The memoirs of a Chief Brides' Maid

The memoirs of a Chief Brides maid Maid of Honor.

I shall begin from the very beginning.

Once upon a time I took the Arik airline to Murtala Airport Nigeria. My flight was going well until I started thinking. Why would you as the flight staff give a passenger uncorked wine because you know her but refuse to give the passenger behind her an uncorked bottle of wine because it is procedure to remove the cover of the bottle? Sigh

After analyzing the uniqueness of my kind and moving my body in all sorts of position because I was adamant I was not going to miss my flight food, another hassle began. An elderly lady making sure everyone knew how upset she was because another lady in another seat put her luggage in her own over head space. She basically asked everyone, is it good as what this woman is doing? Sigh

I dozed off and was really looking forward to  all that waiting for me as I land and this was just a ploy to take my mind off the plane history in my beloved country.

I landed and passed through checkpoint telling the official there that I didn't come with anything instead I came to eat his Sallah meat and he smiled. We waited for our luggage and as I allowed a man to stay get his luggage, he asked me why I didn't have my trolley and I said I don’t have cash, and yet as I was explaining, he ordered another man to get me one.

The generosity of Nigerians- remarkable.

After hugging my mother and listening to my brother speak on how excited he was to see me, we quickly jumped in the cab, the bride arranged to take us to the local airport, and then we saw the protocol guy who had my ticket to travel to Mbaise in Imo State.

I have never used the local airport, but I believe we can do better. I passed through the check point  stand and I can bet you that I would have passed with 70kg of cocaine in my body and no one would have known, or do they think that anyone who locally carries drugs from one state to another within Nigeria must be high on something very cheap? However, we can do better with the level of security in the local airport. I sat at the waiting corridor, as I begin to look into all the faces around me. The girl selling the books, the woman selling the recharge cards, the men selling the watches and I saw hard work in every of their body movement.

My phone battery was closing down and I asked the canteen lady if I could charge my phone and she agreed, as she teased the man she was serving to buy me food. I graciously declined.

She didn’t know me, she didn’t know him, yet she asked him if he was not going to get anything for Madame.

The friendliness of Nigerians- inspirational.

I heard the man announce for those boarding my flight to form a queue and we entered a bus that took us to the plane. We had to identify our boxes before boarding and we were directed to our seats.

For very weird reasons, I like the demonstrations Arik staff do before take-off. It is a very funny dance as they explain health and safety to us in motion picture.

After take-off, the crew member passing us with food tray skipped my seat and I as I was suffering from serious thirst, I asked my seat partner,’Is he going to come back here?’, She was as confused as I was. He later came back and with no smile, saying he told us to put out our tray and we didn't  I had a lot of words forming in my head but I was too shocked to reply. So basically, you could not say it again, just in case we missed your question Sir? With no smile he put the drink and the bread on our trays and I sighed again.

Arik Air Management, no offence, but please you don’t have to go far to figure out how to train your staff to smile or be courteous with customers, all you have to do is look for me, hire me for a period of time and after that all your staff members would have no other choice but to have a wide smile on their face and their heart.

We successfully landed in Sam Mbakwe Airport, all thanks to the God Almighty. We walked few meters and waited for some trucks to get our boxes from the plane and we had to pick them up from the trolley.

As I left the airport, I looked around for the driver who would have my name tag and there he was, with a smile on his face. He welcomed me, took my bags and I sat down.

As we drove, I made a mental note that indeed the producers of Mission Impossible or Fast and Furious do not need to look for actors who would act as though they can overcome every mobile obstacle; I was sitting next to one. In fact, in transformers they wasted time pretending the cars could turn to robots, this was a human being, who was driving like there was no tomorrow. Every pot hole, bicycle, bike or car we passed, must have remembered us that day.

As we drove I saw a lot of trucks over turned, and roads blocked, and I thanked God for safety. We passed through a market in which cars were supposed to pass through but goods and wares and their sellers had blocked it all. Yet we passed through, even though the Police did not bother coming out of their shed to create order in the area.

Finally, I reached my destination. The compound of The Anyanwus’ and as the car entered the premises, it was my beauty full Sister and Bride to me, that came out to welcome me.

Stay tuned for Part 2.