Post date: Aug 11, 2014 3:20:10 AM
October 1964
Busy as usual. Nancy and Mick were married last weekend. Nancy’s folks came out from New York on a week’s notice. They are very nice and seemed to enjoy ail the doin’s. Quite brave of them. In some ways it is partly unfortunate, as Mick and Nancy didn't exactly want to entertain parents after the wedding, so they were hustled off to Enugu. After the wedding seven of the guests (Peace Corps and VS0—British) stayed at my house, at Nancy’s old house, and in Mick’s old house, eating with me. We had a good party Sat night.
The weekend before that I got the forms for the Fulbright and spent three nights and two days filling them out and writing curriculum vitae and proposals, etc. I hope that my referees will be able to meet the 1 Nov deadline, as it is getting close. I drove 200 miles on Monday to take a language test in German.
[My home parish was building a new sanctuary. I was trying to advise them on a pipe organ.] The organ you heard in Palo Alto is a very large one, and reputations as a builder are not made with large organs. All the pieces on the program were for large, full organ, as well, except possibly the Handel concerto. Dr. Barnes is a very conservative organ designer, and, altho he makes some concessions to the rediscovered classic organ-building style, he doesn't have the feeling. The organ is a melange of Spanish, Italian, German, French, English, and American styles, without much unity. I hope it sounds better than it looks on paper. Swain and Kates are sort of a podunk operation without much design ability, but probably very competent mechanically. They night be all right if carefully and well-advised. I wonder which German firm builds for them, or rather, who they sell for. Some are very good at building and design their own products completely, so there is little the installer can botch up. Others just turn out exactly what the seller asks for and let him take all the bumps out, if he can. The more responsible German builders essentially design the organ, given the amount to be spent and the design and characteristics of the church. The Palo Alto organ you heard would have been very expensive, if only for all the fancy stuff on the console. Remember that you don't hear that stuff. My latest epistle is not yet ready, as I haven’t found the time to rewrite it after I had Nancy tear it apart.
Some of our roads are gone. The one which has been under 18“ of water for a month now has a twelve foot gash in it where a culvert washed out. The rains have been subsiding and the flood is gone, but the river is rising again; I don't think it will come very high, but it only has about an inch to go before it covers the road again in places. The natives have put palm logs across the washout and it is possible to use it with the motorcycle. Another road has slumped down the hill, and it will be a while before any motor traffic can use that way. We still have the tarred road.
I will go to Lagos between the 10th and the 25th to get visas for our holiday trip. Have to come back for Thanksgiving, as there will be a turkey dinner in Item.
The Catholic Fathers are starting a girl's secondary school, and they are starting it with electricity. I am wiring it for them, altho they won't have money enough for fixtures or generator until after the fees come in. They have built the roof frame (steel) and end walls for the new parish church, but may have to wait for donations from America or a couple of years before they will have enough money to finish it, or even put a roof on it.
Most or the older, established missions here are self-supporting. They get enough money from the peasants to keep the father or pastor plus a vehicle to get him to bush stations. Some of the older secondary schools are making money which goes to establishing new schools. The only funds they get from the ”Old Country“ are on special appeal. The Presbyterian and Anglican missions are even less like missions, as they have mostly Nigerian pastors, while the Catholics have almost entirely Irish or American fathers. There is some very strong Catholic-Protestant rivalry here, usually on some foolish issue. Pity.