English 110 Draft

For Victor Pungong, April 11^th 1967- May 9^th 2007

 By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

What you have heard is true. She stepped into my office cradling her folder in her bosom. Her pink boots oppressed the blue carpet on my office floor. My gaze caught her eyes off guard. “Yes Miss Sanchez, what can I do for you?”  “Professor, this paper is difficult for me. You know I struggle with English. I speak Spanish.” “Who are you writing on?” I ask  “That’s my problem. Don’t know who to choose. I look at the topic “The individual in history: Actions and legacies”. Then I get confuse. I want to write on Bill Clinton but it is too common. I try Mandela, but my friend say she is doing Mandela. I don’t want to do the same with her.  I want to do the other one you give but I don’t know him.”  “Which other one?” I ask  She hesitates, and uses her right foot to draw a pattern on the floor.  “The last one in the list, Victor Pugog.”  Oh. Ok, but let us start with the pronunciation of the name. The name is Victor P-U-NG-O-NG. The letters dropped one after the other into the space between us. The “ng”  clusters  made a summersault trapping her doubts before landing on her pink boots.

 Dr. Victor Pungong, Graduation from Cambridge University, UK 

“I don’t know him Professor”

“Would you like to find out about him?”

 “Is he on the internet?”

“I don’t know.”  “Why don’t you go and find out.”   

“Professor, I not lazy. I try, but English too difficult for me. I like to read novels, but composition too difficult. I try my best, professor.”

Miss Sanchez, that’s all you need to do. Every successful person started out by “trying”. 

“Ok professor, I go to the library for two hours and I come back.” 

“Ok Miss Sanchez.”

 I watched as the door closed on the tiger etched on her jacket. I turned swiftly to the stack of papers on my desk.  Like little tigers, they eat the time away, chewing all the minutes and seconds. Miss Sanchez did not return.

My feet found their way to the car. The engine screamed in rhythm with the noise in my head. I put it off. The hard steering stubbornly received my forehead. Then, sudden and rapid taps on my car window joined the discordant symphony in my brain. I took up my heavy head slowly to look. It was Miss Sanchez. I rolled the window down.

“Sorry professor but I find something, then I read and read. But I get problem with the thesis statement. Sorry I know you want to go home”.

It’s Ok, I am ready to listen. The noise in my head went out for a walk or so. I couldn’t tell where it suddenly disappeared to. 

“Ms. Sanchez, you can’t write a thesis without information. What did you find out? “

“Oh professor he do a lot. Very big diplomat, He loves democracy. He work for Commonwealth. Professor Commonwealth is like United nations?” Not waiting for my response she continued with her report. “he has a book. He wrote the book with another man. I have the title here The united states and decolonization: Power and Freedom with David Ryan. The library tell me I can get it by inter-library loan. I order it. He write many articles. The library give me this one Theoretical bases and political feasibility of the trusteeship-peacekeeping connection.

Triumph makes a little dance in front of me but I push it behind me. “What else did you find?” 

“He teach in a university in England. And he go to countries to supervise election so they don’t cheat. He got new job with the United Nations. Oh professor he even write and act in a film about corruption. The title is Trials of Passion”

 A smile circles her face like a moth around a bulb.

“What is it Ms. Sanchez?”

“He is Head of good offices section in Commonwealth. That make me laugh. I never hear about that kind of office. Maybe he work there because he too good. He should have come to El Savador. We have civil war for 12 years. No good people to stop government. Even America help the government. The colonel said my father was rebel and they cut his ears- he bleeds too much and die.”

Sadness envelopes her for a minute then evaporates.

“I am sorry to hear that Ms. Sanchez.” She pushes my voice to El-Salvador and continues.

 “Professor I have a question? Victor pun-gon-g, he is dead?”  

“Why do you ask?”

 “I saw people write a lot. Many people know him and say good things. They use many words: kind, brilliant, scholar gentleman, born diplomat. A man, looks like his boss, say he dress well every time in suits and said “Victor was thought – and thoughtfulness – personified.
His truly was a heart of gold – and for that we give thanks.” I hope this is good quote for the paper.”

“You know him professor? 

“Yes”. 

“Because I see what you write and he is from Cameroon like you.  I cry when I read all the things about Mr. Pun-gon-g. I cry for his wife and children. Professor you still have the film he send you?”

Making sure her tears do not find mine, I change the subject. 

“If you want to use a title for him, you can use “Dr.”

“Ah I forget. I read he graduate in Cambridge. Very good university. Professor I not use no title for him. He is big like Bill Clinton or Nelson Mandela. They not use any title. I feel bad Professor. Bill Clinton- alive. Mandela- alive. But professor, Victor Pun-gon g is youngest.”  

“I know” I choke the tears with a cough and swallow my pain with phlegm.

“But he do so much for his age.”

 “You are quite right and I think you are getting close to your thesis.”

  Like a moth returns to a light bulb, so the smile returns, circling around her lips and eyes.

“Professor”, she says eureka-like: I write something down and show you.”

Many people think that to make history you must be old, but Victor Pungong do many things before he die at a young age. He is a hero that makes his people proud and all people in the world should know him.

“I think you have a good thesis draft here Ms. Sanchez, but you have to learn to be specific. For example, what do you mean by “many things” in the first sentence or “his people” in the second sentence?”

  “I see professor”. I work on it and bring it tomorrow, but professor, why do people who want to help the world die too quick?”

