The Old Bordenian Association

Recently, a very remarkable Old Boy got in touch with us.  There is nothing especially remarkable about his career : teaching.  What is completely out-of-the-ordinary is where his career has taken him.  He has taught (English) for 5½ years in Saudi Arabia, for 2 years in Spain, for 2½ years in China, for a year in the Sudan, for 5 years in Mozambique and for a brief period  in Afghanistan .  For the past 13 years he has been living in Vietnam with his wife and two daughters.  It was Aristotle who paced up and down in the Peripatus at the Lyceum while he was teaching and created the generic name for an itinerant teacher.  Well, Aristotle – eat your heart out!

His name is Philip Spencer Drury and he was at School from 1966 to 1973, which makes him a contemporary of Chris Laming, to mention just one.  Philip has especially fond memories of Mr Nicholls who, he recalls, umpired that famous 12-0 hockey defeat and directed School plays, including Willis Hall’s war comedy “The Long and the Short and the Tall”, in which he played the part of cockney-speaking Bamforth.  For five years, Mr Nicholls was his English teacher and, he says, improved the standard of his written English – to such an extent that he has been able to supplement his salary through contributing to magazines, sometimes written under pseudonyms when anonymity seemed prudent!  For instance, in Arab countries he was known as Abu Diggin (‘father of the beard’) and in Spain as El Conquistador Ingles.   In a later posting, we hope to reproduce at least one of these magazine articles.

It occurred to us that during such an extraordinary career, Philip must have accumulated a fund of amusing/ interesting/frightening experiences, and we are pleased to say he has agreed to share them with us.  He has even gone so far as to share them with his father who came to Vietnam for the first time two months ago!  While they were visiting Monkey Island, a cowardly primate had the temerity to steal his father’s hotel key and a sum of money.  After a chase across a mangrove swamp, the monkey was apprehended and most of the purloined goods recovered.  To whet your appetite, here is the first of Philip’s adventures ; he calls it his ‘most exhilarating’ experience!

“The little town of Kadugli, set in the Nuba Mountains of the Sudan where I spent much of 2006 and 2007, has no industry and continues to serve the purpose for which the British originally founded it : an administrative centre for a region of agriculturalists and pastoralists.  It is an extremely quiet place.  That is, except for one particular day.

We were just ten minutes into an early morning class when the janitor came rushing in advising us to leave at once as a riot had broken out.  The class of young government officials disbanded immediately.  I made my way back to the safety of the UNDP living quarters accompanied by Adam, a student concerned for my safety, wheeling his bicycle across an open field.  We heard the sound of nearby gunfire, and very soon afterwards our eyes began stinging and streaming through the effects of tear gas.  We made it through the narrow streets and to the high-walled compound previously occupied by an extended Islamic family.  I washed my eyes and sat out the siege in the Spartan haven of my room.

The gunfire went on sporadically for several more hours, and a huge plume of smoke rose up above us where it lingered for much of the morning.  We subsequently learned the rioters had set fire to the tax office in the next street.  The cause of the disturbance had been simmering discontent with the central government in Khartoum for not having paid salaries for several months. Now the lid had finally blown off.  This being a purely internal matter, with no element of resentment of foreigners, I can honestly say I felt little fear throughout the proceedings.  Furthermore, the firing was all one way – from the police.  At around five in the afternoon the all-clear was finally given.

We were right to evacuate the old courtroom that housed our class room.  It was targeted.  They did not succeed in breaking in, but 90 per cent of the windows were smashed, and I taught in that room with broken glass on the floor until it was eventually cleared away around a month later.  A smaller building to the side was burned down.  Several cars around town had also been torched.  Some of the firing had been live rounds, as a death toll of eight was reported”.

Watch this space for the tale of the exploding umbrella!