Post date: Aug 9, 2014 3:33:06 PM
1 November 1963
Hello, all. I've sacked my steward. [His parting words were that I could not survive without a steward. I managed one month without.] For the present I have no steward, and am cooking and washing for myself. Boniface, who is Joan’s steward, will be out of a job when Joan goes back to the States next month, so I decided to hire him when she leaves. He is pretty good. He is helping me with marketing and ironing and house-caring for the duration.
Also I am eating lunch with Mick every day. Between the two of them [stewards], I could get along fine. I have spent about four hours a day for four days working on the model of the boat which Amundsen used to discover the Northwest Passage. I have the hull shaped pretty well now.
Let me give you some idea of my diet: Breakfast: one or two duck eggs and toast with jam and coffee. I use duck eggs if I can get a dozen because the chicken eggs are extra small and the same price as the larger duck eggs. Each market woman brings the eggs she has been able to find to market and to get 3 dozen at the proper price, 4d each, one must walk through the whole market. Then you have to candle each one by holding it up to the sun to see if it is good. For dinner I have a bit of beef, fried, with yam. (It is white here, and tastes like potato if cooked enough.), or maize fritter (much like corn meal mush which has set). For ‘sweets’ I usually have a dish of fruit which contains one banana, one orange, and a slice of pawpaw (papaya). Cost for desert is about two cents. The maize fritter is one penny a serving and is prepared by the market women—all it needs is cooking. Oh, yes, I usually have a green vegetable a day. The only green vegetable available is pumpkin, the leaves of a gourd. If boiled it is OK, but doesn’t have much flavor by itself.
Last weekend was a mid-term break and a four-day weekend. We all went to Enugu—four plus a big box in a small jeep with no rear seat. A little rough on the guys in the back. We arrived Friday noon, and the Jeep went right to the hospital. She had her spare tire bracket welded on, the starter fixed, and the brakes fixed. The Jeep rides quite well on the rough dirt roads when it is loaded. I think I shall get two cement sacks full of sand for when the Jeep is lightly load. It was used as an ambulance the other night for one of the students who could not walk the mile to the hospital. The kids here don’t complain and often, and illness becomes critical before anything is done about it.
Petrol is 4s 6d a gallon, about $.63 an Imperial gallon, or 50 cents an American gallon. I get 12 miles to the Imperial gallon. Very expensive. A small motorcycle (125 cc) gts about 100 miles to the gallon. About $7 to go to the nearest big market at Aba. That is more than I spend on food for two weeks.
Oh, yes, I am on the (near) Cross River, which flows into the sea at Calabar, just west of Cameroon. Actually 10 miles to the Cross by the nearest road. We get catfish from there. Enugu is 4 1/2 hours from here and 3 hours from Aba. If you have a good enough map, I am due north of Itu, south of Afikpo, and NE of Ikot Ekpene.
My refrigerator has a circular cloth wick, which burns down in about five days. It works fine now. Since my steward left, I am using the kerosene stove, which has an asbestos wick, and the fuel lines are due for a cleaning. The kerosene will be cheaper to operate than the wood stove, I think, since I was paying £l.5 for wood, and that will buy 7 gallons of kerosene. We had to start the wood with kerosene, anyway.
On my return from Enugu I left my camera to be repaired in Aba. I hope the guy does a good job. I watched him for a while and he didn't seem any better at it than I, but maybe he has more patience. I finally was able to get a processing mailer for the roll of Kodachrome. All film here is sold with processing. I will have to pick up the pictures in Enugu when I get up there next.
A beginning (untrained) steward in Aro gets £4 a month. At the school he must pay 10s [half £1] rent, the at most jobs he would be given a house. Here he can live on £2 a month for food. A trained steward like I will get is paid about £6 so he can save a bit. Mick's steward is a very good cook. Boniface, who I will get, is an ok cook, but he is very pleasant and smart enough to learn. He is very good at cleaning. I hope that he can learn from Frances, next door, and become a first-rate cook. I will be tired of my meager abilities in less than a month.
I built a small ventilated tray to go on top of the fridge to keep my salt and sugar warm. They cake up in the shaker something terrific if I don’t use drastic measures. I bought a plastic basin to use as a sink. All I need now is the woodwork to hold it up and a hole thru the screen for the drain. I also purchased the required plastic pipe and fittings (less one) to attach a tap to a [55 gallon] petrol drum. That won't do much good until it starts raining again, but at least I can get it set up [under the eaves].
The ‘water engineer‘ comes on 11 November to discuss the water project. It will require 3000 feet of 2" pipe which runs very near $1000 for galvanized or PVC plastic, and $1200 for polythene tube, which comes in 650-foot rolls. I hope we can get plastic, as I would like to see how it works, and I think it will last much longer in this wet, rusty climate. Both plastics will take 85 psi. (About 160 foot head of water.) Hope we get it.
