36., 36.1 March 11, March 17, 1968 from Barb to her folks and Diane to grandparents Line

 36. March 11

Dear Mom and Dad (Line from Barb)

Guess by now you have received the letter with the check inside. We received a package from Byron’s family mailed on the 12th of November. It was some raffia like stuff and a little plastic loom to make flowers. It cost them five dollars to buy it, one dollar to mail it, and us, nine shillings for duty. It has been a lot of fun to work with. We’ve even made flowers out of grass.

No power yet. We have all our new plugs in and the poles are in the ground from bringing the wire to the house. On the way to Embu they have cut down three huge trees. They must have been one hundred and fifty feet tall and about three feet in diameter. It seemed like awfully big trees to cut by hand, but they did! Last trip I made to Embu some of the local people, mostly women, were hacking off limbs and carrying them away. I don’t know what they will do with the trunk. Probably some woman will chop off a piece and carry it away on her back. There were some women here in the pasture by us, gathering wood today. One was chopping up a log about 18 inches in diameter. She cut it into two pieces, each about five feet long, while the other woman stood by and held the two babies. Then they each tied a sisal strap on a piece, and lifted it onto their back with the strap going from the log around the forehead and back to the log. Then each tied a baby on in front and off they went. They can carry very heavy loads in this manner. 

Our garden is still growing good. The squash vines had to be treated for blight, and this morning I discovered a little cucumber. There are thousands of pests around just waiting to pounce on the young plants. The variety of ants is unbelievable. There are some with huge heads and jaws nearly three quarters of an inch long, but they don’t bite half as hard as one little tiny one. He is really savage and bites so hard it makes you jump! They seem to be especially bad right after a rain. They travel in long columns across the grass. Frank’s been spraying with chlordane and it slows them down a bit.

We have bought a big drum covered with zebra skin. It is our most extravagant souvenir so far. It is about three feet in diameter on top and slopes to about two feet on the bottom and sits on three legs. It’s about coffee table height, and that is what we use it for. It is a good drum too. It has a great sound and room for several players!

The new wind-rower sounds wonderful. Is it a John Deere? I can imagine how you feel about the $$$$ it cost, but think of the pleasure in getting the job done better and quicker. That’s about the only way you can ease the pinch I guess. Frank says one thing these people cannot even imagine is how much effort as well as money must go into an operation to make it a paying thing. They are satisfied to just exist. He is teaching Agriculture to everyone in the college this term. He’s trying to teach them enough, so that they can teach their students how to farm profitably. Many of them won’t go any higher than grade seven. That is a pretty large order, and Frank had figured that he has about fifty hours class time in the two years. They will be with him to do what would be a four year course in the States.

It is such a big order for such a small amount of time, that it is a problem to know where to begin. He is really enthused about the Science class though. He has only one this term, all the rest are Agriculture. He started out with Astronomy and the students are really enthused about it. Last term some of them had the attitude at first that they knew everything, but this term they are really interested in hearing what he has to say and in learning what they can. I think they discovered that Frank has a lot more to offer than they knew existed.

You asked about the sea freight. It is an extra shipment we had Jim pack up and send to us. We still had some space left from the original amount allotted to us, so TEEA pays the bill. It includes the washing machine (the old wringer one we used in the barn), some new jeans for everyone,  the ice cream freezer, some more books, and Amy’s Teddy Bear. We are really looking forward to getting it. We do have a man to do the washing, but I think even he will like having a machine to wash in!

The new man is named Ellis. Francis was “let go” right before Christmas. This man was working for Miss Williams, and she only wanted him two days a week, so he comes here the other three days. He is extra good and nice to have around. He does ever so many things that he isn’t asked to do, and he makes the garden and yard look twice as nice as Francis did. He has his own house and garden in Embu and rides up on his bicycle every day. Yesterday he brought some sweet potatoes. Sometimes he will take money for his produce and sometimes he gives it to us. He’s teaching the children some Swahili. He does that while he’s sweeping and they are in the house. They think it is great fun. Most of it they know, but it is more fun with him. He and Frank like each other too. All this and he works for five shillings less than Francis did, and a lot more cheerfully too!

All your milk sounds good! We are doing better now. We get four pints a day. We’ll have to do some research on the water table question, and the well too. I think there are some. There are some near Nairobi, two of them in pineapple fields, one in a coffee field, and one in a field of onions. They each are no more than quarter mile runs and use smaller sprinkler heads than we did. They do all their pumping from the river. I’ll see if I can find out more to tell you.

Mom, your painting sounds like fun. I had hoped to do some of that here, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Right now I am starting a sweater for Vicki. She has outgrown the green one you made for her. This one is to be grey with a black snowflake.

No more money from Shell. We are still trying to match halves, but Frank has a theory that they haven’t printed the other half to the halves we have!

You asked about Vicki’s school books. She has finished the seventh grade and is starting the eighth So much of the seventh was repeat, that we let her skim through just as fast as she could. The math was old style, so Frank and I made lessons for her using modern math.

I haven’t received any more money for teaching, so guess the 735 shillings is it. I haven’t asked, as I did not want to hear that it was all. It is enough I guess.

Well, for once, I sat down with your letter and tried to answer all your questions. For some reason it is good not to have much news from here! I think we are all missing the Spring weather. It is funny to think you’d get tired of eternal summer or something similar, but you really do. There is a bit of change in the position of the sun, for instance on the nineteenth of March, it will be directly overhead around 12:30 p.m. and cast no shadow at all. It happened last September, but we weren’t aware of it then. There is a sameness to every day because they are all the same length. Guess I’m hard to please! Love, Barb

36.1 March 17

Dear Grandma and Grandpa (Line from Diane)

How’s everything going? Has Spring sprung yet? I really miss having the change of seasons. I don’t know why I just miss it. Maybe I’m just born to be a Northerner. Of course the non changing seasons do have their advantages. This is the first year I’ve ever been swimming in March. I’m taking diving coaching. It’s a lot of fun and it gets me out of two more useless preps.

Today was one of the most, the best Sundays of the term. It was warm, sunny, bright, just like a summer day. It was wonderful. We went sunbathing and swimming and just had a down right good time. It is such a contrast to last Sunday, which was the worst Sunday since I’ve been here. I really don't want today to end. When I think of Monday and what we’ll do, I really dread it.  Not that the work is hard, it’s easy and boring. That’s why I dread Monday. But enough of that. I don’t want to ruin a perfectly good Sunday by talking about Monday.

I got my second merit mark. It was for getting 50 out of 50 on my geography test. The test was over Canada so that made it easy. But a merit mark is a merit mark, even if you don’t have to work for it!

Vicki sent me a whole box of gingerbread men. They are a very positive link with home. I only wish that I could have helped bake them.

We have only three more weeks in this term and boy will I be glad to go home and become one of the family again! One minute I say something like that, and the next minute I say I want to go to Spain. I guess I really don’t know what I want. Oh Well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Hope everything is alright around there. I’ll bet everyone is having a ball with the new wind-rower. Goodbye for now. Love, Diane