Preparations, Polygamy, and the Pox
Post date: Aug 11, 2014 1:26:08 AM
15 October 1964, Thursday
Mick and Nancy are getting married this Saturday, and less than a week ago they got a telegram that her parents were coming from New York! They have been getting a house, cleaning and moving in, preparing for the wedding, including American, English, and Nigerian customs. They must kill a goat, serve beer, have formal speeches and giving of presents, toasts, and English (fruit cake) wedding cake, something borrowed, something blue, whiskey for the Americans, fried dough for the Nigerians,… ad nauseum.
Friday night, after returning from Enugu, I got the application forms for the Fulbright [to study organ-building in German]. I spent all Saturday and Sunday filling the 17 pages. On Monday I drove 200 miles to take a German language test. You see, it all has to be in N.Y., references and all, by 1 November! Mick and Nancy went to Enugu to meet Nancy’s parents, so I gave them the reference from my Peace Corps Director and the med report from the doctor.
I was medically examined in Enugu with injections for hepatitis, typhoid, and polio and ejections for blood tests. I’m OK. Also got my ears washed out! Boy were they plugged—took two days to clean ‘em. While there, I opened 100 cases of books and re-shuffled them into book selections, each with 88 books. Whew! Strengthens the back. We got 45 new PCVs in the Eastern Region—Aggies and Community developers. One is 11 miles away from Arochuku. They all have Honda 125s.
There is nothing wrong with having many wives in this country. The Christians are suppressing it (foolishly at times). But the Principal has one wife and one unmarried mistress (since 1932) plus several girl-friends among the students. In Nigerian tradition the several wives are nearly equal, but these women live on opposite sides of the school—one Christian, respectable, & “Mrs.”; the other with a car, fat, for fun and entertainment, still with the title “Miss”. This I don’t approve of, tho I say nothing.
Boy, the VP looks horrible, all pocked with smallpox. It will be no loss if that disease goes from the face of the earth.
Innocent made a tape for me of some secret music. Boy, is it wild! In the old days they used to sacrifice people before making this music.