11. Sept 24, 1967

 Sept 24

Dear Folks, (Cochrane)

    We have heard from Spearmans' and from Patsy's about you, Dad, and it sounds like you are making good progress. I hope by now that you are home and feeling in pretty good shape.

    This is Mom's birthday...we hope you had a pleasant day. There is a present on its way to you. We mailed it in Nairobi on the 12th so it should reach you soon. It isn't much but will let you know we didn't forget you.

    It's a real nice day here, bright and hot with a cool breeze now and then. Mt. Kenya is still under its cloud but the surrounding country is sort of hazy and makes you think of Indian Summer days at home. Amy, Milt, and Kiva are playing in the sand pile and yard with about a dozen kids all laughing and chattering until it sounds like a bunch of magpies! Seems like the whole population talks without ceasing. Yesterday there was a bunch of students working in a garden right above our house, and you never heard such noise! They speak Kikuyu which sounds like a jumbled bunch of meaningless syllables and they talk very fast. Their English is not too bad, although it takes some hard listening sometimes to figure out what they are saying!

 I have a new job...First Aid Officer, a guy in charge of the dispensary. Mostly it consists of treating sprained fingers, giving out aspirin and cough medicine, and cleaning up wounds that have been around some time. I also decide if they should go see the doctor or not. I sure felt funny the first day I was there. "Yes and what is the matter with you?" Felt like a father confessor or something! However, when one fellow came back to thank me for helping his sore foot to feel better, I decided maybe it wasn't too bad!

    Last night the principal asked Frank and me to commit to dinner at his house. It was very nice. His wife is very shy but seemed to like us and finally talked quite a bit. We had a delicious chicken stew...pieces of chicken like you would  cut up for frying, with potatoes and carrots all in a thick gravy. The chicken was tough, but had a good flavor. There was cut up boiled cabbage, stewed tomatoes, and a delicious fruit dessert with whipped cream. Then we went to the living room for coffee. They serve it half coffee, half hot milk. I think it is better than straight coffee.  The kids stayed home and popped corn and played games and thought they had a real big time. As we came walking back across the compound to our house we passed the dining hall where the students were having a dance...a record player was blaring out some rock and roll type music and the whole hall was bouncing around as one...the East African Shuffle for sure! Looked like everyone was dancing on his own and how they did clap and cheer when the music ended. It looked like a lot of fun!

    The kids are doing very well with their correspondence work. Diane sends her lessons in and last week finally got some of them back praising her good work. Vicki, Milt and Amy don't send theirs in...I'm their authority. They have all completed lesson 13. Most of the time they do a little more than one lesson in a day. Although some days we stop somewhat short depending on what else is going on.  Milt is leaning to write and does very well. Reading is his worst problem as he dislikes the book, it's one he had last year. So we read out of the ones you sent. And Kiva plays with her doll or draws on the blackboard, or plays with the cards while the kids are studying. She can amuse herself really well. We finish around eleven and then just relax until 12:30 or so when Frank comes home for lunch. And the rest of the afternoon there isn't much pressing to do. At 4:30 I go up to the dispensary for half an hour and then it is time to get supper. Sometimes the students come in the afternoon for Frank to help on this or that, but really it all seems so leisurely that I'm almost ashamed to tell you about it! Seems like one ought to be hurrying around. We usually spend some time reading after the kids are in bed, and they are read to go by 8:30 pm, even the big ones. No need to worry about staying up too late for the lights go out at eleven. Seems like the day-to-day living gets rather tame. But I guess you have a certain amount of that no matter where you are. Next week we plan to go to Nairobi to the Agricultural Show which is like a big fair. I'll tell you about it next time. Bye for now. 

        Love, Barb.

Sept. 24 (I have discovered that Kigari is the name of an area, sort of like a county)

Dear Mom and Dad,

    First off, I want to tell you about Frank's Dad, I forgot to last week. Around Sept. 9 he had an operation on his hip. He's been having what they thought was arthritis in the hip for a long time. Finally it was getting so much worse that they went to a bone specialist in Caldwell and he said the ball part of the hip joint was entirely gone, so they operated and put in a steel ball in place of it. From what we hear he is doing very well, is up and using a walker. He will need time for the muscle and joint to heal, but should come out in real good shape, able to walk without help. I thought you would like to know, and sorry I didn't tell you sooner. 

    Looks like we will have a fair to go to after all. Next week is the Nairobi Agricultural Show. It is a real big thing, I guess. We plan to go next Saturday so will have that to tell you then. 

