Activities in Nigeria - Letters from Elizabeth, January/February 1974
Vining Centre, Akure, January 7th 1974
[For the origin of these letters see blog 30. Love, Death and Letters from My
Mother's Hut (4th
February 2012)].
Dear Ma and Daddy,
...Oh! I know what I did that was very interesting. On Thursday evening I went and watched Dr. Salama (an Egyptian surgeon - and Coptic Christian - working in the State Hospital, Akure) do a Caesar. I have talked about doing this for some time but the opportunity didn't arise. However I went. Really I am surprised that I am alive at all! It was a bit like a lucky dip - put in your hand and pull out the baby! - this one was a girl and she was alive but looked a bit doubtful at first - and had to have oxygen blown in her nose. Altogether a rather messy business! I should like to watch an operation in England. I would imagine that the whole thing would be more obviously sterile and a good deal less informal.
Vining Centre, Akure, January 24th '74
[Ruth Martin was my predecessor as the Women’s Warden at
Vining Christian Leadership Centre where I started to work in 1972. In January 1974 she invited
me to go with her to visit a remote
part of Ondo Diocese on the far side of the River Niger and
help her to run a short training course for the wives of Church workers in that
area. I was in Bassa on January 19th.]
... I really want to tell you about our journey over into Bassa land:
On Monday morning we crossed over the Niger from Lokoja to Shintaku. It is a big ferry that can hold about 10 lorries - but it was almost empty so we had plenty of room and were able to park in the shade in the middle of the boat. Eunice Adeosun came with us so the V.W. was pretty well full to bursting point with 3 of us, our loads and bedding, boxes of books, the Kerosene lamp and projector and screen for the film strip meetings - not to mention a gigantic sack of clothing which the Eyesorun had sent with us for the people of Bassa. (The Eyesorun is the wife of the Deji - or King - of Akure.)
From Shinkaku we went first to Oguma which I don't think you will find on your map. The main road goes to Dekina. It's a good road but about 5 miles before Dekina we turned left and drove for 8 miles or so along a very sandy and pot holed road to Oguma. There we were met by the Ondo Diocesan Missioner, Rev Oni and Mr and Mrs Aibe. Rev Oni is a Yoruba sent by Ondo Diocese. Two and a half years ago his wife was drowned in the River Benue after a canoe capsised. He was left with 7 children ranging from a teenage son to an eighteen month old baby, Alaba. So he has a problem on hand, especially as they are the only Yoruba family in the village. He is now looking out for a new wife - and Mrs Adeosun has been asked to help to look for somebody sensible. It will have to be a remarkable woman to take on 7 children - and go and live in Oguma!! But he is greatly respected there ... particularly for not running away when his wife drowned and Ruth remarked that there is a tremendous change in the church members in the past two years since she was there before.
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| 2014 photo from Benue River Valley Images |
... Then on Thursday morning we went to Akabe about 30 miles away - nearer to Shinkaku but off the main road. We stayed with Canon and Mrs Cato. They were delightful. Akabe is his home 'town' (village). I think there were 3 houses with tin roofs - the rest grass ....apart from church, school, clergy houses etc. Most people were cooking in clay pots....and I don't suppose there would be more than a dozen or so beds in the place.
... We hoped to travel home on Mon. but the ferry was under repair so we had to wait to Tues. ...I had great fun cooking scrambled egg and white sauce and soup over 3 stones outside. I even did Scotch pancakes!
...
With much love,
Elizabeth.
...
In the evening we had a 'social' - the women on the course had prepared plays from the Bible and songs. I was the "Chairlady" so in my "Opening Remarks" I told them that I was happy to be the chairlady for a special reason - that it was my sister's wedding day! So they all said that the evening's entertainment should be in honour of Ruth and Trevor! So that was good ... and it was a very joyful occasion. The earlier part of Saturday was not such fun because Ruth developed a chest infection and fearful sore throat so we had to arrange that she went to the doctor 25 miles away while the pastor's wife and I took the meetings for her. So I was kept busy telling the women how to clean their churches and polish their brass and silver if any - and not to use VIM on silver chalices!!
