Post date: Aug 11, 2014 12:33:41 AM
17 September 1964
We've had it now. There is an epidemic of smallpox in the areal The Vice Principal's wife had it while she was 8 months pregnant, and came so close to dying that it is amazing. The doc says she would have died if the baby had not delivered. Said her pulse rate was 165 at one time! So everyone on the compound was vaccinated, as Mrs. Igboko taught most of the girls cooking and probably exposed many. New her husband has it. [See wedding invitation from Wedding Tradition] The vaccination was less than a week ago. The doctor went out for more vaccine and they are having mass vaccinations in the markets. The people around here love to get ‘injections’ so it is no problem to get them to come. Some are apathetic, tho. Doc says that the rain we are having helps clear the air and slows down the epidemic. I certainly hope so, as we are having more than our share of rain.
Look up in Gray's anatomy and tell me if the incidence of albinos is greater in Africa than in European countries. It seems that I see an awful lot of albinos, tho it may be that they are just more apparent. Many dye their hair black and, at any rate, the people around here don't have the usual Negroid features, so they look just like Europeans, except that they are usually somewhat grizzled. The little albino kids look like old men. Speaking of colour, the people in west Africa are not black, but all shades of brown. Some are so light as to look like white men, and they have reddish brown hair, altho it is kinky. In fact, one doesn't have to be especially light-skinned to have red hair, but I understand that is from protein deficiency in childhood. And the women are always pregnant. Now I know why they wear a wrapper (two yards of cloth wrapped around them and tied)— It is easily expanded when they expand.
The Principal [Alvan Ikoku] has got the job of director of Nigerian Airways, so he will be in Lagos most of the time, now. But it does mean about $25,000 more private income, and maybe I can persuade him to let me build a house. That is, if I can ever get his ear. He fixed the holes in my floor over the holiday, and now the roof leaks and the ceiling is being eaten away by ants, but I finally was able to tell him and a man has come to fix that. The trouble is that he came once before, and it was worse after than before.
Learned some dirt on the Principal. I had just about got around to thinking he was a great man, after hearing that he spends a lot of money putting other people's children thru school, when I also heard that he owns many houses all over Nigeria and two in England. He has been building and buying property for many years, and is now only beginning to realize a healthy profit from this. Also found out that there are no legal ties with his second ‘wife’, who is really his mistress. He has kept her well for thirty years and put all but one of her children thru as much school as they could manage. She is madly trying to get him to turn the school over to one of her sons, who she has primed all his life. I guess that he is the only chance that she may recover any fortune if the old man dies.
Of course, she has several children well established, and they will support her and the youngest child. The amazing thing is that the Principal could keep all of his affairs straight, for it is well known that he can trust no one with his finances, and all of his dealings are separate. I doubt if more than one or two people know of all his dealings. He leads at least three lives: Principal of a starving school; General President of the Nigerian Union of Teachers and guardian of teacher‘s rights; and wealthy landlord; in addition he will soon be Chairman of the Airways and drive around Lagos in a big car and live in a fancy house.
The teachers will go out on strike at the and of this month. Teachers are paid by the government, but on a considerably lower salary scale than their civil service counterparts. They have lower pensions and no merit pay. The government has refused to listen to the demands of the teachers and will not sit down with representatives of the union, which does represent all the teachers. There is very little chance that government will settle before the end of the month, and I think the strike will be effective. The problem is that government is so slow here that the strike may last for a month before any real bargaining starts. Of course, Mick and Nancy and I can't go on strike, so we will have to find some work on the compound. The P. says he will have a talk with Mick and me to give us something to do. I am going to press for building a new teacher‘s or Principal's house.
I am now a housemaster. That means that I approve (or disapprove) boy's requests to leave the compound. I should also try to get the boys to pay their school fees and keep their dorm clean. We will have to start sending boys home to get their money. Already the dining hall master is keeping boys out of the food if they have not paid fees. That usually sends them running for their money. I must go to a staff meeting now. Probably about the smallpox and setting up an emergency regime, as the V. Principal is sick and the Principal will have to leave soon for Lagos. He is hoping the gov't will give him someone to run the school.