5. August 1, 1967, New York City

                                                                  August 1, 1967

Dear Mom and Dad,

    Well this was a fairly quiet weekend after a real short week or so it seemed. Frank had two sessions a day of Swahili. They are giving the Tansania people extra work in Swahili because the language is spoken more extensively there than in the other two countries, and Frank has been included because of the possibility of a  lot of extension work. He doesn't feel very encouraged at his progress but it seems like he has brought home enough and managed to pass a lot of it on to us, so I think he is learning more than he thinks he is. We spent a lot of time this week end making up sentences to say to each other and trying out different combinations of words. It is like Spanish in that adjectives and adverbs have to agree in number with the nouns. The nouns are divided into several different classes, sometimes with no apparent reason! And there is always the class that includes all the exceptions, and a class which has no difference for plural and singular. There are a lot of other happy little things to stub your toe on just when you think you have the whole thing down pat. It is fun though. Diane and Vicki said their class had a contest to see which pair of people could make up the largest number of sentences. Diane's team won with 72 and Vicki's was next with 70. They sure enjoy it and are making good progress. Milt and Amy don't seem to be going as fast, but they can understand quite a bit, and even Kiva has learned a bit more. I have learned that there are one hundred cents in a shilling, seven shillings to a dollar, and ten cents in a penny. That's all Swahili money. There's about $3 American in one Swahili pound and 20 shillings to a pound. It will be interesting to see how all this money business works out.

    Last Tuesday we had a little talk about money matters and it sounds like the tax business is just like here at home, and maybe even a  little steeper. But we will worry about that when we get there.

    Diane and Vicki have built up quite a reputation for baby sitting and have taken in quite a little money at seventy five cents and hour. The regular sitters for time during morning classes charge $1.50. This reduced rate has gotten them a lot of business and many thanks. They each have a regular one that is at least twice a week. Then there are some special times like today. One lady had Diane bring her three kids home from class (around Amy's and Milt's ages) and feed them lunch while she kept a doctor's appointment. Diane and Vicki really feel important and how they do pinch their money! Diane finally spent one dollar on a pair of earrings the other day. It took her two days to decide to do it! Vicki is saving for a new watch...her old one quit...so she hasn't spent any of hers yet.

    Milt got your card (birthday) today and couldn't wait to open it. He was so tickled and will write you tomorrow. He didn't have time to finish tonight. He showed everyone in the building. Took it with him when we went for our shots tonight and showed the nurse. I also see I didn't tell you that we all decided that birthday money you sent to all of us should be spent on the new radio. It is such a pleasure to have it. Thank you for helping us to buy it.

    I imagine you have heard about the riots around here. There is no need to worry as we seem to be living in a quiet section. On either side are spots where trouble has occurred but not too bad. They have advised us not to go poking about late at night, but I doubt any of us would. One family came upon a knifing while wandering around the water front at night and since then the rest of us make sure we are not in such places!

    Saturday we rode the bus to the United Nations Building and took the guided tour. Our guide was from Korea and very nice. The tour included several of the conference rooms and ended up in the General Assembly Room. She told us all about it and at the end of her talk asked for questions. Milt asked her why they had carpet on the floors instead of tile. She told him so everything would be real quiet and peaceful. She seemed so tickled that he'd asked something. Then we went down to the bookstore and bought some more books to take along. They had some real good ones on Agriculture in East Africa with a large section on Kenya.

    Saturday evening the Svobodas and us went to Greenwich Village and had a fish dinner. We walked around a bit but didn't turn up anything exciting, just saw more people walking around. It rained so we came home rather wet, but it was still fun just to see all the different people. You just can't think of any item of clothing that would be out of place here, right from Rich's greasy dirty work clothes to your fanciest dress.

    Sunday we just laid around, worked on Swahili and rested. Then a couple from downstairs came up to play bridge and stayed until midnight. It wasn't too bad but I sure wish they wouldn't stay so long. They are the Mennonite, Rhienhimmers, who have been to Kenya and are going back. He must no be the religious one, but then she likes bridge too. Anyway he sort of has the attitude that there isn't much you can do over there, and you just can't exist unless you have some Europeans to play bridge and tennis with. I hope to prove he is wrong. But that's another thing that remains to be seen. In fact there are a lot of things I've heard about how things are in Africa that I shall just have to see for myself before I will believe them, or even pass them on as a possibility. For instance that African children don't have much imagination or care to be  individualistic as far as learning or creating things. I just can't believe that!

    Well I must stop. The bridge game is the reason this is late. I forgot to say that the U.N. building was just wonderful. It is so big and spacious and clean! It's the first place we've been with so many people and didn't feel smashed before we got through. It is more beautiful than any of the pictures can show. 

    Hope the hays is all finished and you got at least a little breathing spell before having to start the second crop. Seems hard to believe that August is here. I mailed a package to you today, Mom, so you can be looking for it. And I sent Gram a box of stationary. I hope it gets there in time.

            All for now...lots of love to you both.