Friends of Nigeria Newsletter Selections, Winter 2003

It began with a telephone call from Tom Lillig, Peace Corps marketing specialist, with a story about a recruitment focus group held in June in Washington. As they went around the room with the PCV wannabes introducing themselves and saying how they learned about the Peace Corps and why they each wanted to join, one older participant stopped the show.

Etim Etim working hard at
school back in Nigeria

“I am an African, 55 years of age, who has been in this country for 22 years, raised my family here, and became an American citizen,” he said. “This country has been very good to me. My eldest daughter joined the Peace Corps and is now serving in Guinea. I feel she is helping in this way to repay our family’s debt of gratitude to this country.”

By this time, everyone was paying rapt attention to his account.
“I learned about the Peace Corps through my former English teacher, a Peace Corps Volunteer in my secondary school in Nigeria, who became an inspiration, a mentor to me, and ultimately helped me change my life. After high school, I went on to get a teaching certificate.
“In 1982, I came to the United States and began looking for him. The Peace Corps did not have any information on his whereabouts. I have been trying to find him ever since.”

Ron teaches Form 3 English at Eastern Nsit High School in 1965.

Tom Lillig saw that he had a PR story dropped in his lap: student of PCV–father of PCV–future PCV.
Through Mel Schnapper (15) 65–67, Tom located me as the teacher of Etim Asuquo Etim, one of about 80 students I taught at Eastern Nsit High School in the former Uyo Province of Eastern Nigeria (now Qua Iboe State) in 1965 and 1966. When Tom called, he didn’t want simply to expedite the exchange of addresses, but he proposed that he host a reunion at PC headquarters, which would also serve as publicity. Both Etim and I agreed not to communicate until the event.

Our anticipation grew as the July 11 reunion date approached and plans for the event grew more elaborate. Tom arranged to videotape the proceedings for use in recruiting. People were invited to join us to share in the occasion. Interest rose among senior PC HQ staff.

At the event I was kept out of sight for dramatic effect until Etim, his wife, Udomeh, and daughters, and my wife, Beverly, were seated. The audience contained former Nigeria PCVs Andy Orlin (13) 64–66, Marge Snoeren (09) 63–65, Ken Sale (15) 65–67, Walter Lewis (04) 62–64, Ed Malloy (05) 62–65, and Nomi Fuchs (002) 92–94. PC Director Gaddi Vasquez opened the proceedings. “This is one of those occasions that show the permanence of friendships. The search for your teacher is over.” Outside, the thought went through my mind, “I never figured I would be on ‘This Is Your Life.’”

Etim Etim and Ron Raphael meet for the first time in 36 years.

I was escorted in. When Etim and I embraced, I had one of those moments of overwhelming nostalgia that I thought would not be so acute after 36 years. The first thing that struck me was the foreshortening of the perceived generation gap between us. As my student, he was a sixteen-year-old kid when I was all of 22. At 55, he is now my contemporary.

Etim addressed the audience and in typical Nigerian fashion gave an emotional speech that credited me with almost everything good that has happened to him. He spoke about how his education and my English classes prepared him for the challenges of life in the U.S. He related the tough early years when, without a green card, he was limited to only part-time menial work while earning undergraduate and graduate degrees, and the difficulty in getting jobs without experience in his field of urban and environmental planning. I regretted that, although we were practically neighbors in Washington for two decades, I was unaware and not there to help him. I felt in a way that I had let down my former student. He spoke about his eldest daughter serving in Peace Corps Guinea who was his inspiration for wanting to join, his second daughter, now working as a technician at NASA, his son, a bank employee, and his youngest daughter, still in school. He had much to be proud of.

Etim Etim, Gaddi Vasquez, PC Director, and Ron Raphael at the reunion.

I thought back on the time I revisited my village in 1974 while in Nigeria on a Fulbright. Although I found several students and scores of village friends, I didn’t see Etim. The eight years between departure and return was, of course, a catastrophic time for Nigeria. The Biafran secession and civil war had claimed the lives of at least a half dozen of “my kids.” I wondered at the time what happened to the rest of them. Etim said that two others are also in the U.S. More reunions will surely follow.

