0704 Summer 2003.pdf - Friends of Nigeria

(Continued from page 1)Remembering the Honda 50...Honda 50s around. In fact, PC/Nigeria provided VW kombisfor our transport. These were stationed at strategic locations andwere to be used primarily for the collective shopping use ofvolunteers in the area. During much of our first year, WalterBarkas (03) 61–64 and I had one at Iddo-Ekiti. Before finding ahouse and moving there the second year, Walt used this kombito commute the 22 km to his Aiyede-Ekiti secondary school andback each day. After that, it was good-bye to the kombi—PC/Ibadan retrieved it for region-wide use. But Johnny Skeese, whowas teaching at Christ the King College (CKC) in Onitsha, hadby this time purchased his own 250 cc Honda and, with hisflaming red beard, was somewhat famous (notorious?) fortooling aroundthat wellknown markettown and otherEastern Regionenvirons onthis machine.Learning ofthis, I made myway down toLagos andpurchased myown Honda305 cc Dreamfrom theLeventis Bros.Thus beganour plans toJohnny in more recentyears at home in Kentucky.make an endof the firstyear (i.e. Dec‘62/Jan ’63) motorcycle trip to Timbuktu. Aside from being ametaphor for “the end of the world,” this historic city in Malihad also been the successful destination of a trip taken by someof the Nigeria 02 folks from Nsukka (though that voyage in anautomobile, I believe) during their summer vacation of ’62.At the end of the 1962 school year, Johnny came over fromOnitsha, and we were “off.” The general plan was to follow thecoast to Abidjan, and then head north to the Malian desert. Butsocial animals that we are (have any of you ever traveledanywhere with Johnny Skeese?), a considerable amount of ourvacation time had already expired by the time we reached theIvory Coast. (The country offices still ran PC rest houses in1962 and lots of PCVs and other contacts were also stationedalong the way). Already mid-January, we began heading north,with Johnny in the lead over the dusty dry-season roads. Just 13kms south of Bouake, I took a bad fall—breaking my right leg (afact I would subsequently only learn on an X-ray). Realizing thatI was missing, Johnny returned a few minutes later to find me allskinned and bleeding in the road. Naturally, his immediate ‘firstaid’was to set up his tripod and say, “Let’s get a picture of this!”Though painful, no bones were displaced, so we tightened myboot and I followed him on into Bouake where we foundIvoirian PCV Marie Rice—who would become our guardianangel for the next few days. She and other PCVs there got me toa French doc who diagnosed my leg as broken and put it in acast with a big walking metal spike at the bottom. PCVs therecoined it my ‘Baoule’ cast. We never made it to Timbuktu. Butwe did continue the trip, I by train to Ouagadougou and desertlorry across to Niamey, and Johnny on his Honda 250.Of course, the Ivory Coast Peace Corps paid my medicalbills in Bouake (perhaps later reimbursed by Peace CorpsNigeria) and I had to return the following vacation break toretrieve my Honda Dream (astory for another time).But what does all this haveto do with the Honda 50?Well, not long after this, itseems, the PC edict came downprohibiting the privatepurchase of vehicles while stillin active PC service. PCLambrettas at first appeared,then perhaps a few 50 ccMotoguccis. But it was theHonda 50 that would “stick”and become so associated withthe Nigerian PCV! We haveoften wondered whether wehad something to do with itsNigerian PC birth!•How many other Honda stories are out there? Ed.Jack Finaly in 2002 at the40+1 anniversay dinnerNews Of Jack And Johnny Since NigeriaFollowing their PC service and a year at the Schweitzer Hospital inGabon, Finlay and Skeese returned to the States where Jack started gradschool and Johnny went to work for the Office of Economic Opportunityand later did grad work as part of a career in math and science high schoolteaching in Berea, KY where he still resides. Jack spent most of his careerin international public health.They have maintained their contact and friendship over the years,Johnny being best man when Jack and Teresita married in ‘67 and Jackdoing the honors when Johnny and Carolyn married in ’68. They manage toget together every couple of years. The Finlays, who have a grown daughterand son, now divide their retired years between the US (Montana/Louisiana) and the Philippines (Palawan). Johnny claims he will finallyretire this year; he and Carolyn have four sons (and three grandkids), alsograduates of his beloved Berea College and the University of Kentucky.WINTER 2003 119