    This week had been a rather quiet one. I did get a new job however. I'm in charge of the dispensary...handing out aspirin, cough medicine, treating sprained fingers after volley ball games, and deciding who is sick enough to go to the doctor. I feel like a misfit trying to decide what to do for some of those kids, but guess  they can survive! I am up at the dispensary for about a half hour each day. I sure got tickled. The next day after the principal asked me if I would take over the dispensary, there was a note in our box in the staff room thanking me for volunteering my services and praising me for my "Harambee" spirit!

    We heard about the Africa picture from all sides! Frank's folks and Grandmother Adams had both seen it. The big farms you saw as part of Kenya are in the White highlands which are to the West of us about one hundred miles. This was the area that cause so much trouble before Independence, because the white settlers reserved it for themselves and would not let the Africans own land. It is also the best land in Kenya. We hope to get over to see that part sometime, I guess it is really something.

    The fundi (workman) is reupholstering two ragged old chairs we got with this house. They will be back on Monday with nice brown corduroy that I got to pick out. I think it is real nice to have it done at someone else's expense. We also papered one wall in the living room with Hessian Cloth (burlap). It looks nice and cuts down the echo some. I put up the kitchen curtains...striped yellow-orange and red-orange, and I put green ones in the bathroom and toilet room. So we are about finished. I have one set of bedroom curtains waiting for hooks and we're done!

    Frank planted the garden last week, I think I told you about that. The beans are up and so are the peas. They have gotten a lot of admiring looks from the people who come by. I wish that garden would grow faster, it will be so good to be able to eat out of it.

    Last night we were invited to the principal's house for dinner. It was very nice. We had chicken stew, chicken on the bone in pieces, cooked with potatoes and carrots in a thick gravy. It was delicious even if the chicken was so tough that is snapped back at you when you tried to bite it! There was also boiled cabbage, stewed tomatoes, and a delicious fruit dessert with whipped cream on it. The principal's wife is quite shy and quiet, but finally had quite a bit to say before the evening was over. On our way home, about two blocks distance, we passed the dining hall where the students were having a dance, each one dancing by himself, doing the East African Shuffle, music blaring away, and were they having a good time! Our house is right down the hill from the dining hall, you can see it from the kitchen window and hear them plainly. How they did clap and holler when the music ended. There are blessings to the lights going out by eleven. All student activities are over at 10:30 and things quiet down. I really don't mind. It is interesting to be close enough to see what goes on. Also we are hidden from them enough by the trees that they can't see us all the time!

    Tomorrow they all leave around six in the morning to start their practice teaching. So we'll have another Sunday, because they're given a day to get started before the tutors here go out to observe and give help. Guess I will get to go out a few times, too to see what goes on. It should be very interesting. Frank will go and come each day to about 15 different schools during the three week practice time.

    Well I hope by now the hay is done, Ted's baby has arrived and you know what happened with Bill and his prospects for the TV show. I did write to Ted and Bill last week. Rich's birthday is coming up so thought I'd write him then. It seems so long a time since I hear about any of you, and it was just last Tuesday or so that your last letter came! Seems like time has a funny way of stretching out and then all of a sudden its gone. The days and nights here feel like Indian Summer, not as chilly at night as at home, but hot bright days with plenty of sun. One could almost believe it was fall if you didn't look around at all the bright green trees and flowers everywhere.

    Some of the students planted a new garden of cabbages right above our house. Oh such fun they did have laughing and talking like a bunch of magpies! They all take care of about a dozen garden-sized plots around the compound. There are carrots, onions, and cabbages and tomatoes growing in them. The school sells the vegetables for some extra money. That is where we get all of our fresh vegetables.

    Friday I walked up to the near-by village to get some potatoes and see what there was at the local market. It is about two miles up the road at Manyatta. I decided I could get a better "feel" of the place on foot. It is built around a square of grass and trees, with little shops all around the square. Each one had some groceries and clothes. There was a hide tanner and a hardware shop. It seems strange to go to a shop like that...whole front open, three big burlap bags of flour sitting on the wooden floor, Lifebuoy soup on one shelf, soda pop on another, one man's dress shirt all done up in cellophane sitting propped up all by itself. The lady store keeper was an African with bare feet, big holes stretched in her ear lobes, half her teeth gone, wearing a faded shirtwaist dress with a gathered skirt and a bright scarf tied around her head. She was so happy when I bought a bar of soap and told me, "thank you, please come again", in very good English! The market in the square seemed to be mostly women sitting around in groups talking, and right in the middle of the square was a table loaded down with bread wrapped in blue and white paper wrappers, looking just like one kind we bought in New York City! 

That's it!        Love, Barb.