Diary Game season 3: How I spent my Day/My Journey to a Pre-Traditional Marriage List collection and Nagotiation on Saturday 12-06-2021.

Good morning my good friends. I hope you enjoyed your week, thank God for you.

Because of the traveling scheduled on Saturday, I was conscious of that coupled with the news of June 12 public holiday, nationwide protest for failure of government and also the Yoruba people protest all on the same date, so I woke up at about 5:30am did our morning prayer, took my bath and my breakfast, instructed my family not to come out side incase if there is anything happening in the town.

At this time I have called my elder brother to start coming out to where we will enter Keke Napep (tricycle motor) to our Anuty's house whom her son is going to marry, they are leaving at Ogbor Hill, shortly we got there, already they are waiting for us because we scheduled the time at 8:00am but we got there by 9:30am one hour thirty minutes late though there was a little hitch before we moved, when we moved from the house to 7Up Junction the driver moved toward Seven Days Adventist Church heading to Obikabia Junction then navigated through that Ochendo road that leads to Umuika Junction expressway which is a little longer journey before the Umuika expressway, when we got there, there was no traffic or holdup any where then the driver speed off, everybody relaxed and the journey continued as discussion was going on very smoothly, no quarreling or argument the driver was highly focused and speedy considering the distance of where we were going and the time we left the house because we left behind scheduled so he was driving to meet the time.

When we got to Umuahia the driver navigated left through Abia Tower round-about smoothly, we moved but there is one funny thing we experienced in that journey "guess what" none of us in the bus knew where we were going or road that leads to the junction nearest to the place so I now had to call the lady we were going to her occasion to send the direction and address to me which she did immediately then I now told the driver the address and the direction though as we get to any Junction, we will ask question to avoid, "had l know" or blaming each other as the was enjoyable so there was no room to truncate the peaceful movement.

Here we landed at Isiala Mbano headquarters according to the direction and asked for St. Mary's Catholic Church the compound of the Paramount Ruler, Ihim Autonomous Community Isiala Mbano L. G. A. Imo State, they pointed the road leading to the place, not too long we arrived there, I prayered thanking God for safety on arrival, we all came down was welcomed by the people and the lady we came for, they took us to their parlor (sitting room) where the event will be held.

Meanwhile, the people were not ready, they started running from this person's house to the other person's house alarming them of our arrival "you know village thing now" gradually they started gathering with salutations and warm hand shakes.

Finally, the meeting commenced in a traditional way, they presented cola-nut after that we introduced ourselves and where we came from "our villages", they also did afterward our elderly brother now told them the purpose of our coming and what it will cost for our son to marry their daughter, they now called the said lady and asked if she knew us and the reason why we were there of which her answer was Yes, sequel to that, they said the first and foremost we should collect their traditional marriage list with N4000 which we did, the pictures.

Afterwards, they served us food entertained us very well, though there was a lot of disagree and agree situations in the process, finally both parties came to a conclusion we greeted each other with handshakes.

Nevertheless, they told us that the King of Ihim Autonomous Community who is representing the father of this lady in question is from their compound and he said after there in their family house that we should come to his Palace which is called "Wisdom Palace" because based on his position he cannot leave the palace but we should come to his Palace to accord him respect at the same time for him to receive his traditional rite from her daughter as they knew his requirements and it was provided then we moved to his Palace which is not too far from where we were.

The King's Palace, the gate man opened we drove in low and behold it was another occasion in a very big compound and in well decorated Palace highly packaged, the palace hall, the throne and others, at this point I was afraid to bring out my camera to snap anything though he was not on seat at the moment, so we was amazed and full of expectations on who and how the King will be and appear, suddenly a man who was there before we came was holding bell yes I said "bell" immediately he opened the door the with bell started ringing the bell and the other man that came with us from the first place now ordered us to stand up in honour to the king's arrival which we all obliged as he came at the middle and turned around left side and right side at this point fear to bringing my camera was high because I don't know how it will go if I do, as he was turning side ways and side ways looking at us eyeballs to eyeballs from this end to the other end with greetings you all are welcome, you are welcome etc until he got to his seat and sat down the bell ringer stopped he now said again you are welcome, now asked them to bring cola-nut, the men serving there rushed and brought cola-nut he blessed it took his asked them to serve us they did, one thing he did was that he used his hand to break the cola-nut and was raining blessings upon the daughter and the husband for a very long time before the sharing.

Finally, here he said it is time to ascend to my throne all this time he was in Palace hall with us then moved in a very majestic manner to his throne the men now asked us to come while we were on standing ovation in his honour, during the entertainment he asked them to open one bottle of wine for us of which his cup was filled with wine but he did not take it there but when he went to the throne he now ordered the daughter to bring it to the throne she did and knelt down to handover the cup to him there he asked her; do I take this cup from you and drink the wine there off? she said Yes, you know if drink it I will not bring it out again? she said Yes! Taking it means you have accepted to go with them, she said Yes, he now drank the wine and asked the mother to her husband to come, she went and knelt down as well he took the hands of her daughter and handed her over to the woman and charged her to take her as a daughter, because he is giving her to you as a daughter not as a wife, as the daughter knelt down to give him wine, he now asked is there any camera here that this time needs to be snapped, I now brought out my camera like wise others, as you can see. After that he began another prayer, blessing the couple, there family etc.

Afterwards, we came out to the palace hall, he too came out also, he escorted us to his environment gave us his contact card and bid farewell then we zoom off back to Aba around 6:30pm,meanwhile I entered my house around 7:45pm as we tried to avoid coffew, I showered, ate and slept off, later I started writing this.

Thank you for your patience.