Tom Lillig, Peace Corps marketing specialist who tracked down Ron Raphael and then orchestrated the reunion with Etim Etim.

At the podium, I reflected on Etim’s good school record (I still have the grade books!) and uncanny ability to avoid compound work and offered up some advice for his PC service: 1. The admonition about sowing your wild oats before you go needn’t concern you. 2. Take note of Peace Corps rules and then do what you want. 3. Enforce compound work rules. 4. Prepare for “reverse-reverse” culture shock.

I also said that, given Peace Corps search for a broader demographic pool of applicants and backgrounds, I couldn’t imagine a better recruit than my student and fellow American, Etim Asuquo Etim.•

Ron Raphael has worked at the Agency for International Development (“the Peace Corps with flush toilets”) for 22 years. Ron can be reached at raphaelron@hotmail.com.

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National Peace Corps Association Conference,
Presidents Forum
Portland, Oregon, Doubletree Hotel, August 1-3, 2003

Dave Hibbard (01) 61–63, and his colleague Terry AmRhein reported on advocacy for Peace Corps legislation. Hibbard said that people have asked why he and AmRhein are spending so much time on advocacy for this legislation. His answer is that Peace Corps is a vital tool and resource for this country; without expansion it won’t realize its potential, and without advocacy it won’t happen. He expressed his personal belief: Peace Corps should expand not just for what it brings to countries where Volunteers serve, but the importance of reaching a critical mass of returned volunteers who will have the ability to shape our country’s interactions with other countries in a more tolerant and peaceful manner than today’s. He hopes for reaching out as a friend and neighbor, and wants a better place for his kids. That’s the passion driving him and AmRhein, he said. His comments were greeted with applause.

Advocacy for the United Nations and for developing countries are also issues that the Presidents’ Forum has proposed for action. Katy Hansen (27) 67–68, another Friends of Nigeria member, is active on this work and reported ongoing activities.

Carol Rogers was elected the new Presidents’ Forum Coordinator on the first day, since there were no other nominations for the position. She announced that she is eager to make this forum very active, but depends on group leaders to carry on conversation with her and with each other. Groups, both geographic, such as my group of Connecticut Returned Peace Volunteers, and country of service (COS), such as Friends of Nigeria, share problems of recruiting and serving their members, managing a newsletter, and providing social opportunities. Country of Service groups often carry out projects related to the country where the volunteers served, as we do in FON. Geographic groups provide opportunities for newly returned volunteers to meet more established returned volunteers, and sometimes get help with job seeking or advancing their education.

At the second day of the Presidents’ Forum we heard from Trina Janes, of the 2004 Conference Committee. The Committee asked that each group designate someone who will be the contact between the group and the Conference Committee. This person should notify the Conference Committee about needs, interests, and planned events, so activities can be coordinated. The Conference Committee reported that they are very eager to serve COS groups with time for meetings and social events.

A couple of issues raised in motions required voice votes. I love hearing the names of the groups called; I am always reminded of the Olympics Opening Parade, which also brings tears to my eyes–?the breadth of our experience, and the width of our country! We had people present and voting from Afghanistan to Swaziland, and from Anchorage to Spokane, Washington. Zimbabwe did not have a representative at the meeting, but Peace Corps has been there too.

Even though this was an off-year conference, that is, not a big national event as next year’s will be, there were many well-planned workshops. I spent several hours in board meetings and did not attend any of the workshops, but there were plenty that sounded enticing. I have been to several in the past and come away with new information and new ideas each time.

The National Peace Corps Association welcomed our new President Kevin Quigley (see page 2), who spoke several times to the assembled visitors, and was present of course during the board meetings and Presidents’ Forum. Carol Rogers, new Coordinator of the Presidents’ Forum, is also now a board member and it was exciting to welcome her to the second day of the board meeting.

Awards for newsletters and for projects were presented, with Friends of Nigeria capturing second place in the COS category.

The International Bazaar, always a feature of the conferences, called out to me and I came away with, amongst other things, flag pins of the Nigerian flag, sunglasses with the Nigerian flag as the lenses.