“Miss Sanchez, I can’t possibly answer that. It is beyond the scope of English 110.”

“But Professor, People need to know people like Victor Pungong, even students, so they try to be like him and help the world. Too many wars”.

“Well, now you know him.”

“But I only know him to write English paper- then I give you- you put the grade and I keep it in my drawer.”  

I look furtively around as eureka twitches my eyelids. I respond:

 “Interesting. I never thought of it that way.”  I wondered who else needed to hear this.

Commonwealth Summit with President Paul Biya (Former SG of Commonwealth of Nations, center and, left,  Late Dr. Victor Pungong, Head of Good Offices Division).

Comments

[Chris Akum Mota]

Joice, I sincerely believe, this Miss Sanchez dug where others ignore. There are and will always be other Vic Pungongs ,waved aside summarily because they originate from the 'uncivlised continent'. I am proud you indirectly or directly set the ball rolling in this direction of recognizing wat Africans are able to do to world peace. Hope Miss Sanchez explores Victor's life and let the world know who he was, what he was able to achieve in his short life span. ( I am proud because this guy went to Primary school in my native Batibo and has always been treated as son of the soil there)
I am sure you shall not let Miss Sanchez "earn the grades, and then store the scripts in her drawer"
Congratulations for the course of your journey.
Mota Chris Akum, High School classmate , Mbengwi, 83-85

[Mrs. No Balance]

Influence is not taking a bat to someone's head; it's making them use their mind like an umbrella on a rainy day and they have to step outside! Keep up the great work!

[henry ngale monono]

Dear Ms Ashutangtang,
I found your writing fresh and original. Your style is arresting and compelling.You use the the broken and uninhibited style and language of your student as the vehicle through which we all get to know Pungong a man who was "too good". We empathise with her as she remembers her own father who also died a painful death. We see the milk of human kindness flowing in this write up as it becomes abundantly clear that humanity has suffred the loss of a great soul.

[Adeyemi Coker]

Dear Dr. Ashutangtang,
This dialogue/narrative you shared is a clear demonstration of the root of education (edu-ca-reh from the latin to bring forth). Your teaching style (taken outside of the classroom) has empowered your student, you allowed her to bring forth that, which is part of her, and I am confident you have changed her life (the mark of a teacher). God bless you for sharing this experience, and may all you do in this journey of academia be an edifying blessing to all who chance your path. May the work of Victor Pungong resonate with all peace loving advocates. Now I must read more about him - thank you for the lesson. In peace and fraternal regards, Adeyemi

[diskayplay]

Mine was a short Internet journey to your United Palace of Stories (UPS). I came from the Village headed by the creator of "Mouth Sweeter than Salt". The village where United States is in dialogue with Africans. As soon as I arrived the front yard of UPS, I was greeted by a smiling pretty professor one sees only in dreams. I was still holding the part of the story that brought me to your UPS when again I had to move. On the same front yard I noticed that Professor 'come before" also has his story below yours. How nice...

[JK Bannavti]

Joyce,
The dialoguial quality of this piece reminds me of the typical interchange I could have had at the Bronx Community College in the City University of New York with one of the students some time ago, only the choice of topic would have been different.
You have carved out a slate on which a clearly ambitious Miss Sanchez, inhibitted by a perceived linguistic barrier, discovers her research and writing resources; she dramatically uncovers a genius and an unsung hero, Victor Pungong, and places him on the pantheon of humanist leaders the world will forever miss.
It is a touching story of instructional guidance, self discovery, faith and loss that would not have come alive easily without the simplistic complicity of Miss Sanchez.
Are you done with the final copy? Send it to me right now!
JK Bannavti

[Dr. Henry T. Kimeng]

Dear Dr. Joyce

i stumbled on your write-up on english 110 by error and it carried me to several pages of yours. infact i am grateful that through such an assignment we could make people know more about our own heroes. He was my senior in PSS Mankon and i still cannot fanthom the tragedy that befell all of us who knew him. Will also visit the net to read about my bossom friend.

your write-ups make interesting reading

[Roki of Shanghai]

Last year while in Cameroon, I'd drive pass right in front of the Pungong's family home and each time, I'd see Dr. Victor Pungong's grave from the road, a voice would remind me of the unharnessed brains and talents that lay cold below the mount of earth. Wish he could have lived longer.

[Mr. E Sama]

Thanks Dr Joyce for this compelling literary device.
I cannot help but remember the young and intelligent Victor I taught in form five PSS Mankon in 1982/83. He and classmates were the pioneer batch of the young school. His untimely demise remains a big loss to humanity. May his soul continue to rest eternally at the Lord's bosom.

[OnTheRoadToSuccess]

... very inspiring! Thanks, Doc.

[Rachelle Tita]

Waoow.....my big sster, dr J.
Waking up this Saturday morning to your email on Bebe Manga,.....took me down a path I thought I had accepted . Reading about Victor in the eyes of your student., brought back painful memories of what we once had, hoped to be and ...it's been really hard. What can I say ....my husband lost a brother, friend, confidant and I lost my hope for a new and brighter world. With Victor all seemed possible.....his untimely death remains a difficult conclusion. Thanks to your student, I found a new project to keep our friend's vision and work alive. May Your works and impact on humanity continue to be that pillar for generations to come.
It remains tomorrow"

[Batuo]

Thanks Rachel. Victor's death will rremain for me a moment in time! I finally got the privilege to visit his grave about ten days ago on July 24th. Let us continue to celebrate his legacy!!