, cucumber, paw-paw, beans, cassava, oranges, pineapples, limes and corn pears to name a few.
Simeon climbed a tree to pick a few guava for us. 
Then, early the next morning, Chuck’s brother Chiadikwe, took us to watch a palm wine tapper in action. Afterwards, we sipped on the fresh — and delicious — palm wine on the veranda while listening to African beats. It was heavenly.
During our stay, I often found myself watching Chuck’s mom putter about the yard picking fruit, shredding bitter leaf leaves, shelling melon seeds, smoking meat. She glides around quietly — stealthily — just humming and working her land, feeding any and everyone who comes around. The woman is a powerhouse.
One of the coolest things about staying at the family compound was the daily visit to the markets to buy food. Everything is fresh. All. The. Time. Fresh meat, fresh produce, fresh bread, fresh dairy, fresh spices, even fresh kettle popcorn. OMG, it was all so delish!
On our last day in the village, Chuck’s mom made us African salad with garden eggs. The salad is made from oil bean seeds that take a couple days of intense work to get them soft enough for the salad. It tasted amazing.
A river runs wild with manpower
On one hot afternoon, we took a drive to Imo River and watched the human effort required to dredge for sand and gravel for building materials.
The men transferring piles of sand on their head is no easy task. Full bowls easily weigh around 100lbs or more! Then there’s the river divers, who take boats out and dive for materials to load in the boat and then row to shore. All done in sweltering, unforgiving heat and sun.
Once it’s all transferred into a giant old beast of a truck, it’s driven up a road that is precarious at best.
It’s stunning to see all this toil and work. And for little pay or time off. You work enough to eat your dinner (with a little change left over) then repeat it again the next day. Bless those men.
An emotional way to say goodbye
One of the reasons we came to the village was to attend the burial of Chuck’s mom’s older sister Daa Goon. She was like a grandma to Chuck and his brothers. They thought the world of her. She was 93.
After the three-hour ceremony, where hundreds of people attended, our family was invited to attend the burial at Daa Goon’s family’s compound.
A hole had been dug at the back of the main house to place aunty’s casket in.
Once the casket was placed in the ground, every person (around 50) sang as people started to pour soil over her grave. They sang joyously and loudly for at least 45 minutes.
I didn’t know this woman personally, but the scene and the singing struck me. Tears just started pouring out of me uncontrollably.
What a life you have lived if people sing for you like that when you are gone. This place, man. It’s something else.
Family love
Ma familia! 
The best part about that visit was finally getting to meet Chuck’s family, my family, in person. Over the last few years we’ve talked via FaceTime and WhatsApp, but the spotty connections mixed with English in different accents (both mine, eh, and theirs), made it a bit rough.
But there we finally met face-to-face and it was wonderful. The communication was still stilted, but the family invited me in with the most generous of welcomes. Each person literally says “I welcome you,” when they meet you and isn’t that the nicest thing you can hear coming into a new environment?
A moment of bliss
Ooh-wee, was our last full day in the village a scorcher. 
The heat was excruciating. So much so that in the evening rain came down so hard and fast and the lightning and thunder was so close (SO CLOSE!) that even the brothers jumped when it was striking and lighting up the sky.
Chuck said this kind of storm is the kind that signals the end of the rainy season. Go out with a bang, right? 
But the storm couldn’t keep us from sitting in the veranda with Chuck, his mom, and four of his brothers for hours telling stories and laughing and crying because we were laughing so hard.
It was the kind of night you wish for when you’re being welcomed into a new environment, relaxed (even in that storm), engaging and happy.
And even though most of the convo was in a language I don’t understand, I was still dying with laughter because you don’t need the actual words to understand the stories sometimes, you know?
Honestly, I was quite trepidatious about coming to Chuck’s family village initially. I had no clue what to expect and what being in this environment would feel like for a *sometimes* high-maintenance gal.
I kinda shocked myself on how much I loved it.
Even Chuck mentioned he was surprised too. (Probably due to all my incessant and dumb questions before we got there.)
He convinced me we would have goats sleeping in our room!? And while I didn’t believe him, a small part of me was like “what if he’s serious?” He wasn’t, the jerk. lol
I truly cannot wait to come back to this special place.