Thank you for your letters. The next one should tell me about the events of January 19th, the day of Ruth's and Trevor's wedding.
With much love,
Elizabeth.
P.O. Box 3, Akure, February 3rd 1974
Dear Ma and Daddy,
I was delighted to receive your tape last Tuesday (January 29th).
... It was good too to hear all the news of the wedding. It sounds as though it was a very happy affair... I had a very enthusiastic letter from Lynette. She obviously enjoyed every minute of it and thoroughly approved of Trevor and also Jutka (my brother Stuart's girlfriend).
I went with Ruth to Benin last Sunday and she had her barium enema on Monday. It wasn't much fun because they pump the stuff in - then pump in air so that you get blown up like a balloon inside and Ruth said she thought she was going to burst. The only consolation is that apparently they relay the X-ray onto a sort of tele screen and so Ruth said that when she lay on one side on the X-ray table she could see the picture of her inside on the tele!
Vining Centre, Akure, Sun. February 10th '74.
Dear Ma and Daddy,
We have had the first week of the new year here. I have 13 new students and 4 old ones. It has been quite a busy week, but it is good to get back into the swing of it - and once lists and things are made then things can tick over more smoothly. One baby of about a month old is a bit of a worry. It doesn't grow! and looks very puny and weak. Maybe the mother hasn't enough milk, maybe they have used some native medicine. Anyway after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing they have at last got to Dr. Sijuade (the Principal Medical Officer at the State Hospital) and are getting treated carefully. Another new student, the wife of a clergyman in the Lagos Diocese, went to Dr. Kohli on Friday for an eye test and she apparently has advanced glaucoma - so she may go blind - and it is unlikely that she will be able to do much reading here. This is a pity because she has never been to school and the whole point of her coming here was to become literate. [Dr. Kohli, eye surgeon, and her pharmacist husband, also worked at the State Hospital; they are Indian Sikhs.)
On Friday evening... I invited Dr. Kohli and Mrs Kohli and Rajan (17 year old son)and Ruth and Dr. Salama for supper. All came and we had... antelope, roast potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes and dodo.
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| Dodo |
Vining Centre, Akure, February 14th 1974.
Dear Ma,
I received your letter today - saying that Daddy is to have a 'cauliflower' removed from his bladder - and that it has already happened... because its today. I shall be thinking of you especially in the next 4 days as you wait for the result of the biopsy. I hope that it is benign. Dr. Salama tells me that most of them are! so I am hopeful. Anyway we can only wait and see.
I am sorry to be so far away when this kind of thing happens... because everything is a week out of date before it gets here. I am glad that Stuart was able to come home and be with you for a few days. In some ways its worse to be at home wondering what is happening than to be in the hospital where even if its serious everything is very interesting going on around - and you feel thoroughly spoilt.
Daddy will still be in hospital when you get this - if he has to stay in 6 weeks. I was reading our favourite hymn at the staff meeting last night - "Peace Perfect Peace" - it is applicable here especially this week when it seems to have been one thing after another without much time to spare. But it is also applicable when you are confined to a hospital bed - and waiting at home for the next visiting time ... and one thought chases another in your head. So that I pray that you both may find "Peace" during this time of anxiety. Also, no doubt you will make new friends... others in the hospital and folk in the parish who come out of their shell to share this trouble with you both. I thank GOD for friends.
With much love and prayers,
Elizabeth.
Vining Centre, Akure, Feb. 17th '74
Dear Ma and Daddy,
...
I am also doing my evening lecture each Monday with the men students. Last Monday we went to the Moon - very exciting! This coming Monday I am going to talk about the sun and its influence on the Earth - particularly the changing seasons of the year .... and why they see the sun at midnight North of the Arctic Circle, and such like.
...
On Wednesday Ruth and Sheila and I went to "Mass" at St Louis School. It was a special Mass arranged by the Sisters at St Louis for the Deji who died. Eyesorun asked us to go with her. It was a really lovely service with pure singing .... very beautiful.