I attended the farewell dinner honoring Dane Smith who resigned as President effective on the hiring of his replacement, with a few days’ overlap. I had to run from the FON dinner right after eating to have dessert at Dane’s dinner. Both were delicious and fun. Many people told stories about Dane’s tenure at the NPCA and he and Judy were toasted with great acclaim.

Catherine Onyemelukwe is the vice chair of the NPCA Board and Director of Development at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.•
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Nigeria 10 Holds Its Triennual Reunion
Manitou Springs, Colorado - July 4–6, 2003

In the early afternoon of the Fourth, we began gathering outside the Castaways office to renew old friendships before moving the party to Mike Wallace’s home. Mike and his wife Sue had moved there less than a week earlier, but all was in order for a delightful backyard barbecue. After eating all we could, the starry night was filled with recollections of friends and shared experiences before we returned to the Castaways.

The next morning we gathered for a chitchat before a group of twelve set out to scale Pikes Peak, a feat that Zebulon Pike, the mountain’s namesake, failed to accomplish. Of course, the group had an advantage–the cog railway, which carried them for almost nine miles to an elevation of 14,110 feet, through spruce forest to high above the timberline into the alpine zone. The views were magnificent, but as Janet Shainheit, who reported on the outing, put it, “The most important part of the trip waswhat made the entire weekend such a joy: the chance to rediscover each other, not only to remember the past, but to learn how much we have in common now.”

At ten o’clock the same day, another group of eight of us drove in two cars to one of the parking areas of the Garden of the Gods, and, with Mike Wallace leading and commenting, we walked three miles of trails around the magnificent red sandstone rock formations that have been sculpted by erosion for over three hundred million years and through green meadows dotted with spruce, pine, cedar and juniper, with lovely cactus, Indian paint brush, asters, and dozens of other wildflowers in bloom.

That evening we gathered in the restaurant of the Castaways for a sumptuous banquet of prime rib or salmon. Afterwards, we all went back to Mike’s house for coffee and chocolate brownies, as Nash Noble (09) Peace Corps Volunteer, entertained us, singing folk songs and accompanying herself on the autoharp. Nash’s performance was a delight, and we all sang along with “Jimmy Crack Corn and I Don’t Care.”

On Sunday morning, we met for a final group breakfast, compliments of Mike and Sue, and a business meeting chaired by Mike, who read from President Kennedy’s original proposal for creating the Peace Corps. After remembering the seven or eight of our group who have died since returning from Nigeria, Mike read letters and e-mails from Peace Corps friends who were unable to attend. Plans were made for our Boston reunion, and then everyone settled down to enjoy the lavish buffet breakfast. All too soon it was time for farewells, with a familiar phrase ringing in our ears, “See you in Boston!”

Those attending were: Ray Engelke (CO.), Marjorie (Haynes) and PatO’Reilly (16) (MA) Norm and Gail Gordon (NY), Katy (Clark) Schloemer (WA) Muriel (Smith) and Pete Grim (OH), Howard and Janet Shainheit (MA), Don and Brenda Haines (CA), Dave and Betty Sugarman (WA), Carl and Bonnie White (OH), Mike and Judy Tighe (OR), Bill Mossey ( 11) and Jo (NY), George and Ingrid Toth (PA), Nash Noble (09) (MS), Mike and Sue Wallace (CO), Lynn (Cloonan) Olson and Frank (MN), Jeannette Hogan (CA).
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Through a program created by the Peace Corps Nigeria Alumni Foundation (PCNAF), six Nigerian secondary school girls will receive scholarships for the 2003-2004 academic year, which begins in September. PCNAF was formed three years ago by a group of Nigeria RPCVs who wanted to get involved once again in Nigerian development.

According to PCNAF’s President, Albert Hannans (24) 66–68, the answer to the liaison question came with the discovery of the Forum for African Women Educationalists-Nigeria (FAWE-Nigeria), an established organization already engaged in successful projects and eager to work with PCNAF.
FAWE-Nigeria is providing administrative support on the ground in Nigeria and helping to finance the scholarships. The scholarship recipients are being selected from each of the six regions in Nigeria, giving the program national scope from the outset.

