The Beginning

The following is an introduction that Barbara wrote to this collection of letters that Barbara penned in 1988-89. 

Greener Pastures. That connotation must have mutated into our genes by the thirteenth year of teaching. We had moved so many times in Frank's teaching career, always with the hope that we could find that "ideal job", that it seemed a natural fit, when our friend and colleague, Kim Kimberling, discovered an advertisement in the NEA Journal for tutors to train teachers in East Africa. Frank was feeling the potential stagnation of teaching several years in the same junior high school in Boise, Idaho. He really began to worry that things were going too smoothly; that he might be taken for granted, and as such might be staring at the same four walls, in the same classroom when he reached the age of fifty five.

We had been farming since 1959 when we moved on to the family farm from a teaching job in California, in hopes that we could make a thriving enterprise out of a sow and pig operation. We had given ourselves ten years to make it work, and here we were, seven and a half years into the project and we were a long ways from our goal. In fact if it were not for salary, from the teaching job, subsidizing the farm, we would no be making it. On top of the farm financial situation, Frank had developed a painful ulcer under the combined pressure of school and the farm. It was time to bail out and try something else, and as always, we wondered what real options were available.

Farm life, in our minds, was a great place to raise children. It afforded the opportunity for each of the five to be a responsible part of the family, to help enhance the building personalities that are responsible, creative, observant, self reliant, and compassionate. We had to wonder how long we could afford such luxuries. On top of that there were some drawbacks; provincialism, backwardness, naivety, etc. Fortunately children are resilient.

That year I would be thirty five and Frank thirty six. Of the five children, Diane was the oldest, age fourteen. She had just completed the 7th grade at Hillside Jr. High School in Boise where Frank was teaching. Vicki, age twelve, had completed grade six at Middleton Elementary School, Amy, age eight, and Milton, age six, had completed grade two and grade one at Middleton Elementary, Kiva, age three, was still at home and helped me with the house and farm chores while everyone else was away at school. We were living a stable and safe life with a minimum of excitement, just a good steady situation. 

This was reinforced by the fact that there were several relatives in the surrounding neighborhoods. Frank's folks lived on forty acres about two and a half miles west of us; his younger brother Jim and his oldest sister Patsy lived in Meridian and Boise respectively. His older brother Byron was living in McCall, about one hundred miles north and Lucia Clair, his second sister, lived back east. 

The extended family was fairly close knit, and we got together often, generally over a big family meal.  My parents lived on the family farm three hundred miles to the east near Aberdeen, Idaho. My middle brother Richard lived there also and was acting manager of the family corporate farm. My youngest brother Bill was in Portland, Oregon, and Ted, the second oldest brother lived in Utah. Because of distance we did not see them as often, however we were close to all of them.

The closeness of the family structure made the choice of such a drastic change, a move halfway around the world, a very serious decision. Against this background, the advertisement (seen on the next entry) inspired us into action that culminated in an exciting two years of service in East Africa, a dream come true for this naive Idaho farm family!