Post date: Aug 10, 2014 10:37:29 PM
19 August 1964
Ach, Calabar is a great town. It was the first colonial settlement in Nigeria and has many old, run-down houses. Colonial architecture is an anomaly. It is not like that of the home country, yet not best suited for the new. The old gov’t houses are all built like ships. The town is in a shell surrounded by hills on three sides and the port on the fourth. Up on the plateau are numerous ancient suburbs.
Here I am in Calabar, commuting to a regular job like everyone else. I am repairing (more or less) the organ in Duke Town Church, which was installed in 1929, moved in 1940, and hasn’t been touched by reputable hands since. [I’m not sure that I qualified as ‘reputable’ then, either.] I met the man who moved it. He is a mechanical genius—all the more amazing as he is a Nigerian. In 1940 he built new bellows which can be operated by two men instead of the previous one-man bellows. He also installed the tower clock in that church and a pipe organ in Wesley Methodist, Calabar, which I have yet to see. He now resides in Port Harcourt, where he services the two pipe organs there. As a business he tunes and repairs keyboard instruments and tower clocks.
I saw the organ at Holy Trinity church last night. It is a nice little one with seven stops but it badly needs adjustment and tuning. It is 50 years old. Calabar has a fifth organ but it is not yet set up. Prof (hah!) A.O. Ita recently bought it for his school. He wants me to erect it but the chapel is not finished. I have not seen him directly yet. He is crazy, but rich.
Until I met Mr. Ekpenyong (the mechanical genius and piano repairman) I thought of transferring Peace Corps positions so I could work longer in Calabar. I still may for one or two terms, especially if I order some parts for this organ which have to come from Germany.
About this organ business [in Seattle]. Glenn [White Jr] has only a BS in physics, but some good experience at Boeing. Yes, I feel very handicapped because I can’t play the organ, but if I ever settle down I’ll probably build a clavichord and practice lots. And, yes, Dave [Dahl] and Glenn feel the same way about forming a company as I. I thought of it, but Dave mentioned it first. Glenn has been servicing and installing organs for five years or more, and he and Dave are formally in the ‘Olympic Organ Builders’ now. Glenn wrote me about joining last month, but I have always put them off because I had nothing to add. However, if I go to Germany to study orgelbau [organ building] I will have something to add.
It is storming out. We traditionally have about a 10-day dry spell in the middle of the rains, but this year it lasted 3 weeks. I am staying at the gov’t non-catering rest house. Just two big bare rooms with bed (no sheets), table, and three chairs. The doors and windows are wood louvers so the wind comes right thru. I bought a pressure kerosene stove which I will use on my December trip. Boniface came with me on the Honda over 50 miles of mud roads.