THE PENDULUM
STYLE
WEDNESDAY. CX^TOBER 27. 2010 // PAGE 19
TWIN
LAKES:
Alice Dietz
"I remember seeing one
of the boys come out of
the living room carrying
not the baby, but the
umbilical cord," she
recalled. “I said 'what are
you doing with that?' And
he said that he was going
to bury it so that when
it starts to grow, he will
know how old he is. Why
the umbilical cord was
going to grow, i could
never figure that out."
-ALICE DIETZ
Shown above: Alice Dietz sitting in her apartment at Twin Lakes.
TRACY RAri2 | Pholographw
Melissa Kansly
Multimedia Editor
Although raised in an orphanage, Alice Dietz, 88,
is no Annie Warbucks. She created her own life story,
allowing the unexpected support she received to guide
her ambition. She was called by the Lutheran Church of
America to establish the collegiate nursing program in
Africa.
The woman sat in a plush chair with her feet elevated,
a requirement because of her formerly broken knees. She
wore an emergency button around her neck in case she
falls and appeared small beneath two fleece blankets.
Her fragile appearance did not reflect the strength her
past connotes.
Gratitude for the orphanage
Amid the self-produced paintings and woodcarvings
that clutter the walls of her Twin Lakes apartment, the
wall across from her chair hosts a certificate granting
her residence at the Evangelical Lutheran Orphanage in
Philadelphia. The certificate states that she will remain
at the orphanage until her 18th birthday in exchange for
domestic labor. A baby picture and a photograph of her
and her older sister sit in the frame as well.
“1 was an indentured person,” Dietz said. “A slave.”
Despite her servitude, she considers herself blessed
in her connection to the orphanage. With the absence
of parents, Dietz found faith and inspiration from an
unconventional source.
“My faith became strong through my association with
the Lutheran church, and 1 stayed with it all my life,”
Dietz said. “They have always cared for me.”
After her mother died during child birth v«th Alice,
her father left her at the orphanage in Philadelphia.
When she was 7 years old, her father remarried and
reclaimed her. For one year, she lived with her father and
stepmother.
“She was fine, but my relationship with my father was
not a good one,” she said. “I ran away from home when 1
was 8 years old.”
Finding her own way
She had a ticket for the Philadelphia subway and rode
the subway the entire night. She found a home with a
couple related to her stepmother and worked in their
grocery store until she graduated high school.
“Someone was always there to help me,” she said.
While sitting in her lounge chair, she reminisced about
riding in her uncle Harry's truck to purchase vegetables
to sell at the store. She also recounted delivering the food
and earning twice the expected tip.
Every Friday, Dietz would deliver cod fish cakes to the
local Catholic church members. She would knock and
announce herself as a delivery boy, and a woman would
reply that she was really a girl and hand her twice the
tip.
The mcikings of a nurse
This routine continued throughout high school, but
after she graduated, Dietz joined the nurse aide program
at the women’s medical center in Philadelphia.
“I had a marvelous instructor in nursing preparation,
and she convinced me to pursue nursing,” she said. “She
said 'you got to go full-time.”’
In order to attend the nursing aid program Dietz
needed to walk eight miles everyday. While walking home
she experienced a pain in her side. She saw a policeman,
and he brought her to Lankenau Hospital.
“They treated me so good," she said. “That's what
made me become a nurse: the care they gave me. I was
going all the way with this one."
Upon completion of the nurse aide program, Dietz
attended a three-year program at the Lankenau Hospital
School of Nursing. Although she had not yet gone to college,
the school of nursing admissions board pressured her to
contribute to the Lutheran Church of America mission
and establish a collegiate nursing program in Liberia.
“I had gone to a nursing camp and one of the mission
lords spoke to the people in the camp and said every
mission board has a mission that is sort of at the bottom
of the barrel,” she said.
Liberia was considered to be the neglected mission,
she said.
“I vowed never to go to Liberia,” Dietz said.
Initially, she had wanted to go to east Africa and
establish a program in Tanganyika, but in order to go
to Tanganyika, she would not have been able to work in
association with her church. She would have to be “on
loan” to another Lutheran church.
She received the most encouragement from the two
pastors at the orphanage, she said. Her religious faith and
loyalty provoked her to accept the mission to Liberia.
“They really wanted to get the collegiate nursing
program going, and I finally agreed,”she said. "I'm never
sorry that 1 went.”
Planting the seeds in Africa
In 1960, she traveled to Liberia as a nurse and a
missionary to establish a collegiate nursing program, but
when she arrived in Zorzor, Liberia, all the students were
in eighth-grade.
“They couldn't go to a college program because they
were only eighth grade graduates,” Dietz said.
The program took a detour. Dietz flew to various parts
of the nation and interviewed different students to survey
the interest in a nursing program.
