10. September 5, 1967

 Sept. 5

Dear Mom and Dad (Cochrane)

    Guess what? I AM going to teach Domestic Science...looks like it will include sewing, child care, nutrition, and the syllabus had a section called "Housewifery" which includes how to clean various things in the house and how to wash and iron clothes. The Home Ec room is a big room with four sinks and some cupboards along two sides and small store room with about six sewing machines, some bolts of material, and boxes of thread and various odds and ends, all covered with dust and spider webs. There has been no Domestic Science class for three terms. I think there are possibilities but feel pretty shaky right now. Frank has enough enthusiasm for both of us so think we'll come out all right. His science room is right next to mine which will help too! Whoever thought I'd do my first teaching in Africa! I'm glad I don't have to tackle it in Swahili!

    All the kids send their love. Today they found some kids to play softball with. They just got back from spending the summer with grandma. They live right next door up the hill. There is a girl Amy's age, a boy a little bigger and two boys smaller than Milt. They love Diane and Vicki already and sure like to play ball. It is real funny to see the little girl feel Kiva's hair and then her own. I don't think she's quite figured that out yet. Even the grownups like to touch Kiva's hair, and Milt's too.

    Diane found a piano today and met the lady who teaches music, a Britisher named Miss Gass. So there is a good prospect of Diane's having lessons. We shall see to that after a bit.

    We have already started on the correspondence courses for everyone, and they seem to like it fine. My teaching is to be half time so we can still manage our kids lessons alright. We have a man to help too. Today he washed six sheets and some other clothes by hand in the bath tub, and then worked in the garden. He can sure put out the wash fast and clean!

            Love from all of us...Barb.

(on another letter)

    You said you hadn't heard much about Milton...he has found several more boys to play with since we moved to this house, and seems to really enjoy himself. As far as lessons go he sails right along and takes only about half the time suggested to finish. He still gets giggly streaks that about drive us all crazy, but we'd feel lost if he didn't do it! I imagine Frank told you about the garden he planted. It really looks nice. And the last two days have been beautiful and bright, looks like we may get some of the warm weather everyone says we should be having.

    I have all the curtains finished but need more hooks before I can hang them. The front room is a green grey and pink print in sort of squares. They look nice but sort of loop across the curtain because the design was printed, more cooked on the material than I had realized. The girls (Diane and Vicki and Amy) made theirs with stripes of blue, yellow and burlap in random widths. Milt and Kiva's room curtains are two shades of green and ours are orange with a yellow and orange print border. The kitchen curtains are yellow orange and light orange stripes. Most of the material I got in Embu for three shillings a yard (42 cents U.S.) It is a coarse cotton called Mericani cloth. Every store seems to have a few pieces of material and there are three stores in Embu just filled with material. I never saw such a variety.  The merchants are Asians, and I discovered that prices differ from one customer to the next or one day to the next. You have to pick and choose. I imagine Frank told you about buying six pineapples for one shilling. They are really good. The car is really running good now. We feel fortunate it acted up when it did. I hope by now Dad is home...it is good he will be able to feel human again.

            Love, Barb

Sept. 18, Monday

Dear Mom and Dad, (Line)

     I'm sorry I've been so long in writing. We have had a few adventures since the last letter and time really got away from me. We went to Nairobi on Friday, Sept. 1, left here around 2 o'clock in the afternoon and about three miles out of Embu the car started to miss. We had gotten off without even a pair of pliers and so could only guess as what the trouble was. Anyway we limped along just barely making it up each hill and coasting down the other side. We finally got into Hakawa...Kenyatta college...just outside of Nairobi about 6:30, and the whole trip should have taken two hours at the most. We stayed there with the Sentmans, one of the families that came over with us. They made us feel so welcome. They took us to Nairobi the next day to see about getting the car fixed. The dealer was very obliging and offered to fix it at his cost. When they got into it (the car) there were many things wrong besides a bad spark plug. The clutch was on the way out because of some broken seals somewhere and the timing gear on the starter had to be replaced, and probably some other things, but the total of it all was that we had to wait until Tuesday afternoon to get the car. The Sentman's very graciously put us up,  along with two of the other families, who let us sleep in their extra beds. I was so thankful that we had friendly people...it would have been a pretty bad time otherwise. They treated it like a big party. We all ate together at three different houses, went shopping in Nairobi several times. It was very pleasant, and the fact that the car came out better than when we bought it, at no expense to us, really topped it off! I bought material for the living room curtains... a grey, green, and pink print in a square shaped pattern. I looks real nice except that it is printed on the material crooked and the pattern sort of climbs up the curtain. I hadn't realized that it would be so noticeable. The clerk warned me that it was "a bit crooked". Well anyway we came back Tuesday in less than two hours and stopped at a market at a little town on the way, bought six pineapples for one shilling, potatoes -five pounds for a shilling, and a huge head of cabbage for one shilling. Also two huge gourds about two feet in diameter for seven shillings. We were all so glad to get back home! And everyone here seemed glad to see us back...the boy who brings the eggs, the milk man, and of course, Francis.    

