Category: culture
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B. Glimpses of Missions (intro.)
Introduction: At a retreat which I attended in 1976 to learn about opportunities for overseas teaching placements, a social activist in Vancouver who was also a ‘returned volunteer cooperant’ who had taught in Nigeria, surprised me with his candour. In a private moment towards the end of the evening, after earnest discussion of ‘development issues’…
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B. Glimpses of Missions (con’d)
Upon finishing his beer, Padre Pepe, still in his white cassock, grinning ecstatically among the tiny group of parishioners quaffing the ‘dadi’ [maize liquor] proffered in tin cans. For at least a half hour he laughed, clapped hands, danced and leapt crazily among his flock while the Maasai men and women glugged through 3 pails…
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A. Chronicles of Departures and Arrivals (intro.)
Introduction: ‘Heading West’ (pulled from the very bottom of a battered blue trunk), is a detailed account of a train trip across Canada in July 1974. The journey was neither taken for tourism nor for adventure but in expectation of a new beginning. However hesitant to expose the writing of a vulnerable 22-year-old, I post it in…
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A. Chronicles of Departures and Arrivals (con’d)
We pushed towards Illorin in the late afternoon heat… Instead of looking out the window, I stared at the Newsweek magazine (picked up at the Jebba Petrol Station) open on my knees, haunted by the report of a terrible commuter jet crash near San Diego. (‘This is it, baby!’ were the recorded words of the…
Coprolites in Amber (etc.) 