Dallas, Texas: Das Wochenende, an dem Igbere nach Texas kam

I landed in Dallas in the summer of 2022 with one thing on the calendar: the Igbere Development Association's national convention. Igbere is my family's hometown in Abia State, Nigeria — a place I've spent more time hearing about than standing in — and once a year the people who left it gather somewhere in America to raise money for the people who stayed. That year it was a hotel ballroom in Texas. I spent a few days in Dallas and I don't think I saw one thing a tourist would recognize.

A ballroom in green and gold

The convention was the whole reason to come. The women's group came out in matching green george wrappers and gold blouses and danced in a slow circle while everyone pushed the tables back to watch. Men in red caps and lion-print isiagu. The room was dressed in green, white and orange — the colors of the Nigerian flag — right down to the balloons and the table runners.

What the night was actually for

Between the dancing there were speeches, and the speeches were about a school back home that's being rebuilt. When it was my turn I took the mic and pledged $500; my older brother Daniel pledged $1,000. Later in the night I watched a couple of uncles at a folding table counting the cash into banded stacks under a plastic bag.

That part never makes the highlight reel. It's also the part that actually pays for the roof.

The rest of Dallas

Outside the ballroom, Dallas was a backyard in the suburbs — a relative's place, a pool with a slide, a DJ speaker taller than me, and a tub of Moët on ice next to the Clorox wipes. Then one night we got out to a hookah lounge called Velvet Café — string lights, red neon, a strip-mall parking lot. That was the entire nightlife portion of the trip.

If you're planning the kind of Dallas trip where you actually leave the house — the museums, the barbecue, Deep Ellum — I put all of that in the Dallas travel guide. The full footage from this one, dancing and all, is in the vlog below; shoutout to my editor @topaz_ziii. And if you've got a question about traveling for a family event like this, ask it in the community.