PCNAF is dedicated to assisting in Nigeria’s development efforts through education. It hopes to award at least six new scholarships each academic year in an amount of up to $500 each and support the scholarship winners for the full three years needed to complete their secondary school education. Recipients will be expected to maintain good academic progress and to demonstrate a commitment to community service.

In Nigeria, 33 percent of boys in the secondary school age group are enrolled in secondary school but only 4 percent of girls. The Nigerian government and the international community (including our own government’s aid program) have begun efforts to eliminate the barriers discouraging or excluding girls from the benefits of basic and advanced education.

PCNAF has just received 501 c 3 tax status making donations tax deductible for U.S. donors.
Working with their partners, FAWE-Nigeria, PCNAF is in the process of selecting the first six scholarship recipients, each from a different region. For more information about PCNAF and the girls’ scholarship program, please visit www.pcnaf.org.
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TISEP (Teacher In-Service Education Program) Tutors Nigeria 26 Reunion
June 26–29, 2003, Santa Fe, NM

Message from Frank Regan, Initiator
Since the final session of our gathering in Santa Fe, I am still on a natural high. What a nice reunion! Who would have ever thought over a year ago when we began seriously planning for this event that we would have had such a good turnout and that we would again recapture the dream we all once had of making the world just a little bit better. Or as it turns out, based on the discussions and revelations we had in New Mexico, it appears we were changed more by our Nigerian experience than were the Nigerians with whom we had contact during our 2–3 years there.

I think it is terrific that of the 89 TISEP trainees listed and pictured in the ‘mugbook’ and of the 62 who finally went to Nigeria, and of the 51 with whom we currently maintain contact either through ‘snail’ or email, 25 actual Tutors showed up in Santa Fe. Two came with spouses who were also volunteers in Nigeria (Margaret Deffobis Thomas with husband, Ed (15) 66–68, and Mike St. John with wife, Yvette (29) 67–69, and two with spouses who are now honorary members of our group (Judy, wife of Bob Haslam, and, of course, Ray, husband of Martha Wallace). In addition, Naomi brought her special friend, Tim. This makes for a grand total of 30 in the group impacted by the Nigerian experience in one way or another.

Needless to say, we all missed those who were unable for one reason or another to share the experience; but they will know that they were remembered and probably discussed at some point during the reunion. We also discussed the ‘lost’ members of our group, the 10 who actually completed training and went to Nigeria, but with whom we have lost contact:, Betty C. Davis, Clyde E. ‘Eddie’ Davis, Michael Harris, Mary B. ‘Bonnie’ Kniebler, Mary A. Mack, Barbara C. Meyer, Frank A. Meyer, Brenda G. Taylor, Michael and Patricia L. Weaver. If anyone should know of the whereabouts or reestablish contact with any of the foregoing, please contact me!

I think the Santa Fe reunion is the best we’ve had to date. Special thanks to Martha, Ray, and Naomi for being our local hosts, but also to those who made the effort to come—for it was having each one there that made the whole experience worthwhile. I’ve often said to both family and friends that my Peace Corps group is the one group from my past that I seem to relate to best, the one where I get the most positive vibes, and the one when we do meet, we so easily pick up from where we left off before. Let’s do it again two years hence.

Message from Martha Wallace, Santa Fe Hostess
As the Santa Fe host, my one singular favorite memory was the interest and affection when everyone greeted each other at the Osteria Restaurant on Thursday evening for our first get together. We had a chance to fill in the blanks since we left Nigeria in December of 1968. We had a lot of tears and laughter during the renewal weekend, too.

Message from Naomi Coe Julian, Albuquerque Co-Hostess
Thank you Martha, Frank and Karen and all who made it possible. I most enjoyed seeing everyone again after such a long time and remembering what they were like when they were twenty! Chuzi especially seemed not to have changed. I thoroughly enjoyed his sense of humor. I was very happy to get a chance to get to know Karen better.

