37. March 19, 1968 Letter from Barbara to her parents. Meru

 37. March 19

Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barbara)

Last week we got to make another little trip. Pat McFadden, who is working here with the Curriculum Development Department in Nairobi, had some material and a lecture to give at Egoji (which is north toward Meru from here, and also is where the Rhienhiemers live. (They were down last weekend with a bunch of students for a game day.) 

Pat took Frank along to help present the material and she took us, the family, along for the ride. She had the school Land Rover to take her wherever she goes officially, and as this was an official journey, we all went in the Land Rover.It was the roughest trip we have ever made! It is dirt road all the way, sometimes graded and really in fair shape for a dirt road, but with enough bump holes and wash boards that it is a rough trip! It took us three hours to get to Egoji and the last twenty miles were extra bad, as it was a side road, up hill and down, with corners so sharp you had to crawl around them. There were big rocks sticking out of the road and ruts and washboards. 

When it rains there that road is impassable even to a Land Rover. The weather had been dry all week, so all we got was dried out ruts. At least mud is soft! Sometimes the road was so rough that the jolts made your head ache. We were all thankful that we didn’t buy a Land Rover. They are rough riding, even when the road is smooth. 

We finally arrived at the Rhienhiemers around six o’clock. They have a real nice school. It is Catholic run by some Italian Fathers (one is the principal) and some American Sisters (one is the vice principal). They own about seventy acres of land around the college. They have several new classrooms going up and a new library just finished with twice the number of books we have. The whole place is really alive and bustling. Compared to it, this place is dead! We think the biggest reason is that it is still supported by the church. The church supported schools are the ones really growing in this country. They have enough above what the government supplies to go places. I think another thing that is pushing them along is the Father who is the principal. The Africans, no matter how good they are, just don’t have the kind of push the Italians or the Americans have. The British don’t seem to do much either. Probably because of past happenings. We came home real wishful, but convinced that nothing will change the attitude much.

We are progressing a little though. The wire has been strung all the way to Embu and part of the wires have been strung up to the houses. The wire to our house comes to the pole near the gateway, leaving only a small distance to the house. No one had ventured a guess recently as to when it will be turned on, but it looks like it should be “soon”.

Guess all I did was grip about the ride to Egoji. It is beautiful country up there. It’s much more hilly and greener, as they have had more rain lately than we’ve had. Mt. Kenya is much closer and looks entirely different. Also it is west of them and a little south, so we feel mixed up as far as knowing our directions. There are several rivers to cross and there was a boy along the road selling fish. As we went by he held up four that were at least two feet long. We had decided to go back at a more leisurely pace some day and try fishing.

Meru is a good-sized town with a lovely golf course, a teacher training college, and two other big secondary schools. It has several blocks of small shops, and we ate at the Pig and Whistle Hotel, an establishment left over from colonial days. It had very pretty grounds and the usual English type food. Can’t say I’m too impressed with English cooking. We had soup, fish (one small fillet), a meat mixture (who knows what it was but it tasted good), potatoes, and two other vegetables, jello and rice pudding, cheese and crackers, and coffee for nine shillings. That is really reasonable for a meal. It wouldn’t be a place you’d choose at home to eat, but was better than anything else around. We had stayed all night with the Rhienhiemers and then traveled to Meru as Pat had to deliver some things to the teacher’s college there. From Meru on around to Nyeri on around the mountain is another trip we’ll take. We’ll go around the mountain with a side trip to the Meru Game Park.

The P1 students finally arrived last Monday. These are the ones who have finished secondary school and passed their exams which they took last November. It takes this long to find out if they have passed. They will have three weeks’ school in this first term and yet it counts as a full term. It doesn’t matter, I guess, as they have at least two years more education than any of the other students.

Maybe you’d like to give some thought to coming over here for a visit. I’ve never mentioned it before, because I thought the effort would be too great. But lately, I’ve been hearing of other parents coming over and what great times they had and thought you ought to be invited. I would guess November and December would be the best time to come, as that is when the best weather is here. If you want more information, I’ll give it to you later. I think it would be a wonderful idea. But I also realize there are more problems than just deciding whether you could get used to the food and water.

The kids are all fine. Vicki had an infected insect bite but it is healing now and nothing to worry about. Milton’s upper tooth is showing through, and Diane wrote that her piano piece is almost ready for  the festival. Her term ends April 5 and she will have a three weeks’ holiday. (I’m hoping we can go back to Melindi but don’t know for sure yet.) Got to hurry so this can go out today. Love from us all, Barb