How did the ex-patriot organizations cope with dealing with entirely foreign and unfamiliar population?
CUNY: Well you had different ex-patriots that were there. A large number of missionaries were in the area already to begin with and they knew the culture quite well. They were probably, in many ways, some of the best groups. There was a Catholic group there. Several Irish priests who were superb. They knew the culture. They knew the language. They were able to do a lot. They were the outsiders that came in that had a hard time adapting to the situation. And often they would focus on, sort of, the most obvious things to do. People were starving, therefore, you’d give them food – without getting into the whole question of how do people normally get food and how can we support that? It was just an assumption that we had to bring everything in for them. The things that’s interesting to me. The people who started their careers in the humanitarian field in Biafra often approached the problem very differently than people who’ve come in at later dates. The EBOs who we were working with were ve