Message from Karen Keefer
It’s so amazing that after all these years, that we can pick up and talk about today’s events with equal enthusiasm as we do when remembering our Nigerian days. Two such discussions involved the plight of Amina Lawal and attending an afternoon speech Howard Dean gave in the town square.
I feel so lucky to have been in touch over the years with most of the group who convened in Santa Fe. And it was such a delight to see Naomi Coe Julian, “Mopa Ed” Spaeth, and Jane Brown Hirsch for the first time since 1969 and 1970.

Message from David McDonald
Martha arranged and hosted a Nigerian dinner and music at her house, an historical tour of old Santa Fe, and a farewell brunch. We danced the hi-life, reminisced, shared pictures and memories, shared dinners out, and saw many sights in and around Santa Fe. Reba had a video made from the pictures sent to her by group members. Several people brought artifacts to rekindle fond memories.
We all agreed that we need to make a statement to the Nigerian government about the repressive Sharia Moslem law at sway in the North. Amina Lawal faces stoning to death because of adultery—the result of rape. Jane Brown Hirsch has composed a letter that we can all sign.

Message from Jane Brown Hirsch
I had a wonderful time at the reunion, and thank you Karen, Frank, Martha and Ray for getting us together. Take note, those who didn’t come because you have forgotten everyone: You couldn’t have forgotten more people than me, and I had a good time anyway.

Message from Lyn Shaw
John and I arrived back in Connecticut after a trip that will remain fresh in our minds for a long time. I am busily creating a photo album of our TISEP Tutors reunion in Santa Fe, though pictures just don’t quite capture the energy and great moments. Of all the wonderful memories, the first dinner stands out for me. We ate in the courtyard of a Spanish restaurant, La Osteria. One by one we greeted each other after so many years—it was an electric feeling to meet folks who had known us 35 years earlier…and feel the same camaraderie. Giles Hogya gave a spontaneous opening toast...we felt such happiness at being together after the year of anticipation!

Message from Reba Harris Mohan
The 35-year interval since our PC service melted away as we met each other, mostly for the first time, since returning to the US. It is amazing how much we still think alike, especially about the wars, and how relaxing it is to be able to share ideas that we can relate to with each other. Who else understands laterite roads, hi-life dancing, STAR beer, Honda 50s, Hausa, such dark nights that you can see stars so far away and into the flat desert! It is indeed refreshing and worth all the effort to arrange and attend a reunion with RPCVs, especially with those with whom you served.

Message from Margaret Defobbis Thomas
Ed and I got back from Santa Fe and are back to our old routines. But I keep breaking out in smiles thinking of the reunion and wishing I had some great ability to express in words what a fantastic weekend it was. I wanted to mention a special thanks to the Kinneys who handed out the Peace Corps buttons. I wore mine all week in Santa Fe and was pleasantly surprised on several occasions by people who asked if I had been in the Peace Corps. It turns out that a young couple who were in our tour group for the Backstage Opera Tour had served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines teaching environmental studies and the clerk in the bookstore on San Francisco Street had studied Chinua Achebe in college. I think I will keep wearing it—see how many RCPV’s I run across.

Message from Leslie Hogya
What a wonderful weekend we had!!! Thanks again to Martha and Ray for hosting dinner and brunch, and Martha for organizing us! What a great job. As I contemplate the task of doing it again in 2005, I am even more in awe of all Martha’s accomplished. Everyone agreed the dinner and Yoruba drummers were quite a highlight. Unfortunately, Victoria doesn’t have too many Yorubas, drummers or otherwise. Thanks to Reba for the film and Naomi for her help and also again to Frank and to Karen for their ongoing efforts to keep us informed and connected
It’s Victoria, BC, Canada in 2005!
Web site of TISEP Tutors created by Eliezer Spaeth (and son) after the Santa Fe reunion:
www.geocities.com/TISEPtutors
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What do people who haven’t seen each other for 40 years have to talk about? Lots, it turns out, if they are RPCVs.

On a weekend in late August, 16 members of Nigeria 9 met in Denver along with one staff member and three spouses (two of whom were RPCVs from other groups) for our first reunion since Lagos in January of l964.

