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| The Dong with a Luminous Nose - Richard Svensson |
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Lagos, March 4th 1973
Dear Ma and Daddy,
I am now on my half term weekend in Lagos - visiting Ethel at the Marina(Church Missionary Society Guest House)and also Shola in Ikeja. I came down here on Friday, travelling via Ibadan. It was a long days driving - and hot and dirty as well - the situation not being improved by our having a puncture before Ibadan and then meeting difficulty in getting the new tyre that I bought fitted onto the wheels. I was glad that I had taken the precaution of bringing 2 students with me because they helped in all these events.
So we reached Shola's place about 6pm - and I had a bath in a whole bath of water! Gorgeous after our long experience without any running water in Akure. In the evening Shola and I went out to the University to watch 2 short plays done by 2 English actors who are on tour in Nigeria. It was very cleverly done and well acted. The first play was called 'The Dumb Waiter' and the second 'Dock Brief'. We got home about 11pm - and I had rather a hot night - but didn't sleep too badly. Then on Saturday we set out to go to the airport to say goodbye to Mr. Awokoya of St Andrew's fame - an uncle of Shola's - but we were turned back for security reasons... Gowon* was arriving from a state visit to Mali. So we went to Kingsway and played with her dear fat twin girls. Then in the afternoon I came here to the Marina and had supper with Ethel and 2 Professors one from Ife and one from Ibadan Universities. One is from Troon and the wife of the other from Edinburgh. After supper Shola and Funsho came and took me to the Federal Palace Hotel where we had chicken sandwiches and Fanta Ginger Ale. There was a band playing and the place absolutely full of people - very pleasant atmosphere. So its been a very happy visit in Lagos.
[*General Gowan was Nigerian Head of State from 1966 to 1975]
Vining Centre, Akure, March 10th 1973
Dear Ma and Daddy,
It was a bit sickening to get back to Akure last Monday to hear that Jane Pelly phoned her parents last Sunday from Akure! and that she heard perfectly well what they were saying. So I was very disappointed. I think it is better to stick to letters, but I don't know if its your strikes or what but the letters are coming very erratically.
It has been a full week here, occupied a great deal with collecting water. The van goes daily or twice a day to the nearest tap which is sometimes 8 miles away, sometimes that is dry and you have to go nearly 20 miles and then queue up for your turn. We have a muddy pond on our ground which we use for washing - but we get the tap water for drinking and cooking. We want to avoid cholera at all costs!
On Friday at last I played tennis. Event. I discovered that Terry who is a radio expert with G.E.C wanted to play so we went to the courts and joined some Nigerian men who play there regularly. They were rather better than us, but still it was fun. Except that I now have blisters on my toes.
On Thursday afternoon we had the great drama of a small piece of the bush behind my house catching fire and with a high dry wind it was a bit dangerous - so we called the fire engine. This took time because, of all stupid things, they are not on the phone... so by the time they came there was nothing much to do - our students had already cleared a stretch of ground and stopped the fire moving near to the houses. But notwithstanding the firemen had to show their paces so with helmets on their heads, boots on their feet and long hose pipes they proceeded to pour water on the trees and bushes that were smouldering or still flaming. It would have been more useful to have poured the water from their tanker into our buckets.
On Friday evening Bola came and stayed the night. He has had a lot of trouble with fires in his forestry areas. Some people have lost complete cocoa plantations, which is serious because it is their livelihood and it takes 4 years for the cocoa to produce again.
I got your second parcel last week - I don't think I told you in my letter from Lagos. So that's good - except that the Nigerian customs are real 'crooks' and get their pound of flesh. The most incredible thing to me - and rather a joke really was that the Tupperware containers which I bought in a Jumble Sale for 6d - I had to pay 63 kobo to claim them!! (That's 6/3d) Anyway I was very happy to have these things and have been listening to the records. Unfortunately the 'Godspell' is a bit warped - but you can hear most of it. The G.E.C fellows liked the 'Light' song ... which was something. One of them, Jim is incredibly 'anti' - anti-religion, anti-Akure, anti-Nigerian and very bitter - he never stops talking and gets quite narked if someone else holds the floor. He is divorced from his wife.
