Post date: Aug 10, 2014 2:47:47 AM
19 May 1964 [this letter is quite a medley]
My last letter was just mailed today, altho it was written almost three weeks ago. I had misplaced it while on my holiday tours. I spent most of the holiday in and out of Enugu repairing Peace Corps vehicles—Jeeps and VWs and Chevy trucks. What a mess. I now have the pink jeep back. I don't remember it as being so noisy and rattley, but it is just as uncomfortable as ever.
I also spent three and a half days at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, at an African Music conference discussing church music, music education, compositional techniques, and research. Very little research has been done in Nigerian music, and I can help by studying the background, instruments, special occasions, playing groups, etc, as well as recording. I would like to tour the north during the next holiday recording in the bush with the chairman of the music dept of University.
Our volunteer support group will use as much help as we can get from anyone. I wrote to the NSF for help with CHEMStudy texts and they have almost volunteered to send as many as I need! We are trying to find Univ profs in Nigeria to help with in-service-training programs. The text writing project is still a long way off. .we have to investigate all the available texts to see if anything is suitable. It looks to me like CHEMStudy will be good, if not too expensive.
The Univ of Illinois Math program is excellent, if we can introduce it during the first year of secondary school, with a promise to keep the program thru the five years. A big order in this country. Physics is a big problem. I don't know when anyone finds time in this country, but one PCV has written a history text already in Nigeria.
Almost a week of my holiday was spent in the federal capital, Lagos. This is a real city, with some sidewalks, many big buildings and fancy houses, and lots of slums. Not particularly bad slums, but very crowded living in sheet metal houses, etc, with no running water or electricity. I walked thru good and bad for about six hours while waiting for gov’t officials to give me a Nigerian re-entry visa. I was unable to get any visas for my projected Christmas trip—too far in advance. I may be able to take off some time between the last classes and the first exams to get them. I have almost all of the spade work done. All of the visas are for a maximum of three months. I could do it by mail, but that is too uncertain and risky in this country.
There is no schistosomiasis in this area of Nigeria. At least the doctor has never seen or heard of a case. In the western Region, yes, but not here. I have had no trouble with worms, either, tho by rights I should have. I don't have any medicine for parasites, but the local hospital does. The doctor was given a chance to intern in surgery, which he very much wants to do, but his replacement refused to come out to the bush, and Doc has chosen to stay, rather than abandon the hospital to its fates. Brave for a Nigerian doctor.
We have a new volunteer in Arochuku [Nancy Gordon]. She teaches at the local teacher training college down the road. I brought her down from Enugu in the Jeep—a long tiring ride. We had to wait an extra day for the Jeep to be returned as it had been borrowed. She is a New York City girl, and should be good company for Mick and me. I tried to teach her to drive the Jeep this afternoon. That is quite a change after an automatic shift car. I hesitate to teach her at all, as driving is a real hazard in this country, with chickens and goats and children and bicycles and cars and lorries all over the road with no concept of safety or value of life and limb. But I‘m not supposed to be a father, only a teacher.
The rains have started. It has rained part of almost every day for a month, and this is just the beginning. I met an organist at Duke Town, Calabar, who says that there are four and possibly five pipe organs in Calabar, and that his is badly in need of repair. If I can get there over the dirt road (75 miles of mud) I will go on some weekends and see what can be done. It is a tracker, and another has been converted from tubular pneumatic (meaning it is over 60 yrs old) to electro-pneumatic. Some of these may have some good pipe-work. I hope that I can get them to pay for my petrol. [I later repaired some of these organs.]