The reunion committee of Ray Silverstein, Marty (Storm) Dyckes, and Bob Richburg did an outstanding job of planning a wide variety of activities that entertained and educated us. The food, Nigerian and non-Nigerian, was great, as was the pleasure of reviving old memories. We all drew questions to prod our memories about training and service with the others eagerly joining in with their own reminiscences.

Two Nigerians, Moyo Okediji from the U of Colorado and Denver Art Museum and artist Moyosore Ogundpe discussed the state of Nigerian art. We also saw a fascinating video of a group of women artists engaged in ceremonial art in Nigeria.

Our immersion in Nigeria was heightened by dramatic monsoon-like rainfall that flooded streets.•
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The fact is that there is an epidemic called AIDS. It is devastating homes, separating families, destroying marriages, and it is a concern to everyone. Nigeria is not an exception.

UNAIDS is quoted as saying that AIDS epidemic is spreading twice as fast as five years ago. Statistics showed that about three million people died in 2001 while a further five million were infected. Is it a surprise then that over forty million are living with HIV? Would it surprise anyone to hear that three million children are living with HIV, a number that appears to be increasing by almost one million every year? While fewer deaths are now reported in advanced countries like America, Canada, Britain and some parts of Europe, the death rate is increasing in Africa. Lack of proper education and medication may be implicated in this.

What informed this article? In Enugu where I live, life appears very normal. You very rarely would hear AIDS mentioned by name, except over the television. Also you would not openly hear that so-and-so person has contacted it. There is no “visible” monitoring or treatment center. In many places in the US, you will see free AIDS test centers, Case Management Centers, etc. Here in Nigeria people are afraid to talk about it because of the stigma that goes with it. If you go to the hospital, you will hear quiet whispers, some from nurses, others from patients: That one at that corner, is suffering from AIDS. The one at the other corner died yesterday of AIDS. The most visible signs are the advertisements by some NGOs and the government on the TV and on billboards.

The lamentation of a twenty-nine year-old girl attracted my attention. She was dying of AIDS. She had been hospitalized several times for the past three years. She remembered walking the streets of Enugu with her mother’s blessing, to make money for family upkeep. She was very young and soon learned the business of prostitution. She blamed her mother as she lay on that hospital bed.

My mother offered me to men for money. It is my mother that is guilty of my illness. I will never have to know real husband-and-wife type of love, have a family or even have my own children. Why did my mother not warn me of safe sex? Too late, I would tell myself. I am still alive, but dying. Before being hospitalized, I was afraid to get outside, but when I did, I was very bitter with every man I saw. I thought of going and spreading it to as many men as would want to go to bed with me, but my conscience told me it was wrong. I thought of suicide but lacked the courage to pull it through. How I wish a man took me home then for keeps. How I wish I could start life afresh. Two of my former friends on the streets have already made the final exit. I have stopped crying. I now pray that this disease that my forefathers never knew, would go away. The good aspect of it is that many of our girls are now scared and have gotten off the streets.
Her ardent desire was for a miraculous healing.

Will you believe what you will read next? Try. When we went back to see this girl in the hospital, she had added flesh, she was vibrant, she sat up on her bed full of smiles and said emphatically, I am going to live! Her secret? An Evangelist came to her bedside, led her to Christ, prayed with her and told her to believe she was healed. She did. That night, she dreamt she was on an operating table where her blood was drained off and another transfused. She woke up with praises to God. She gained an unexplainable strength. She has since left the hospital. Do you believe that AIDS has a cure? She believes!
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Greg Zell (06) 62–64, Mike Goodkind (06) 62–64, Andy Philpot (VSO) 67–67, Peter Hansen (27) 67–68, David Strain (07) 63–66, Frieda Fairburn (09) 64–66 (acting secretary) were in attendance.

Apologies for their absence were accepted from Virginia DeLancey (06) 62–64 and Ken Sale (15) 65–67.

Thanks to the hard work of the Treasurer, Peter Hansen, the finances of FON seem to be in good shape. The budget was adopted unanimously.