    We discovered the lady whose house we were to move into had arrived, and so on Wednesday we made the "shift". What a scramble! The other two parties involved did a fairly orderly "shift", but we took load after load in the car and finally finished shortly after lunch, and this house was the biggest mess you ever saw...boxes sitting everywhere and things piled and piled. So Wednesday and Thursday we spent straightening things out.  This house had three bedrooms too, but a bigger kitchen and living-dining room with more cupboards everywhere. It is very nice, and I hadn't realized how small the other house really was until we were settled here. The first night Frank and I were prepared to sleep on the floor because the bed they were supposed to bring from the store house had not arrived. It did finally come around ten when we'd given up and rolled out the sleeping bags. The lady who used to live here took the front room chairs with her, so for two days we were without anything to sit on in the front room but the brown box. But now we have one nice chair and two so-so ones and two shabby ones, and promises of getting the shabby ones covered, and a new couch to replace the so-so ones, so guess we'll come out in good shape. We have put up the big umbrella as a shade in the living room, and one of the shades Bill gave us is over the dining room table. Frank got burlap and papered one wall in the living room. I finished the curtains Friday, and so we feel real comfortable. All the books are out of their boxes and into the book cases. This living room has a wood parquet floor. The wood is laid in six inch squares. That it more pleasant too. The kitchen has cupboards and drawers that I've nothing to put in them, and there is a large pantry too. There is a large concrete slab just outside the kitchen door, and a good sized veranda on the front side (front room) of the house. This location is nicer too, even though it doesn't have a s nice a view. There is a road out in front about as far away as your barn is from the house, and lots of people travel it. When we first came here lots of them would stop and look at us especially if the kids happened to be out in the yard. Now when they look or stop, I wave if I'm close to the window or outside, and they will smile and wave back. There is a big tree near the house and the kids have put up the tire swing there. Oh how the kids do love that! At times there will be 15 or 20 people stopped watching. And after our kids invited some of the kids watching to come and have a swing, there are four of five there all the time. Amy says it is hard to find a time when she can get a turn.

    Right next to the yard is a sort of pasture, where the swing tree is, and there is a sort of platform set up where two men saw up big logs with a long two handled saw. One stands up on the log and the other stands in a pit under the log. It takes them a day to saw a tree 20 inches in diameter into 2 inch slabs. They really put in a lot of time, and one of them sings as they work. It is a beautiful sound...a sort of chant that wanders all over the place. I'd sure like to record it.

    Sunday afternoon one of the people came up from Kenyatta College...the single man none of us cared much for in New York, but here he's fairly tolerable. He stayed all night and seemed to thoroughly enjoy just being around. Frank was busy digging up the garden and getting it planted. It sure looks nice. I can hardly wait for it to come up. He decided to do it his way after seeing what a jumbled mess it was. Francis was impressed and I suspect glad he didn't have to do it!

    We get our meat from the man who brings meat to the college kitchen and it is good...tough but edible.

    I drove to Embu last Friday, my first time out in the car alone. It went very well. We bought some material for bedroom curtains. It's amazing what a variety of material there is everywhere. There are three shops in Embu that are just stacked with fabric, most of it is plain colors, every color you can think of, and a lot of pretty prints too. I got a beautiful orange and yellow print for 3.50 a yard (50 cents) I'm going to have a dress out of what's left!

    And now some general information! You asked about the Commer...it is an English made car the shape of the Volkswagen bus.  Our electricity is from a local generator and there is hope of being on the main line by January, that will be 24 hours a day then. There is one telephone at the college that takes hours to get a call through. All African phones are terribly unreliable. There are no street lights, thank heavens. And there are only two traffic lights in the whole town of Nairobi. Other intersections have police directing at times, the rest of the time you just take a chance and go! More next time! Love, Barb.