Bishop Jones Memorial Hostel Group Newsletter
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BISHOP JONES MEMORIAL HOSTEL GROUP NEWSLETTER (Newsletter for former residents of the Bishop Jones Memorial Hostel (1940-68) and Bishop Spencer Lodge (1927-40) Volume 6, Issue 3, October 2014 Greetings from the BJMHG Group Committee How quickly the summer has passed! Now we’re into fall with the changing and falling of the leaves. I will not tell you how many days until Christmas, with Halloween just around the corner; you know that those Christmas decorations and music will be appearing in the malls the very next day!!! The AGM/Luncheon in June was a tremendous success, unfortunately we did not get photos – our seniors’ moments are coming fast! But the food was good, the company was better and the report for our Scholarship was encouraging. (see Scholarships Report, Page 5) Thank you to all who have continued to support this effort through direct donations and through the In Memoriam donations. On November 23th we will be having our yearly Corporate Communion at the Cathedral, followed by breakfast at Rumplestiltskins. (see Upcoming Events, Page 6) We hope that we’ll see more of you join us this year. Also, all memberships for 2014-15 are now due and for those who have not already renewed, the Membership Form can be found at the end of this Newsletter. The current list of members can be found under Membership and Communications on Page 5. Hope that your Fall and Winter, wherever you are, as it takes you through Christmas and the New Year, will be healthy and prosperous. Shirley (Morris) Cooper, Communications and Newsletter Mark your Calendars: Nov. 23rd for BJMH Corporate Communion and Breakfast (see Events Page 6) My Sojourn in Africa: Part 5- Janet and I travel to the Capital two days after the coup…! By Hazel (Pritchett) Pritchett Harris (60-61) Next day brought the news that the military were now firmly in control. A National Liberation Council (NLC) had been set up under the leadership of Lt. General Joseph Arthur Ankrah. Some expatriates had come under fire in Accra but only because their apartment block was near the home of some politician whom the military were trying to capture. What I did not know was that there were one or two Canadians in that block so back here in Canada the Minister of External Affairs was saying that most Canadians were safe but a couple were not. Of course, my mother, always a worrier, assumed that I was one of the ones under fire! At school, things were calmer but the North of Ghana had been a hotbed of trouble for the former regime and all were concerned about the attitude of the military junta towards the North. We tried to keep everything at school as normal as possible and the pupils seemed calmer. Routine was re- established. Just as we were about to leave for lunch, the Headmaster called Janet and me into his study to tell us that he wanted us to travel to Accra the next day on school business. Our school was not well funded and the Headmaster frequently had to travel to try to raise funds. He felt that he should not leave the school now but was adamant that we must keep the appointment which had been made some time ago with the staff of the Ministry of Education. Afterwards I reflected on this and wondered if he thought that we would be the safest members of staff to travel. He was the son of the chief of a Ga tribal unit near Accra. Also our school had been forced to accept several pupils (mainly sons and nephews of Cabinet members and other government officials) who had been expelled from their schools in the South. Perhaps he felt that the new authorities would be suspicious of him. 1 So with heavy hearts and a great deal of trepidation, Janet and I went home to sort out what we would need for the journey the next day. We were not to fly as that would have been too expensive but were to travel the 406 miles by road. Janet felt safer than I as she was travelling on a British passport and we knew that everyone would recognize that. We knew that there would be roadblocks on the way and we also knew that the Russian citizens were being transported from Tamale on the road that very day. Our greatest concern was that the soldiers manning the road checks would be largely illiterate and that they might not know where Canada was when they checked my passport. We had also heard about the celebrations in the town that day when it appeared that a good many soldiers were drunk on palm wine, a potent drink available everywhere and very cheap to buy. It seemed to us that palm wine and semi-automatic guns would not be a good mixture. When you travelled by road in Ghana in those days you rose early and made your way, before 4 a.m., to the marketplace where there were several Peugeot taxis. If you were travelling south, you took the next taxi in line going to Kumasi, a distance of about 240 miles. You sat in the taxi and waited until it filled up. This could take a few minutes or it might take several hours. Once you got to Kumasi, you would repeat the procedure to get to Accra. We hoped to get off fairly quickly as we did not travel by night, the roads being too dangerous as many vehicles did not have headlights. We were lucky that day as our taxi filled up quickly and we set off. Janet and I were the only women in the car and the only foreigners. We probably made the other passengers uneasy. Certainly we were very uneasy ourselves. We had agreed that Janet would sit near the window so that she could show her British passport, instantly recognizable by Ghanaians, and then I could just hold mine up. In those days, the Canadian passport was deep blue with a hard cover and looked very much like the British ones as even the coat of arms on the front was similar. I had decided that if I were asked to produce my passport, I would open it to the page which began “Queen Elizabeth the Second requests that you allow the holder to pass unhindered”. I forget the exact wording but I knew that Queen Elizabeth would be a known quantity. The passport then also had the following words on the top of the first page: ”A Canadian citizen is a British subject” We soon came to the first roadblock. The soldiers looked in and asked Janet and me for our citizenship. We held up our passports as planned and Janet said she was British and I said that I was a British subject. We were waved on. This happened about three or four more times and by then I was beginning to feel much more relaxed. We were approaching Kumasi when we encountered one last roadblock. It was now about noontime and the soldiers appeared very drunk indeed. One came over to the taxi and asked our citizenship. We replied as before but he suddenly noticed that the passports were not identical. He did not speak English but motioned to us that he wanted the passports. He claimed both and went off to the other soldiers who were standing near a table under a tree. The commanding officer of the unit came back to the taxi and told me to get out. Janet’s passport was returned to her. The passengers of the taxi, wishing to avoid any confrontation or unpleasantness, asked the driver to leave. Janet told them that they must wait for me and said to me in German that she would do all she could to hold the taxi there. I answered her in German and told her that if she could not, she must go on and get to the British counsel offices in Kumasi and tell them what had happened. (There were Canadian counsellor officials only in Accra and the British offices looked after us elsewhere.) The commanding officer seemed able to speak a little English and pointed out the word Canada. I agreed and asked him to open the passport to the title page and see what it said about the Queen. He did not understand so I made a motion to open the passport and he drew his gun. So did all the other soldiers and I was surrounded. The taxi started up! It was a tense moment. I could hear Janet arguing with great authority in her best schoolmarm voice. The commanding officer took me aside from the group and said to me: “British Queen Elizabeth?” I said, “Yes, Queen Elizabeth is Queen of my country too. I am her subject.” I added, “Were you there when she came to grant independence to Ghana in 1957?” I have no idea why I said that but I thought that if I could get him talking it might diffuse the situation. He replied, “Britain good.” I agreed. He then said, “British sugar very good. Better than Russian sugar. I like Tate and Lyle!” The other soldiers looked on from a distance and were clearly impressed by their commanding officer who was having a conversation with this woman in English. He handed me back my passport and said in a very loud voice, “Have a good trip.” I quickly got into the taxi before anyone could see just how much I was shaking.