Daddy is now on the prayer list in our Chapel here and so he is mentioned by name twice daily at Morning and Evening prayers. The students send you their greeting and love. No doubt we shall still be praying when Daddy is already home and better - but not to worry.
I had a very interesting letter last week from Dougan Mayes. He had received my letter of January telling of the death of the Deji and he went and looked up an old diary of 1933 and quoted it to me - of how he attended the laying of the foundation stone of St David's Church Akure and the old Deji was there with his trumpeters and courtiers and that he put a bottle of gin under the foundation stone!
...
With much love,
Elizabeth.
Activities in New Zealand - Letters from John, February/March 1974
57 Sunnybrae Road, 7th February 1974
Yesterday was a public holiday here - Waitangi Day, now for the first time New Zealand Day, commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. After breakfast we all went off to Waitangi in the Bay of Islands (about 150 miles north) along with thousands of others to see or hear the celebrations. We sat up on the treaty house grounds and watched Britannia come up into the harbour past Russell. A large Maori war canoe, paddled by 80 or so warriors, went out from Waitangi to the side of Britannia and then escorted the Queen's launch back to the wharf. Then there was a pageant and a concert and speeches from the Queen and Mr Kirk the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, although we could hear, we couldn't see very much since there was a very big crowd and very little organisation - one of those occasions where you see more if you stay home and watch it on the tele! Nevertheless it was fun to be there and the children, Sacha and Stuart, got a glimpse of all the Royals. Lewis wasn't very interested, got tired, didn't like the guns that kept popping off from the New Zealand frigates, but thought the Rolls Royce car was smashing.
Sunday 17th February 1974
Dear Mother,
We have received your letter of February 9th with the news of Dad's admission to Ronkswood Hospital. By the time you receive this letter the results of his operation and of the biopsy will be clear and the tension of waiting on an uncertain outcome will be over. Our thoughts have been with you both since we received your letter and will continue to be with you over the next weeks. As you say it is difficult to be so far apart at such a time. It seems probable from what you say in your letter that the growth is benign and we certainly hope so. It was encouraging to hear that Dad was very relaxed, had not been losing any weight, and was enjoying being in a general ward. We sent a get well telegram which should have arrived just after the operation.
We feel a bit helpless at this distance. You will be facing a number of difficulties about the future I expect - Dad's ability or wish to carry on with parish work or to retire completely. Please let us know the best way that we can help. It is difficult for us to make any suggestions until the full details of the biopsy are known and what the implications are for the future.
The tape of Ruth's wedding has arrived but we have not heard it yet. Next week we will borrow or buy a cassette player. We were pleased to hear that Ruth and Trevor had been offered a place in Tavistock. It sounds ideal and not too far from Malvern (is it?). The only time I went to Tavistock was when I went on camp from Wells with the army cadets and Tavistock is where we went to fire on a rifle range - something I didn't enjoy and which left me with a very bruised shoulder.
The slides and papers we sent off in January should be with you soon.
The children are settled back in school now and Lewis has recommenced at the play centre. I am very busy preparing for the new university year and start teaching again next week. Everything is very quiet here after the excitement of the Commonwealth Games and the Queen's visit. It continues hot with no rain but increasingly humid. It has been the driest sunniest summer for years and people are now wishing it would rain, including us. We have had the builders in during the last three weeks converting the hallway and putting an extra bedroom in downstairs in what was the garage. Stuart has been sleeping in the study/guestroom but will now have a room of his own and we will have plenty space for putting up holidaymakers or convalescents? It's all a bit of a mess at present but will look nice when it has been decorated.
Is "Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester" sufficient address for Dad or is there a ward number or something we should know?
Love from us all,
Pat, John, Stuart, Sacha and Lewis.
Dear Dad,
Many thanks for your most cheerful letter from the hospital. We have also received mother's letter of February 16th with the news that everything went off O.K. and that you had been sitting out in a chair the next day. We were so relieved to hear that, and hope for equally good news about the results of the biopsy. If all is well you should be home again by the time you receive this letter and we hope you can take it nice and easy for your birthday. We are naturally sad not to be able to see you at this time but it sounds as though you have had so many visits from friends and relatives that we might have had to queue up!
