38. March 25, 1968 Barbara's letter to her parents, Line

 38. March 25

Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barb)

We took off for Nairobi from here around noon on Friday in order to get some business done that couldn’t be done Saturday morning. Seems like almost all the offices close up on Saturday.

We stayed with Mr. Bevan. He seemed glad to have us or at least made us think so. We had fish for supper and his house man asked me to help him get the meal. I think he was making good use of me, although at the time, I thought it was because I had brought part of the groceries, and he was in doubt of how he would fix things the way I wanted them! Anyway, I got even the next night. We stayed in town shopping late and when we got back, the meal was ready to eat. Roast fresh pork, no less! The first we’ve had since we came to Africa! It was delicious! Sunday was the man’s day off so we did without him! It is still hard to get used to having “help” like that around all the time!

Saturday we did a lot of shopping and tried to hunt up some art galleries to visit, but all of them were closed. We had lasagna at an Italian restaurant for lunch. It was excellent. It was obvious they had never heard of English cooking! It was a huge plate full for eight shillings.

Saturday night Mr. Bevan took Frank and me to a play. There is a theater in Nairobi where the plays are given by professionals and you buy a membership like community concerts. It was a very strange play. I still can’t decide whether I liked it or not, but the fun of going was nice. It is a nice new theater and seats about 250. All of the ladies were dressed very fancy. I was glad I had finished my brown and gold cotton brocade dress and had taken it along. It is one of the pieces Frank gave me for Christmas. Vicki stayed with the little kids. As the play started at 6 p.m. we were home by going to bed time, so they didn’t feel quite so “left”. 

Sunday we picked up Diane and toured the game park. It was a very nice trip although we didn’t see very many animals. We got to see a lot of giraffes, some extra pretty ones. A big rainstorm came up about half way through the morning and that was a sight in itself. It left the landscape all green and refreshed. 

Diane is feeling pretty good. She had won her Bronze medal in survival swimming. It was quite a test. Jump in the pool with p.j.’s on, swim two lengths of the pool, tread water three minutes, take off the p.j.’s, swim fourteen lengths, do a duck dive, and swim five yards under water, then climb out of the pool unassisted! It sounds like quite an accomplishment! She is also taking diving coaching and seems well pleased with the progress she’s making. The guitar lessons petered out. The guy didn’t show up half the time and the other half didn’t do much. He didn’t charge anything and invited them all to take from him at the conservatory next term. I wonder if it will be different then? She has enjoyed just playing anyway.

Only two weeks left for her. Frank has left it up to her if she will go back. He told her to weigh the good and the bad and decide which it will be. I was glad. I think she is the only one who can really tell which it should be.

We left there at 6:30 and started home after telling Mr. Bevan good-bye. We had a couple of showers while there but none on the way home. However the road was slick the last two miles and really slick. When we started to climb the hill up to the college. The last quarter mile from the St. Mark’s sign to the dining hall was challenging. The next morning we heard that they had a regular cloudburst on Saturday and another heavy shower Sunday around 2 p.m. If we had tried to come home any earlier, we wouldn’t have made it! Today we had another heavy shower around noon, so I guess the long rains have started.  I’ve been saying that for so long, I really wonder!

This morning Mr Kiriro, (the Principal) left for Moscow, Russia. He is going as a special student counselor or some such thing. He will be visiting all the African students who are in Russia. It sounded very interesting and seemed funny that we hadn’t heard a word about the trip, but I guess it isn’t really a surprise either. I’ve discovered you have to be the right color here, or you don’t rate special anything! We have laughed a lot about it, but there are times when it isn’t funny. Not that we have suffered very much. It’s just little things like being charged for extra electrical plugs installed in the house when the Africans get them free. And we always have to wait long past our turn for the lawnmower. That’s why we finally bought our own push mower. We were not allowed to use the workmen to build us a roof over our doorstep, but the neighbor can have them paint his whole house. It may be all right, but it is sure exasperating! But that’s enough of that! Like Frank says, “If they don’t like what I say let them export me. There are days when I’d welcome it!” (However the word should be DEport!)

I am knitting Vicki a sweater, medium grey with a purple Norwegian snowflake pattern around the yoke. Vicki chose the colors. It is progressing slowly.

The latest word is that we will be on the mains by the end of the week! That is all the houses connected with the college. It will be about three weeks before the classrooms are on the mains, because the rewiring job is much more extensive. I would suppose they haven’t found enough time during regular working hours (from 8 to 4) when the classrooms aren’t in use to do the work. Anyway, we will have it and that’s what matters!

Got your letter from the 17th and one from Frank’s folks both today. They had the same storm you did. It must have been a humdinger! Glad to hear that the calves are doing so well.

I think the slow boat to China couldn’t be any slower, Dad. The letters amaze me more than the packages. We got one yesterday posted in Chicago, January 10th!

Yesterday our little shower amounted to 4.25 inches in about an hour. It started right after we finished hanging out the wash!

Love from us all, Barb