“The girls were definitely interested but wanted to go
to college first,” she said.
To appease the residents, Dietz worked to establish
a nursing program in an already developed Episcopal
college: Cuttington College. She approached students
from different villages who would be eligible to attend.
“My primary job was to train the students,” she said. "I
remember going down and we had only three boy nurses
at the Zorzor hospital. There was no curriculum, no set of
what they were trained to do.”
Some of the practices confused Dietz.
“1 remember seeing one of the boys come out of the
living room carrying not the baby, but the umbilical cord,"
she recalled. “I said 'what are you doing with that?' and he
said that he was going to bury it so that when it starts to
grow, he will know how old he is. Why the umbilical cord
was going to grow, I could never figure that out.”
Prior to Dietz's arrival, the nursing students would
make formula for the infants at the Zorzor hospital.
Students were called to observe doctors in the middle of
the night because there were no formal classes.
The hospital consisted of multiple mud huts and 30
beds and did not contain toilet facilities or running water.
A picnic table and chairs constituted the classroom. The
hospital had a book from 1937 about courses in America
that a nursing program should include.
The doctors of Zorzor were expected to structure
their nursing program according to the book published
in 1937, she said.
“I had to set up a curriculum and a set of courses they
would take," she said.
She communicated with National League of Nurses in
New York City to devise an effective curriculum.
“I did set up a curriculum,” she said. “Much against the
feeling of a doctor because he wanted to keep authority.
But the board said Alice Dietz is in charge.”
Dietz directed the nursing program at Cuttington
College cmd was later appointed dean of the nursing
program.
“The male doctor had authority over the patients," she
said. “And I had authority over the nurses.”
While developing a program, Dietz traveled to recruit
students who were about to graduate from high school to
enroll at Cuttington College. Four individuals enrolled,
three females and one male.
She recruited faculty as well. Faculty members had to
have at least one degree higher than the students.
The responsibilities continued to increase. Dietz was
expected to help plan the building of a new hospital while
trying to run the nursing program.
“By 1962, the new Phebe Hospital was open,” she said.
“It was open two miles across the road from Cuttington
College and those first four students were enrolled in the
nursing program as freshman."
During her 10 years in Africa, she witnessed an
outbreak of small pox. Dietz, along with the other doctors,
vaccinated residents, but she was not allowed to enter the
Bush School, a secret sodiety, and vaccinate the children
studying there. Graduates t>f the Bush School entered the
T
tBt
Dietz shows photos of her experiences in Africa where she
started a nursing program at the Zorzor hospital at Cuttington
College.
village and administered the vaccinations.
“When they came out, there was a big celebration,” she
said.
Dietz retrieved a wooden board from her front hall
closet. The board contained photographs from Liberia,
many featuring the joyous occasion. She carefully pointed
to the images she had earlier described. The sepia tones
pictured bare-chested woman rejoicing.
She explained that such dress was the norm.
A plaque given to Dietz over a decade after her mission
in Liberia hangs in the front hallway. The woodcarving
symbolizes Dietz and the first four nursing students.
Although all five people are nude in the illustration, Dietz
guaranteed that she "never once went naked.”
Returning to America
Despite the cultural difference, Dietz said it was more
difficult to adjust back to American culture than it was to
acquaint herself with African culture.
“It took me two years to ac^just to America," she said.
"I kept wishing I was back in Africa."
Once back in America in 1970, she studied at UNC-
Chapel Hill.
“I had been in Africa for 10 years, and I didn't want to
go back to Philadelphia where it's dirty snow all the time,”
she said. “So I came down here to get my masters degree
at UNC-Chapel Hill.”
She earned another masters in nursing at UNC, which
qualified her to teach at Duke University, but when Duke
terminated the nursing program, she returned to UNC.
She taught at Duke for seven years and then worked at
UNC for another seven.
“They made me feel very welcome," she said. "They
said 1 was a born again Tarheel.”
Despite the acceptance she recieved from UNC, her
heart belonged in Africa.
A witness to progress
She returned in 1988 and spoke at the Phebe Cuttington
College nursing program graduation, but she did not
recognize the program she had left. The program that
initially contained four students had grown to include
100 students.
“I made something up and suggested they stay put,"
she said, “because some were fleeing to other countries."
She struggled to remember more details concerning
her speech and second experience in Liberia.
“Don't ask me to remember," she said. "It was so long
ago. I have to stretch my memory."
Settling down
Her tale jumped back and forth between America
and Africa until her mind returned to her Twin Lcikes
apartment. She again expressed gratitude for the care she
has been given.
“I like the people here very much,” she said while
gazing out of her third floor window. There were no
birds pecking at the bird feeders, so Alice Dietz moved
her hand to her stuffed kitten laying on the table. “They
have been really wonderful to me."