Post date: Aug 10, 2014 12:37:21 AM
9 March 1964
Another week. My how the time flies. I must now prepare for another vacation period. Don't know quite what I'll do. Several of us are trying to get a regulation changed so we will have more leave time in Xmas next, so we can travel out of Nigeria. As it is now, I must use three weeks leave during the rainy season, when traveling is bad, leaving only two weeks at Xmas. I may use some to go to Lagos to get visas, but I will have to save as much money for my projected trip to Stanleyville.
I went to Onitsha last Sunday and talked to Will Craven, who attempted the journey in question, but was unsuccessful because of illness. I learned a lot about conditions of road and lodgings as far as he went, and he had a letter from a terminated PCV who went home via Stanleyville hitchhiking. He gave good info on Congo. Will terminates next Xmas and may go home via Stanleyville and the Nile, joining us. A Canadian who went to Timbuktu this Xmas wants to go, also, and I may have found another in a British fellow from Uzuakoli.
In the former French countries there are no native hotels, and we will have to cook or eat in the very expensive French hotels. Last Saturday and Sunday I had lunch in native hotels for 1 shilling and 2 shillings. Good food and cheap. No stomach trouble. Missions have the only flophouses in French colonies, and Peace Corps is becoming less welcome in the more crowded ones. I propose to take folding cots and sleep in primary school buildings.
The route will go thru Bangui, Central African Republic, probably via Cameroon. If time runs out we will take a steamer from there to Brazzaville. Time permitting we go to Stanleyville, and down river Congo from there. If we still have time, we will go into the Ruwenzori Mtns. Will says we should not attempt more than 500 miles in a week, Many of the roads are terrible, and we would need a day or two each week for sights, laundry, etc.
The gardener came to me with a pocket watch he said needed fixing. I told him I knew nothing about watches, and he should take it to a bush mechanic. I looked at the watch and it was running all right—but backwards! He had taken it to a bush mechanic. I haven't heard of one mechanic in this country who is reliable (except ex-pats). The Nigerians as well as the white folk complain. Usually they make things worse with their incompetent tinkering.
I am going with the Roman Father from Ututu on his tour of bush missions this vacations. He goes round frequently. Says he will arrange to see some bush we could never see from the car, and also a canoe ride. Fun.
The next two weekends l have to spend in Enugu. First for ‘Volunteer Support Group'—probably for teaching chemistry seminar—and next for our six-month Peace Corps conference. After that is Easter. Our school will probably not have a mid-term break this term, as it is almost too late, and no word. The weekend after Easter I may go to Yenagoa in the swampy delta of the Niger River—providing I can arrange it this weekend with Howard, who is supposed to be in Enugu for this meeting.
Some interesting vacation projects have appeared. One is a Citizenship and Leadership training School on the Jos Plateau—one of the most comfortable climates in all Nigeria—for all sorts of Nigerians. Another, more like work, is a job surveying for the Farm Settlement Scheme of the gov’t. I would have to learn fast how to use a theodolite, but that should be easy. I would be looking over bush—donated by villages to be community farms—and making contours of forest, planning villages and roads. Hope I get in on that one.
There are quite a few stammerers in this school. Mick has got a book on the nature and treatment thereof and is working on three of the worst students. It is an old British book, but the conditions fit these African kids exactly. One kid is so keyed up that he just won’t talk—he also won‘t do any homework. One is deathly afraid of the dark and of ’devils‘ which we would call ghosts. One is deeply afraid of juju—magic. One lived with an uncle who was a stammerer. Another had a very close friend who stammered. And so on. Emmanuel is hopeful. He tries to communicate and is stable enough that he may be able to relax. Godwin jumps up in primary-school-trained fashion every time he is spoken to. He is too much of a little boy to listen to reason, but may yield. Wilson is too disturbed to be helped much by anything less than full-scale psychiatric treatment. Godwin stammers in English but not in his native tongue.
Yesterday I tilled the land for a couple of hours. Sore today. It was (and is) very hot and the ground required a pick to break it. A student was supposed to work this afternoon (punishment) further, but it really needs little. Mostly seed now, and I have that, tho not the best selection.
Chop [dinner] is about ready. I am having a battle with my steward—trying to get him to fix less meat and cut down on expenses. I get two eggs at breakfast plus over half a pound of ‘beef’ a day. It is only about 30 cents a pound, but it is still the most expensive item on my shopping list. Well, next to European vegetables, which I have taken to buying in the town and which I will have to wean from if I expect to save any money.