13. October 15, 1967

 13. October 15 

Dear Mom and Dad, (Barb to her folks)

Got your letter from Saratoga. You must have had a real nice trip. It was good to hear all about it. Glad Ted’s baby is finally here and what a surprise at the name. That’s real ice. (*His baby was named after Mother’s brother Jody) Evidently things went okay or you would have said so. I imagine you enjoyed the company of the people from Salt Lake too.

We got back a bunch of pictures the other day. Some we had taken while at Helen’s at Fishkill. They are pretty good. There were also some good animal ones taken at the Nairobi Game Park. After we have looked at them for a while we may send them on although I sort of hate to trust them in the mail.

Tomorrow teaching begins. They put up the schedule yesterday and I have seven classes of Domestic Science, two each on Monday and Thursday and one each the rest of the days. Each class is two periods or one hour and 10 minutes long. I still don’t have the slightest idea how many students in each class, but neither does Frank in his Science classes. We have classes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then have mid term break Thursday and Friday. Friday is Kenyatta Day, a sort of Fourth of July with a big celebration. I’m glad, it’s gentle breaking in.

We are going to Nairobi during break. The car needs some more work, probably valves this time. Frank swears up and down that once we get back home he’s going to have a good car!

I get real tickled. Whenever anyone gets homesick these days he says, “When we get back home I’m going to…” and then names off something that we can’t do here, like load up on ice cream or some such thing. Frank’s been reading Around the World by Freighter book figuring out how we can take the most interesting way home, That’s what he does when he wishes he hadn’t come. Me, I think next to the people, I miss the washing machine the most. Francis does as good as he can, but he isn’t half as efficient as the machine, and is twice as hard on the clothes!

I managed to make a cake that didn’t fall for Frank’s birthday, Think I have finally figured out how to use that oven. Then we had nothing but coarse sugar for frosting, so I tried grinding some of it for powdered sugar. Think it will work but it takes too long to make enough, so I made some boiled icing that was pretty good.  For breakfast Diane stuck a candle in a hotcake so think he felt properly celebrated. The kids each made a card and they were real cute. We intend to shop for a present in Nairobi. 

He’s really been happy...one of the women teachers had to have some new pipes put in her house because the hot water wasn’t running where it was supposed to, so he went over to see what was happening and figured out a way to save the school five feet of pipe and get the job done better too. So the Bursar was very happy and said he’d call on Frank to solve his piping problems after this! And he’s built a fancy little book shelf and bulletin board with some pigeon holes in it to put on the wall back of our desk. The principal came by and gave him compliments on it. That was right before he asked Frank if he would take a couple of arts and crafts classes, which pleased Frank too. Now if he can get them to be a little more organized in what goes on, he’ll really feel like he’s accomplished something. And I’ll bet he’ll get the job done!

Kiva, Amy, and I walked up to Manyatta Saturday. We were out of sugar and so decided to try the market there. There was no one in the square this time, but there were a lot of small shops around, so we walked around and looking in at all of them. They are all open clear across the front. I found sugar just the same price as in Embu and a lot cleaner looking. He scooped it out of a two hundred pound bag and sealed it up in a brown paper bag. He had a soda pop, the daily paper, soap, cocoa, jam in cans, and a big jar of cellophane wrapped candies. He gave each of the kids two pieces and talked to them in Swahili and English He was real pleased when they would talk to him. All of the stores there seemed to have a good variety, even in yard goods. It was always surprising to find such things, but I guess when people have to walk everywhere, things have to be more available. There is a good hotel there, and two bars and a restaurant. One of the bars had rinky dink music coming out of it. It was pleasing to hear.

We met several of the students on the way up and now they all say, “Good morning Mrs. Cochrane.” It is nice to know they are beginning to feel at ease enough to speak. I guess the dispensary job has helped, and I’m beginning to feel better about that too. Most of my patients have recovered and the others the doctor at Embu has helped. Today Frank mended a girl’s glasses and I had to put a boy to bed who came stumbling down to the house after supper with a bad headache and stomach ache. Now that was last night and today he’s much better. There was also a case of Malaria, a reoccurrence, that I managed to treat successfully, so I think I can make the grade now I really had my doubts there for  a while.

Last night the students had a big dance. They decorated the dining hall and the Kenya Police Band came to play in black suits and ties. The kids and I went up and watched from the lawn outside. It was real interesting. The band was playing “Around the World in Eighty Days” when we went up and boy, was the trumpet player flat! But as the evening wore on, he did better. We could hear them inside the house very easily. They danced until 1:30 am. That’s the latest the lights have been on since we’ve been here. Guess they really had a good time as breakfast was about an hour late this morning.

Our garden is really coming along. The potatoes are up about four inches, carrots and onions up about two inches, and beans and peas around three inches. The corn doesn’t show yet but has only been in about four days. I think it will be possible to plant one garden after another, except maybe in July when it is pretty cold. Oops, the lights are going. That’s what you call making things come out even.

Love, Barb