Ndi be anyi, ekele m unu.....
Blissful morning to you all.....
For the past one week now, I have been in one of the villages in Obukpa , Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, where our hospital has an outpost for my community medical posting, I explained before that it was a way of giving back to the community of Obukpa for the sacrifices they made by giving up their land for our school to be built on.
This posting helps us get information on how the villagers handle their health.
As it's customary with the Igbo tradition to first visit the Igwe (king) of the land after coming to any village to present yourself to him and his cabinet members, explain your aim of visit and finally seek his permission for whatever you want to do, we also did it.
This was why on Thursday last week, we visited the Igwe of Obukpa, it was a cool experience.
Actually, he was the very first Igwe I've ever visited in my life, lol.
We were given some instructions prior to the visit which includes:
- The language Used in the igwe's palace must be Igbo:
This was the fun of it because some of my classmates weren't from the Igbo tribe and some who were from the tribe couldn't speak the language too, so they kept on practicing how to do the introduction in Igbo which went like this;
"Igwe ee!!! Ndi Ichie, ekele m unu...
Aha m bu Maazi Samuel Sopuluchukwu, a bu m onye Obollo-eke, nke di n'okpuru ochichi udenu local government area, Enugwu Steeti, Naijiria."
Which means, "I greet you my king and his cabinets members, my name is Master Samuel Sopuluchukwu and I am from Obollo-eke in Udenu Local Government Area, Enugu state, Nigeria" in English language.
- Greetings before and after talking to the Igwe:
Ideally, If this instruction wasn't given, we might have just greeted once probably before speaking without ending our speech with greetings, lol.
- Bowing our heads while greeting:
No one says "good morning" bowing the head so it's not far-fetched the reason why we were reminded of this tradition.
After we've all introduced ourselves, the Igwe introduced himself as Igwe O. Eze Ugwumba 1 of Owerre-Obukpa and then gave us a speech which could be summarized as:
Always be approachable:
In his words, once you possess this quality as a medical doctor and you're posted to the village, the villagers will have trust in you and will visit the hospital rather than patronising the herbal mixers but when you're not approachable, it becomes difficult for them to talk to you and then they can't come to you.
It doesn't pay to be arrogant in any way rather always be humane in your dealings with your fellow human beings.
Doctor's Touch:
The Igwe made us understand that sometimes when villagers come to the hospital, we should be calm and patient enough to not just listen to them but also to touch them (physical examination) calmly to ascertain exactly where the pain for instance if they came with pain is been felt .
In his words, "sometimes, these touches alone heals the patient even without taking medication."
That's what we call psychological medicine, hehe.
Extinction of Igbo Language:
I told you some of us memorized what to speak right? But the thing with language is that the intonation with which it's spoken with says a lot....
When someone who can't speak Igbo language speaks, you'll know because of the intonation.
The Igwe urged us all to learn the Igbo language else it'll go into extinction and was particularly referring to persons who were from Igbo tribe but still couldn't speak Igbo language.
After this, our consultant who brought us gave vote of thanks and then we took pictures....
It was quite an adorable experience.
ALL IMAGES ARE MINE
Thanks for reading and have a nice day