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Africa in My Life - Betty Coxson

Page history last edited by Henry Hamburger 10 years, 5 months ago

 

I think my interest in Africa was first ignited by my eighth grade history teacher at William Penn Nixon Grammar School in Chicago, Illinois. I remember being intrigued by the pyramids, the sphinx, the Rosetta Stone, the pharaohs and mummies. I had also been introduced to Egypt in various Sunday School lessons featuring Joseph and his brothers, the Good Years and the Bad Years, the plagues, and Baby Moses set adrift in the Nile in a pitch-lined basket to save him from the pharaoh's baby killers. It was ironic that the pharaoh's daughter saved him and brought him up as her son. The Israelites became slaves in the building of pyramids. Moses became God's instrument in their miraculous escape from Egypt. Exodus records the waters parting to allow the Israelites to cross safely on dry land. It wasn't called Africa at that time. It was just Egypt, as if the rest of Africa didn't exist.

 

She touched on other events in history such as WorId War I, then called the Great War, since WorId War II was still in the future. She talked about the starvation in Europe and Herbert Hoover's efforts to ease the suffering. We also learned about President Wilson's deep disappointment that the U.S. was unwilling to ratify the League of Nations as a means of stopping any further wars. I was lucky to have good teachers who made history come to life both in middle school and high school.

 

Many years later Africa began to emerge in my consciousness as a place. I heard about a young man from Malawi who wanted to go to school in the United States. Without any knowledge of distances or difficulties he started walking and eventually ended up at the American Embassy in Sudan where he was fixed up with clothes, a passport, and a plane ticket to a small-town college in Skagit Valley, Washington. He was featured in a small article in Time. Legson Kayira was his name. He died in 2012 after a career as a teacher and writer. Legson lived in fear of the dictator Hastings Banda, but Banda is now dead and Legson's wife Julie can journey safely back to Malawi to bury his ashes there. 

 

If the "Dark Continent" could inspire such passionate interest in education as Legson exhibited, I was ready to pack my bags when President John F. Kennedy hurled out his challenge to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." I volunteered and went to Nigeria. After two years I went home but signed up for another group (TEEA) that was going to East Africa - Uganda in my case - to train teachers under the Agency for International Development. It was a very special time and those of us who took advantage of the opportunities afforded now look back with gratitude that we were at the right place at the right time, and smart enough to recognize such a golden opportunity. Our goal was to work ourselves out of jobs in Africa and replace ourselves with trained African teachers. The TEA and TEEA programs ended in the early seventies. Peace Corps is still giving young Americans the chances we had in the early sixties.

 

I graduated from Luther College, a small school in Decorah, Iowa. I was trained as a teacher, but wasn't sure that was what I really wanted to do. My six years in Nigeria and Uganda helped me put aside my doubts. I taught English and journalism but also saw a crying need for libraries. I organized books and trained student librarians in Aba, Nigeria. When I got to Uganda I organized and developed two libraries, one at Kinyamasika, Fort Portal and the other at Lady Irene, Ndejji.

 

Since the school in Ndejji was surrounded by several other schools, I set out to raise money to build a library accessible to all the nearby schools. I solicited funds from the school district where I had been teaching and got additional funds from the Agency for International Development. Uganda volunteer students came to our campus on weekends to make cement blocks. The library was called Mukwano, "friendship" because it was a cooperative effort.

 

I obtained my masters degree from Long Beach State University in 1961. I taught in high schools in Orange County in California and Twenty Nine Palms and Yucca Valley in the Morongo Unified School District until I retired. Then I became an adjunct faculty member at Copper Mountain Community College in Joshua Tree, California where I taught English and journalism.

 

In 1990 I heard about a program called Educational Services Exchange with China (ESEC). It was a summer program so I applied and was accepted. We were organized into small teams to teach English at schools all over China. I taught in a university about a one hour bus trip from Shanghai. In 1993 I signed up for another stint in Changchun in Northern China.

 

In 1998 I retired and moved to a small town (Buffalo Center, Iowa) where I purchased a home for $7,500. I helped conduct a writing contest in the middle school for 13 years. We published students' work in a magazine called Middle Musings. I am still helping with reading at the Timely Mission Care Center and also the Middle School. I am secretary of the newly formed Historical Society and we have charge of our new museum. That's where I am today.

 

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