MJoTA and NYEcho showed up in the middle of a snowstorm to witness and celebrate the 2009 Christmas Meeting of the Ikale Association of America (ISS New York) in Coney Island. This organization started in 1999, they meet once monthly to support each other and do what they can to help back home in Nigeria. They are particularly interested in education, and scholarships. Children were running around happily, the older children organized a raffle, everyone talked and danced and ate and talked to each other. The Christmas meeting was hosted by Mr Tunde Basorun, who works for New York City, and addressed by the President of ISS New York, Durojaye Akindutire MD, who told us he was born a Prince in Nigeria, and works as a physician in New York.
Ikale are descended from Yoruba from the Benin Empire of West Africa. They are all Nigerians, and the ones we celebrated with last night are Christian, but Ikale are frequently other religions.
We took pictures, they can be seen in Dr Dodgson's Picasa albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/sjdodgson
These pictures can be obtained in presentation albums, as individual framed or unframed prints in any size. For price list, click here. For more information about what we offer, click here.