Meet the family and the “Swiss” wristwatch (October 2009, Philly, U.S)
My girlfriend (who later became my wife) was in Philly for a month for an external training, so I mentioned to her that she should pay a visit to Uche and his family. Part of the traditional marriage process is what is called the “Introduction”. This is where members of both families exchange gifts and get to know themselves. However, family members with whom you share a closer bond are given a “sneak preview” in the form of a family visit with the spouse before the date of the Introduction. These chosen ones get to meet your intended spouse before the formal ceremonies. The idea is that those selected family members should make you feel welcome before the introduction day. Considering that we lived on separate continents, there was no way to be certain that my wife would get to meet the Ojehs before we got married. This was why I sent her number to Uche so the visit could be arranged.
It was interesting that Uche had only started coming back to Nigeria a few years before then, but he was fully aware of all the relevant cultural nuances. When he first spoke with her, he used the word “Sister” as an appellation of sorts before her name. Even though the use of the word “Sister” as a prefix to a name was standard practice among those of Christian extraction in Nigeria, she was quite surprised that he switched from the Western norm to the Nigerian-Christian norm. On getting to Uche’s house, she found out that Mrs Ojeh (Uche’s mum) was also visiting them at the time. The visit was a lot more successful than planned because she got to meet two generations of Ojehs at the same time.
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Another reason for visiting Uche was that I wanted him to help get my “Swiss” wristwatch fixed at the watchmaker’s official store in Philly. It should be noted that the wristwatch was purchased on the expert recommendation of friends at a high-end watch store in Lagos. One of the selling points of the store was that the warranty on the watch was effective worldwide. A few days later, Uche visited the dealer’s store for the repair, but was surprised by the response from the dealer. They informed him that it was one of the highest-quality fakes of their products that they had ever seen. They were quite impressed by the quality of craftsmanship exhibited in that clone.
Uche called me and told me my “Swiss” wristwatch was not real. The shock went beyond my personal loss. The shock was that a high-end store was selling expensive fakes.
Since then, nothing of Swiss descent has been found on my wrist.