12 November 1963
We stayed home one weekend and straightened out the books in the library. They were in no recognizable arrangement, tho the shelves had labels on them. We label the shelves more clearly and ordered everything, but the students are still not allowed to take out a book and there is no catalogue. We threw out some piles of pages and loose covers and a few world war II propaganda pamphlets on ‘How we pay for the War’ and similar. The selection of books is not really too useful, tho they have about five very big and expensive atlases—probably gifts. Also two large complete encyclopedias.
My boat model is coming along fine. I have almost all the deck fittings made now but have been unable to find any shellac to finish the hull with, so I can’t proceed. My fridge worked fine until last Saturday, when it started giving trouble again. I find that I have to keep all the air holes very clean in the burner or the flame burns unevenly and tends to smoke without being very hot. I think I have it working properly again.
The [chemical] apparatus which I ordered a month and a half ago for the exam has not arrived, and I must go to a neighboring school and borrow some from them.
We stopped by there on Saturday after visiting Aba, as it is on the way. They have a very nice school—it is a Methodist and Presbyterian girls’ school. All but two of the staff are ex-patriots and all are women. One of them is coming to Arochuku in January to teach in the Presbyterian Teacher Training school here. She is an American, about 40, and I don’t think she has ever been as isolated as she will be in Aro.
My great water project has fallen through. Mr. Whyte, the water engineer, came out from Aba and walked around for three hours with us. He is pretty good, despite his failure in dam design. [Ikoku built a dam across the local stream, which fell over after the first rain.] He liked my idea very much, and after a few changes, which unfortunately took and hour to decide up on finally, we had a concrete plan. I think the time delay upset the Principal, as he became noticeably disturbed near the end, and by the time our plans had crystallized, he vetoed the whole affair. He says the Government has promised to bring water to the compound within four years—but that may never materialize. Anyway, a diesel pump is coming in January, and he promised water by next term. We will have taps scattered about the yard, but no outlets in the houses. I have most of the parts for a water tank for my house, and as the pressure will only be great enough while the pump is actually operating (the tank is not high enough for this part of the compound) I can put a ball valve in my tank and fill it while the pump is operating. So my efforts are not all in vain. I shall draw up my plans for the ram system and send it to the gov’t, in hopes that they will do something soon. But the hope is slim. [Ed note: I only had water collected from my roof until I left.]
I wish my tools were here now so I could do a proper job on some of my repairs. I don’t think there is an organ service-man in all of Nigeria, and every school and many churches have reed organs. I also don’t know when I’ll find time for much of that. Maybe if I stop this model-building.
The weather is hotter now, and will be until December and January, when the cool winds blow down from the north. I really don’t know what ‘cool’ means here, as probably the most temperature variation is 15 degrees and it is always hot. The heat is not unbearable, tho. Traveling in the open Jeep has become very dirty now that the rains have stopped. The roads are quite dusty, and will become worse in that respect. In a closed car the problem is smaller, but in order to be comfortable you must keep the windows open. I find that a short-sleeved shirt is plenty of cover even when driving in the open Jeep at night. No one freezes in this place.
Mick, the GVSO, is trying to come up with a design to paint on our walls which will make the room look bigger. So far he has nothing.
The Jeep worked OK on the way to the Post Office this afternoon, so I think it was just some dirt caught in the idle jet of the carburetor. I put a new battery in last month, so that is no problem. I get enough money to buy gas. It is just that I would rather buy other, less expendable things.
About a week ago Mick and I visited the home of the gardener and he served us supper. It was rice and a meat stew-gravy-soup stuff which was well cooked and hot, so we figured it would be safe to eat—and it was. We didn’t drink any water, of course. No repercussions at all. Most of the kids say that at most you have to stay by the latrine the next day, and the Nigerians feel very honored that you have eaten with them. We may take a canoe trip down the creek to Itu one day. It takes about eight hours, so we would have to leave the Jeep there somehow for the trip back. Sounds like good fun.
I’m getting along fine, just borrowing stewards. However, it takes a good bit of time, so I will be glad when I get a boy again. Joan will leave earlier than expected, 22 November, so I will be back to normal soon.
29 Nov 1963
This past weekend I visited Enugu to take Joan Franklin up and attend a current events conference. The most current event was the most shocking: we heard of the President’s [Kennedy] death immediately by VOA.
I spent 5 hours under the Jeep. All the major work is complete—barring a breakdown.
Mick got a Mobylette (like a Mo-Ped) from the British Council. Pretty nice transport. He has been riding all over—first time he has driven!
Students have stopped classes to prepare for finals. I have written two exams and two to go.
Sent camera to Lagos for repair via a good firm. Have no idea when or what the cost. They may send it to Sears if necessary.
Cool (?) dusty winds started. Called “Harmatan”. Much drier but still hot to me.
I have all the parts for a water tank system. It took two hours to find them in the open market.
I made a mobile, and am designing silhouettes for the walls of the house. Should help. Boat model is coming, but takes much time. No shellac in Nigeria, so I substituted varnish. Lacquer only comes in 5-quart cans.
New steward is a good cook—a bit salty but good. He is much smarter than the last one and trained by American so he understands colloquialisms.