Christmas in the East: Family, Festivities, and Failing Wi-Fi

The Christmas holidays change every year, at least for me. Growing up, we rarely travelled home to celebrate it. (Home referring to our family house back in the east of Nigeria—where I’m from.) We found that we always stayed in Lagos for Christmas, which was the less liked alternative.

As the years progressed and we got older, we started travelling for Christmas. This was actually largely due to the fact my siblings and I all schooled in the east, an hour or two away from our home. So it was more convenient for us to spend the holidays there instead of going all the way to Lagos.

So my mom would be left with no option but to make the long trip on her own from Lagos to the east to join us. Why do I say all this?

It’s because Home was the last place I travelled to—Anambra State, to be precise. This time though, I travelled to school first to celebrate my induction before finally joining the family in Anambra for the festivities.

I come from a large family, so the holidays are usually a lot. In total, my mom has ten siblings. My cousins and I are all 34 in number—and counting because my youngest uncle just got married, so he is about to start popping out babies too.

Anyway, our family house is a huge building that has eleven rooms, two kitchens, two living rooms and dining areas, and several bathrooms. Even with all this space, it definitely is not enough for us all.

The compound is spacious, so we all kind of hang out in it. We don’t go out a lot; at least I don’t, so I’m in the best place to speak of the beauties of my village. Our movement usually only includes the house, church, and any locations for a mandatory event.

If I had the power to change three things about my village, they would be the electricity, the internet connectivity, and the weather.

We usually have light some times, but most times we don’t. And it dulls the moments. I get that it’s a village and little can be done about it, but it is definitely inconveniencing. Another thing is the network. Network is trashy over there. I barely have signals to answer phone calls when I travel, not to mention internet connection.

And it’s frustrating because there are a lot of things I would love to share with friends online, or just people, but that’s never possible with no internet.

And then the weather😅. What happened to the weather? Back in day when we would travel, the harmattan would last from the beginning of December down to the middle of January. Now we get barely two weeks of cold air, and we’re catapulted back to the scorching heat.

Last year was so crazy, I still remember it. On the 31st of December, I was shivering from the cold. We celebrated the start of the new year, and everyone went to bed. Only for the morning to reach, and we were all sweating buckets.

There was no need for such a drastic change like that. The harmattan literally told us, “My work here is done, they don’t pay me enough for us this, I’m out!” And it never came back😅

If I were to do it all again, though, I would! I mean, at this point, Christmas for me is not the same without my cousins and my extended family. I freaking love that trip!

---

Thanks for reading🤗

---

Images used are mine...