Hi everyone!
I will let Anna Kay post this as I am still trying to find my way around the blog.
I got my BA in French from UCLA and then did one year in linguistics at UCSD. I then decided to go off on a 3 year adventure, living and working in a small village in Ivory Coast, West Africa, doing research on the Godie language and being somewhat involved in Bible translation there. No running water, except off the roof!!!!, and no electricity, lots of malaria and hard times but I count those years as wonderful and rewarding—me receiving far more than I could ever give.
I then went back to UCLA where I completed an MA, then Phd in linguistics, African linguistics. My thesis was “Tense/aspect and the development of auxiliaries in the Kru language family”. This involved research (through Fulbright) of 14 Kru languages in Ivory Coast and Liberia. I loved it!
After the Phd, I accepted a teaching post at the Univeristy of Ilorin in Nigeria where I taught syntax and semantics, along with other subjects! Those two years were very, very difficult and I left to take a job at the University of Cocody in Abidjan, Ivory Coast as a researcher in linguistics. One year later (no pay for a whole year, the administration moves slowly here!), I went back to the States where I made ends meet by teaching English as a second language at various places, before getting a “real job” at San Jose State University in San Jose, California.
This job, also teaching syntax and semantics, was also cut short. During a jaunt back to Abidjan to lead a workshop on Kru languages, I fell in love with an Ivoirian, Georges Zogbo (his brother was at that workshop!) and we married in 1985. During that same year I began a 25 year career as a Translation Consultant with United Bible Societies, working in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali and Togo (but mainly BF and CI). We spent 2 years in Lome, Togo, while I was in training, where our son Kaligbeu Georges-Mario Jr was born. Kaligbeu means “one who opens the village” in Bete. Mario is for my dad Mario Marchese Jr. The Georges for obvious reasons.
We then went to the States while I did more training in Hebrew and Biblical studies (Princeton, and Union Seminary in Virginia), after which time, we settled in Georges’ hometown Daloa, in central west Ivory Coast. Georges works in rice, is an engineer in food processing. Wane was born in 1990 in Bouake. Wane means “their thing” and the underlying message is “Tolerance”. We lived there 12 years where the kids went to the French school. We moved to Abidjan in 1999 so Mario could have better schooling conditions at Lycee Francais. In 2002 the war broke out. Though over, the effects can still be felt. Due to schools being burned and shut down, Mario had to leave for his pre-BAC year, and stayed with friends in La Ciotat, France. Wane had to leave for her 3e (9th grade American) and lived with welcoming strangers in Sarcenas, up in the snowy mountains, above Grenoble. She had a 45 minute bus ride every day down to the city for classes. Both kids came back to IC to get their French BACS in Abidjan.
Mario (24) has a BS in sound engineering from Full Sail in Florida and has been working installing sound/computer systems in courthouses. He has just decided to quit and go back to school. He is currently in West Va. Wane (now 20) is a year away from her BA in Psychology at the University of Concordia in Montreal.
Georges and I continue to work hard as we move toward retirement. Georges is very “into” rural development on all levels as well as medicinal plants. I am “into” my job, which includes teaching translation and Old Testament stuff, including Hebrew poetry to francophone Africans in an MA program in a seminary here in Abidjan. I spend a lot of my time also editing the “Sycomore” a journal promoting translation into African mother languages in francophone Africa and editing handbooks for Bible translators. I am co-author of several of these handbooks in English and French: Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Judges, Hebrew Poetry and I, II Thessalonians. Believe me, people, who would have thought I would USE ALMOST EVERY DAY STUFF I LEARNED IN BORDEAUX ABOUT FRENCH POETRY and FRENCH LITERATURE!!!! You could just laugh about it or consider it, as some might, “a clin d’oeil de Dieu”….the “coincidences” of our lives!
In 1995 on leave in San Diego, I was diagnosed with breast cancer….but I am still here! Sally and Kathy planned a girl’s weekend to celebrate Lynell’s loss of hair. Seonaid was able to join us for a meal. At one point, prior Georges, Sally and I were both teaching at San Diego State, holding each other’s hands through trying times. At another point, I was in Pasadena recycling Greek, with the family, with Kathy and husband John minutes away. That meant great meals, good wine, and walks with our kids (2, 2) in the foothills…fantastic… Kathy, John and I were able to attend our Bx friend’s son’s wedding in Perigord a few years ago. We 3 actually had a “pot’ in Bordeaux café and I saw my old Rue Vitale-Carles where I had a room next to the maid. We shared the toilet, you cannot qualify it as a bathroom. I had zero contact with my “hosts” except for the day I was “called on the carpet”, falsely accused of having a boy in my room!!!!!
Recently, and most memorably, c’était la fête chez Sally à New York, with Kathy, her husband John), Lynell, and Sally, and Jean Pierre and Claudie, our real true livelong friends from Bordeaux. We hope this is not the end!
I am sorry to tears to hear about our dear American “Jean-Pierre”, so ready to laugh and loving to all, and Dennis, my comrade in arms, as we disguised ourselves with Kathy as KKK for a masquerade party in our French family. They asked us to come as Americans and we wanted to make a statement! I will try to scan and send the photo.
Bordeaux had many trials, hitchhiking to Talence, staying up all night to finish that art history dissertation, trying to find a place to have a REAL BATH, but it also had so many memorable moments : my 21st surprise birthday at an old mill, climbing over walls at ungodly hours, walking in patent leather shoes in the Pyrenees, with the rain pouring down…..
Before Pau/Bx, I was serious hard working Lynell (on the Aurelia to Sally, “No Sally I will NEVER eat snails!”) but I learned in Bordeaux to LIVE ! to ENJOY MYSELF, SAISIR LE MOMENT. I am still hard working as you can see above, but I also know now life is to be lived to the fullest. Let us all CONTINUE what our little group always termed the MOVEABLE FEAST.
With warm greetings and love to all, Lynell (Marchese) Zogbo
I was in San Diego visiting my dad (84) and sister 4 weeks ago…. And trying to make it back at least twice a year….
(Anna Kay's husband, Alain, in the middle)
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