Post date: Aug 11, 2014 4:45:32 AM
Thanksgiving
Today is Thanksgiving, but things being what they are in Nigeria, our dinner will not be until Saturday eve. The invite from Carole had a turkey on it so I guess the bird has not flown yet. l have no Idea how many people over a dozen will be there.
Well, I buzzed down to Lagos last week for to get visas for my trip, which will probably start about the 5th Dec. That trip chalked up another 1200 miles on my Honda—300 in one day. My rear was a bit tired after that. In Lagos I met a chap who had been building primary schools in Gabon for the Peace Corps and he told me of all his adventures. He bought a Honda to go round Africa. Says Schweitzer would welcome any volunteers, as two from Nigeria (terminated) are working for him gratis. We will try to see him…time, money, and patience allowing.
My plans for Germany are setting pretty well. Dave (as asst. prof of music) and Glenn (as chief sound engineer, city of Seattle} wrote roaring recommendations to the scholarship folk, and Herr Kleuker (whose organs Dave and Glenn sell and for whom [or with whom] I want to apprentice) wrote Glenn asking about me, so that is probably set too. I can save up the money for the Goethe Institute language course in a couple of months (after the holiday, of course) and the apprenticeship should pay about $1 an hour for six months, so all I have to worry over is room and board for four months, which can easily come out of my ‘readjustment pay‘ from the Peace Gorps. The language course is in Blaubeuren, near Ulm, the factory in Brackwede, Westfallen, and the orgelbau course in Ludwigsberg, north of Stuttgart. Pretty good, except all pretty far from Lübeck.
I can easily go to Munich, Frankfurt, Köln, Hannover, Holland, and Belgium on weekends, but Hamburg is a bit far, altho probably a night's ride from Brackwede. If I get a fellowship, I'll be abde to afford some fancy researching into the acoustics of the churches with famous organs.
I just typed my latest, and probably last, epistle to the Pajaronians, and will send it off in the morning. It is of a similar nature, only less authoritative. I surely wish I were there to put in my two-bits worth.
I sent out a few Christmas cards the other day. I could only find a few which were Nigerian and still had anything to do with Christ. In fact, as you will see, the two are not tied together in the card. I wanted to work out something original, but the artist was not too cooperative and I didn‘t feel like pushing.
We are finishing the School Certificate exam now and will complete by 2 Dec. The results of this one set of exams determines whether a child passes and finds a job, or fails and sits at home the rest of his life, because he is now separated from the traditional life. Usually the fails go to town and bum off of a brother who has a job. ‘Hangers-on‘. The school system teaches them that they are big men now, and manual labor is beneath them. This comes from the bourgeois colonialists of yesteryear.