Culture bridge
Local priest bestows a first-hand view of Nigeria to St. Peter Catholic School students
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 10:44 AM PDT
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| Blessed Sacrament Associate Pastor Jude Nwachukwu shows St. Peter’s Catholic School teacher Regina Ormsby’s first-grade class the traditional face painting women use to prepare to be married. Nwachukwu said women will paint their faces with the white paint and then go to market on market day, waiting for a suitor to promise to marry them. Nwachukwu is from Nigeria and will speak to the students again on Thursday to teach them more about his culture. |
Ontario — St. Peter Catholic School teacher Regina Ormsby brought her lecture about Africa a little closer to home Tuesday when Blessed Sacrament Associate Pastor Jude Nwachukwu arrived to teach her first-grade students about his experiences growing up in Nigeria.
Nwachukwu placed a wastepaper basket atop his back to show the students how water is transported from rivers to homes in Nigeria. He also moved his hands, arms, legs and feet rapidly to show students how African dancing differs from American dancing. He then offered the first-graders a chance to show off their moves, and several students jumped at the chance, moving their hands and arms sporadically with Nwachukwu. He spoke about the differing types of hairstyles seen in Nigeria, extending one first-grader’s long hair outward from her scalp. This hair, he said, would be twisted and ornamented to stay separated and frozen in pieces extending in all directions from the scalp.
“Do they have ponytails?” one girl asked.
Nwachukwu replied yes, there are ponytails in Nigeria. Nwachukwu also said the clothing styles in Nigeria are similar to clothing styles in America.
“There is an influence of western culture, but we still have our culture, as Nigerians, as Africans, as natives there,” he said.
He said Nigerians have lost some aspects of their culture, such as killing twins and leaving albino children in the woods because they believed they were cursed.
“Those things have been stopped,” he said.
However, some aspects of Nigerian culture have remained, such as Nigerian food and respect for one’s elders.
He said another common thread is English.
“We speak English in Nigeria,” he said. “But we speak British English because we were colonized by Britain.”
Great Britain colonized Nigeria in 1861. He also said English is spoken throughout Africa and is taught in schools. Africa, he said, has more than 250 different languages, with English proving to be a common connection. Nwachukwu said Nigeria is both rural and metropolitan, similar to Oregon.
“What do you eat?” another student asked.
Nwachukwu replied he eats food: American, Mexican, Nigerian. He said Nigerian food is often made of ground corn and is eaten without chewing. Nwachukwu, who has lived in America for about three years, still has family in Nigeria, four brothers and four sisters. His mother also still lives in Nigeria, and he said he speaks with her frequently. Nwachukwu said he trained to become a pastor in Nigeria before being asked to come to the United States by the Baker Diocese.
“I felt called to serve humanity,” he said. “I find joy in serving.”
He said he enjoys traveling and will return to Nigeria if the diocese decides he should. Ormsby, who is currently in her first year teaching at the school, said she decided to cover Africa in her classroom because of how well his experiences would fit with the lecture.
“It’s a real learning experience that they can talk to someone who has been to Africa,” she said.
She said she plans to teach about Africa every year and will educate students about Africa’s geography and communities. She also said she plans on taking the children to Boise next week to see an African exhibit there. She also plans to do a science experiment where the students will look at leaves to find and count insects. The numbers of these insects, she said, will be graphed in order to help with math. She then said students will read an African book called “Anansi the Spider,” which teaches children about growing up.
“I’ve always been interested in it,” she said of African culture.
She said Nwachukwu normally comes to the class once a week to give religious teachings, but this is the first time he has spoken to the class about Africa. On Thursday, she said, Nwachukwu would return to the class to show students Nigerian toys and clothes sent by his sister.