It's time I went to bed. It's hot - so I have the fan going in the bedroom at night these days.
With lots of love to you both,
Elizabeth
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Sunnybrae Road, 24th May 1973
Earlier this week it was quite cold and we had the electric fires on. There have been frequent squally showers that blow over very rapidly and are interspersed with sunny periods and lots of rainbows - hardly a day goes by without a rainbow at this time of year it seems. Today it has been warmer and drier and this evening there was the most lovely sunset - starting out a pale orange and then going salmon, pink, red, purple and finally a golden brown colour. Our living room windows face North so we frequently sit down after tea and watch the sun go down... The quality of the light here is very different from Carpenders Park, very like the light in Italy.
Hope you have had a chance to recover from your ear infection and are looking forward to going to Wales. Stuart had the flu last week and was poorly for two or three days and then at the weekend Sacha caught her finger in a door and has lost half the nail which was very painful for her. She has been on and off school this week but is much better today. They all enjoyed The Owl and the Pussycat at the Mercury Theatre and Lewis keeps recounting all the people he saw - Owl, Pussycat, Quangle Wangle (who lived in a hat), Turkey, Pig, The Dong with a Luminous Nose and The Plum-Pudding Flea (who was the baddy) - how's your Edward Lear? We got two books of his poems from the Public Library and read the stories to them.
We had a friend here the other evening who was from Morrinsville where Mrs thingy's son was teaching (the one who moved to Whangarei). Seems Morrinsville is such a dump that the only people they can get to teach there are British teachers who for their first two years in N.Z. are under contract to the N.Z. Education Dept and have to go where they are told! [Sharon tells me this arrangement applied to all new teachers in NZ at that time.]
24th June 1973
Dear Mum and Dad,
Thank you for your letter of June 12th and for the birthday card and tie. And, rather belatedly, happy anniversary to you both for the 26th. Please thank Ruth for the card too when next you see her and congratulate Stuart on his good result in the B.Mus exams. This letter should reach you just before Elizabeth arrives so give her all our love. We read a bit about General Gowon's visit to London but there was not much about it in the papers here - mostly about the richness of Nigeria's oil reserves.
Stuart's flu turned out to be the mumps which Lewis and Sacha both subsequently caught. Sacha looked the most swollen and was very woebegone with her bad finger as well. They have all recovered now and yesterday we celebrated my birthday by going to the circus. This was on locally on the green by the Northcote shopping centre, about 1 and a 1/2 miles from us. It was like all travelling circuses - the traditional big top, a few lions, lots of Shetland ponies and dogs and a small troupe of people who changed from clowns to trick-cyclists to big game hunters and high wire bicyclists etc. The children loved it but it was the unexpected things that they will remember most. The final act, for example, was one in which a female elephant walked round the ring and carefully avoided treading on a row of people lying on the ground, the number of people being increased by one each time. When it had reached four the elephant came towards them very cautiously and was just about to step over them when it decided the calls of nature were more important! - a veritable waterfall and four men desperately scrambling to avoid being drowned in it. As you might imagine it brought the house down!
We have been following the test matches with interest and excitement. Everyone was very pleased with the second innings effort of 440 in the first test which it was a pity NZ lost. Now at Lords as I write NZ are 492-6 at the end of the third day after dismissing England for 253 in the first innings so have a good chance of beating England for the first time ever. We usually hear a little bit of the commentary between 10.30 and 11.00 in the evening which is the first hour of the day's play, and then we hear a summary with the early morning news.
Mid-winter day was two days ago which seems unbelievable. It is raining today but the last ten days or so have been really beautiful - cold in the evenings and early morning and then crisp and clear all day, and very blue. We need the heaters on until about 9.30am and then again in the evening - it gets dark about 5pm. But in the middle of the day it is still warm enough to sit outside in one's shirtsleeves provided one is out of the wind. Last weekend we finished planting fruit trees by adding some apple trees and plum trees to our collection. All we want now is a fig tree. We also planted a jacaranda tree, which is supposed to have lovely mauve blossom in spring, and some rhododendrons. Of course they are all tiny plants at the moment so won't give much of a show for a few years yet.
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| You would never guess I used to win handwriting prizes at school! |
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