The Board reviewed the progress on our goal for our charity of choice this year, Books for Africa–Nigeria Program (BFA). The question arose whether FON should change charities each year. In the end, the Board agreed to support both BFA and Ashoka because their programs are up and running. The Board is confident the member’s donations get used for their intended purpose and members seem to like both organizations. The Board will encourage donations to both groups in the coming year. Simply specify on your check or the membership form (back cover of the newsletter) which one you support.

The Board regretfully accepts the resignation of Jane Toby (08) 63–65. David Strain volunteered to take over the duties of Book Editor.

Conversations with the current and previous Peace Corps directors have encouraged FON to think the Peace Corps might return to Nigeria. However, current realities would seem to indicate otherwise. The President agreed to contact Deputy Director Jody Olsen reminding her of our interest in having a Peace Corps presence in Nigeria.

A motion “to contribute $250 to NPCA to honor the service of Dane Smith on his retirement” was passed unanimously.

FON expects to be kept well informed about the NPCA conference in Chicago next year since one of our directors, Virginia DeLancey, is chair of the Country Of Sevice committee.

The Friends of Nigeria Board of Directors would like to welcome Dave Sugarman to their number. Sugarman will replace Jane Toby (08) 63–65 who retired from the board recently. Sugarman already edits the Update File of the newsletter and is excited about getting involved with various initiatives and activities of FON.

Sabongidda-Ora and Asaba were home for Sugarman while in Nigeria where he taught English and coached and organised high school soccer for the Mid-West region.

On leaving Nigeria, Sugarman switched back and forth from teaching and working for Boeing in Seattle before settling down to work full time for the Washington State government in the Department of Social and Health and Services.

Sugarman has been involved in establishing the reunions of Nigeria 10, every three years.
He has two married sons and lives with his wife, Betty, just outside Olympia, WA on a two acre lot of what looks rather like the Nigerian rainforest.

It was not a scam. The vice president has enlisted the help of American University (AU), where his wife Jennifer is a PhD student, in establishing a private technical university in Yola. He had asked Bob Pastor, AU Vice President for international affairs and a one-time Malaysia PCV, to seek out some of his Peace Corps teachers at Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola, where he was a student from 1960 to 1965.

Atiku, as he likes to be called, named Lowell Fewster (04) 62–64, a newly-retired American Bapist executive minister in Connecticut; Rod Larson (01) 61–63, a retired U.S. Geological Survey water specialist who lives in Wyoming, and Steve Krasner (07) 63–65, a Stanford University political scientist, as Peace Corps teachers he remembered from his school days. Unfortunately, Pastor thought Atiku said ‘Steve Klezner’ and went on a futile Internet search for someone with that name.
Lowell, in turn, gave Pastor my name and that of Harvey Flad (06) 62–64, a Vassar College geographer who had taught in a secondary school in nearby Ganye. The three of us were invited to an Aug. 6 dinner for Atiku at the University Club in downtown Washington. Due to schedule conflicts, I was the only one who could attend.

At the event, the vice president greeted me warmly, but in his remarks to the gathering he expressed disappointment that none of his other Peace Corps teachers was on hand. He said he would like to organize a reunion trip to Yola for the volunteers who served there.

Although Atiku was young enough to have had me as an English teacher in the second or third form, he wasn’t in any of my classes, nor did he have me for a track coach. I also struck out with Salihu Mustafa, another former student from our era who has been named president of the new university in Yola. I can claim no credit for the success of either guest of honor.

The Peace Corps, and the Yola volunteers, were recurring themes throughout the evening. Atiku told the gathering that his encounters with us had convinced him that American education was the best in the world.

In a radio interview with the AU president, Atiku recounted his father’s efforts to prevent him from going to primary school, which resulted in a fine and jail term for his father. At Adamawa PSS in Yola, Atiku noticed the contrast between British and American styles of teaching. Although he favored the American approach, he learned to give “British answers” in order to pass his exams. He described himself as an activist student leader in his university years and beyond.

Atiku is arguably the leading politician in northern Nigeria. As a Muslim and a Northerner in the Obasanjo government, he helps hold the country together despite its well-known divisions. He could well become the next president.

