Caswells

I WAS BORN in July 1947, the second son of a relatively poor family living in a village just outside Northampton in the middle of England. A third child, a girl, was born 10 years later. I guess we lived a happy life in a stone cottage with a thatched roof - in those days a sign of poverty, but in these days, considered quaint and fetching a huge sum on the "yuppie market."

Life in the countryside was not so easy. The toilet was at the bottom of the garden and the bath was in front of the black stove once a week. We ate a healthy diet of home grown vegetables and meat consisting mainly of rabbits that were caught using a greyhound dog and terrier and a ferret that went down the rabbit hole to scare out the rabbit. Sport consisted of cricket and soccer on the village field - all taken very seriously.

Education began at the village school. Six years of primary school consisting of 2 classes each for 3 years. The total school population was under 50. My father did his primary school in the same classroom and if I wrote badly, the same teacher who had taught him 25 years before would go to the cupboard and fetch out the exercise book to show me how it should be done.

I survived and won a scholarship to a very old grammar school and later went to London University to study civil engineering. Most of my time was spent playing bridge and demonstrating for various causes in London - the 60s were the years of the demonstrations. I guess I must have had time for some studies as I finished with a first class honors degree.

By then, although only 20 years old, I felt that my academic life was enough and after being attacked by an old lady on a tube train, I decided I would go off to change the world - so I signed up to go to Ghana.

My mother packed up my one plate, one cup, one spoon, etc.. and I put on my only suit and set off for Africa on September 6th, 1968. I've been around here ever since.

My first 15 years were spent as a teacher although I did do a lot of building - some quite large projects and was even the school farm manager for 2 years, not a small job as the farm was 150 acres. I held various jobs - Housemaster, Head of mathematics, etc.. it was all very rewarding and many of the small boys I taught are now "big men" in Ghana - they still greet me as "Master" when I return there. The last 7 years I was the Headmaster of the Vocational School where we taught masonry, carpentry, dress making, cookery, etc.. and one of the jobs we did was to build a centre for CBM which is how my second career started.

I was offered a job either in Niger or Angola. It was a difficult choice and in August 1994 I arrived in Niger with my wife, Charity (the most important gift I gained from Ghana), and two young children (Georgina and Harry). After scouting around, we set up a centre in southern Niger - a real bush place and I loved it. Later, as the children grew up and two more were added (Ellen and Leslie), we moved to Niamey, a wonderful city in the semi-desert. By that time, CBM had asked me to visit other programmes to advise, etc, a job I still do today. Although it is difficult to be away from the family, it is a very rewarding experience and very interesting. We are now living in Abuja, Nigeria, a beautiful city in a very interesting if somewhat difficult country. Besides having a programme, Services for Disabled People, I also act as Country Coordinator for 30 programmes and still run around West Africa as an advisor and life is very full.

I thank CBM very much for giving us the chance to have such an interesting and rewarding job. It is a challenge.

Paul Caswell, Nigeria Country Coordinator