There is a lot of interest here in the forthcoming general election in Britain and all the predictions are that the Heath government will be returned for a further five year term. Whichever party wins, however, it looks like difficult times ahead what with the oil business, the miners' strike to settle, the continuing tension in Northern Ireland and a weak economy. It makes people in New Zealand realise how fortunate they are - the latest figures of registered unemployment here were just over seven hundred unemployed in the whole country and none in Auckland. Another topic that has aroused some interest has been the expulsion of Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the Soviet Union. In some respects he is one of the lucky ones. I am chairman of an Amnesty International group here and one of the prisoners whose release we are working for is a Ukrainian poet, Ihor Kalynets, imprisoned for distributing what the Soviet authorities considered to be subversive literature. He is only one of many imprisoned for speaking their minds on religious or political matters. We also have a prisoner in a Western Country, in our case South Africa, and one in a non-aligned country, Indonesia, who we are trying to assist both with finance and with letters of protest to the authorities.
Last night Pat and I went to see the film version of the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Though we haven't seen Godspell I imagine it was something similar. The film has tremendous impact and a lot of relevant comment on our times. You would enjoy it but the music is very loud so perhaps you should convalesce a bit first.
57 Sunnybrae Road, 16th March 1974.
Dear Mum and Dad,
Thank you for your letters - from the hospital, from St. Julians - with all the news of your progress. It was great to hear that the growth you had removed was not malignant and we were glad the flowers arrived at the right time. By now you should also have received the slides and bits and pieces that we sent off in January and Ruth and Trevor should have got their rug. We had a letter from Ruth telling us all about the 'cabin' they are furnishing at Tavistock - it sounds a very lively young community.
It is some time since I last wrote. We have been putting a tape together for you and I had hoped to send it off before now but it is not yet full. We will send it together with the tape of Ruth's wedding, which we thoroughly enjoyed, and some more of our holiday slides. We have not bought a tape recorder yet as they are surprisingly expensive here, starting at around $80, mainly because of very high import duties. You are right in surmising that most of them are of Japanese make but you will get some idea of the distances to New Zealand when you look on the map and find that Japan is in the Northern Hemisphere, that Tokyo is almost as far from Auckland as Cape Town from London and twice the distance from London to Moscow! We borrowed a very good tape recorder from the University, however, and have used the same tape (Phillips) as you sent us. The University also has video-tape equipment (records pictures as well as sound) so you might enquire if any of your local schools have equipment to play video-tape - you can connect the recorder to your TV usually - and we could try and send you a tape/film.
We followed the general election with much interest and it looks as though there will be another one before the end of the year doesn't it?
Our decorating is almost finished now - our garage was so large that although we have carved an extra bedroom out of it there is still room for two cars. Stuart will now have a room of his own and we can have a separate study which can also be used as a guestroom. I study at home quite a bit and when Lewis goes to school next year Pat is hoping to do a one-year teacher-training course full-time that will qualify her to teach at primary and intermediate levels. We will have to fit my study leave around that so don't know at the moment when it will be. Pat has to teach for a year after her college course. Study leave is normally the third term plus the summer vacation, that is from August to February, our summer. You should think about coming here from November to March one year and missing out your winter since it is much pleasanter for you to have three consecutive summers than for us to have three consecutive winters!
We hope you both had a good rest at St. Julian's and then with Lynette in Harpenden. What are your plans now at Malvern?
All our love to you both, Pat, John, Stuart, Sacha and Lewis.
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Previous blogs in this series:
(1) 75, 17th November 2013: Dead Ducklings, War Canoes, Steel Works and a Leper Settlement.
(2) 92, 16th February 2014: Tiddlywinks, Happy Families and Christmas "down the creeks":
(3) 95, 17th March 2014: Vera Lynn, the Rolling Stones and Scrapping for Petrol and Water in Nigeria.
(4) 98, 8th April 2014: Brotherly Love.
(5) 104, 15th July 2014: Englishness Plays Abroad - Harold Pinter and John Mortimer in Lagos, Edward Lear in Auckland.
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