Wearing western clothes at the dinner, Atiku looked the part of the successful Nigerian businessman that he was before entering politics. I was told he had inherited the political machine assembled by another Northerner who died in prison (probably of poison) during the Abacha dictatorship.

In conversation with Atiku, I mentioned reading a Washington Post op-ed column on food biotechnology by the Nigerian agriculture minister, Hassan Adamu. “Oh, he’s from Yola, too,” he said. “I brought him into the government.” Clearly, the distant outpost where we were sent 40 years ago has become the happening place in northern Nigeria!

There were about 40 guests at the dinner, many with Peace Corps backgrounds. Al Hannans (24) 66–68, president of the Peace Corps Nigeria Alumni Foundation, was seated at the head table next to Atiku’s wife. On my right at my table was Chuck Larson (04) 62–64, a former Nigeria volunteer who chairs the AU literature department.

If any of us doubted that our efforts 40 years ago had made a difference to the future of Nigeria, those doubts were thoroughly dispelled by the end of the evening.•
Steve Clapp, a Washington-based journalist living in northern Virginia, served in Yola in 1963 and 1964.
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We landed in Kano late at night and drove through some of the worst pollution I have ever seen to the Prince Hotel (air-conditioned, Internet and mostly expats—a big change from 40 years ago.) The next day we drove to Dutse, the capital of Jigawa. It was quite small, about the size that I remember Enugu being. The person heading the A2J project in Jigawa was a law professor at Bayero University in Kano. We spent our time (as we did in all four states) interviewing people who were working with the project, such as the Minister for Women’s Affairs, the Legal Aid Council lawyer, and people in the court system, e.g. the Chief Judge, the Grand Kadif (there is Islamic Law-Sharia-in Jigawa) and an Emir who ‘mediates’ disputes in his area. It was somewhat overwhelming. Some of the problems I expected having worked in Legal Aid in the States for my entire career, but some weren’t. People accused of crimes spent years in prison awaiting trial because the police didn’t have any way to transport them to court. The Legal Aid Council lawyer didn’t have electricity or a phone because the bills hadn’t been paid-hers is a Federal Government Agency. After 3 days we drove back to Kano and then to Abuja.

Driving (even being driven) was the hardest, most dangerous, and nerve-racking part of the trip. Many of the roads, even divided highways (with people often going the wrong way!), had huge pot holes. They were crowded with people, bikes, motorcycles, kids, cattle, goats, and of course crazy drivers. Road blocks of soldiers with submachine guns confronted us before entering and leaving every city or town, and also in the middle of nowhere. But it was looking off into the country that took me back—the thatch compounds, farmers out in the fields, women with loads on their heads. Etc.
Abuja was, of course, a new experience. A modern city with working traffic lights and a beautiful Mosque and a striking Cathedral (still in progress). It was a few days before the Inauguration and much preparation was in evidence.

Then to Ado-Ekiti for a week. Ado was much more like I remember Umuahia being—the market, the people, although having access to an ‘Internet Café’ was a real (and welcome) change.
The trip ended in Enugu, which had grown so much since we were married that most of it was unrecognizable. However, the Hotel Presidential, where we had our wedding party and night, was still there, looking a lot older and worse for wear (as do I!). After a few days, the language started to sound familiar and I was starting to feel at home. At a meeting with other people working on development programs for the British Council, I mentioned that my daughter was born in Owerri. A Nigerian lawyer at the meeting said, “So was I.” He had been born at Holy Rosary Hospital two months after Shanti!!!
The people were as warm and friendly as ever. The country and its legal system have huge problems. I hope I can be of some small assistance, to the country that completely changed my life. The Access to Justice is scheduled to continue for another 6 years and hopefully on the next trip Kaye will be able to come too.•

John retired last year from teaching law at William and Mary Law School. He was Director of Clinical Education–ran a Legal Aid Clinic, among other things. He has a Fulbright to teach law at Moi University in Eldoret. Kaye, has been a Montessori teacher and teaches Infant Massage. She will, no doubt, be soing something with children in Eldoret.
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