0902 Spring 2005.pdf - Friends of Nigeria

Update File
Mary Blocksma (15) 65-67
-r
Me, Geoffrey Cleaver (British teacher) and Mr. G. Nwikina,
Director, Eastern Nigeria Library Board, try to untangle
some library difficulty in 1967.
I had so much fun in Enugu that I've never dared go to a
Pe.lCeCorps reunion, lest I have to explain myself. Because I grew
up in Pakistan, arriving in Nigeria felt to me like going home. I
don't remember experiencing culture shock at all. I loved my job as
a lecturer at the Eastern Nigeria University, and then as the first ever
Eastern Nigeria School Libraries Administrator, charged with
developing 1,200 secondary school libraries. I got the Eastern
Nigeria Ministry of Education (my office),Eastern Nigeria
University (where I helped train teacher librarians), the British
Council (which provided space for a model school library), and the
United States Peace Corps (which paid me) working together on
one project: some called it a miracle. I never suffered at all, except
for guilt. Although genuinely devoted and hard-working, I happily
sowed the first wild oats of my life. And what a life! I had an
apartment big enough to pinch hit for the PC hostel when it
closed, and I had a loyal employee, a man with a family of six,
who pampered me for both years: cooked, cleaned, did my laundry,
met guests when I wasn't there, and protected my privacy like a
tiger. I feltlike royalty.
My culture shock struck
hard on my return to the
United States, where, as a
global nomad, I still have not
found a comfortable fit. I went
Mary in Bay City, 2004
16 FON NEWSLETIER
to University of Michigan
for a Masters in Library Science,
hoping to return to Nigeria
better qualified for the job I
loved, but the Biafran War
prevented that. Within the year,
I married Daniel Kuhn, whom
I met shortly after my return
home, in Hawaii weeks after
he'd been nearly killed in
Vietnam, and after only ten
days of actually being together.
I put him through University
of Chicago working at the
Chicago Public Library, then
DePaul University library. In
1970,we moved to Wyoming,
where I became Director of
the Albany COlmty Library
system.
\Vhen I was thirty, my son,
Dylan, was born. At thirtyhe,
divorced, I moved with Mary in Nigeria in 1966.
Dylan to Boston to become a
writer and soon became a staff writer for Addison-Wesley's
phonetic reading program. I worked on that for three years, both
in Boston and in California, before going free-lance. I've since
authored over twenty-five books for children and adults, several
celebrating my beloved Great Lakes. Fifteen years ago I moved
back to Michigan, and started painting, living on an island,
illustrating my own work and, creating countless prints, cards, and
original watercolors and acrylics, not to mention quilts, jewelry, and
even potholders. I presently reside in Bay City, Michigan, in an old
Victorian house with high ceilings, tall windows, and great light. I
do hospice work, teach sometimes at a community college, and try,
as best I can in these tough days for free spirits, to live with
enthusiasm.
Go to cyberhobo.net
to meet my adventurous son. •
Visit Mary at her Web site beaverislandarts.coml
My dad went to Lahore in 1949,taking his wife and three
kids (I was oldest at 7) to help build a hospital and deal with
the post-Partition carnage. He was the first plastic surgeon to
work full time in what was called the Third World. He was
there for five years and, after returning home for the health
and education of his family, every year afterthat, for many
years, spent maybe a
month travelling to other
needy placestraining
doctors and doing critical
repairs. Before long, he was
persuading other Grand
Rapids doctors to do the
same. He was, I believe,
the first real doctor
without borders, an
organization that was
• • partially inspired by my
M . Paki tan h 'd 10 father, Dr. Ralph
ary m s w en age . Blocksma.
www.friendsofn
ige ria. org