46., 46.1 May 14 &17, 1968: Letters from Barb and Milton to Grandma and Grandpa Cochrane

46. May 14, 1968

Dear Mom and Dad, (Cochrane from Barb)

Got your letter today and I guess we don’t say enough about what goes on here. I mean with regard to the floods around. There are plenty of them, but none real close by, and only one minor one on the road to nairobi. There is a valley on the way to Nairobi that was flooded, but the road goes around it instead of through it. In fact, I think the guy who built the road between here and Nairobi did his best to see how far up and how far down he could go at every turn. It is an uncomfortable road to ride because the pavement is full of dips and bumps, similar to small frost heaves, but Frank says it is just poor road construction. And while there are many curves and uphill and downhill, it seems to be fairly easy to drive. 

Some of these African drivers are something else, but you don’t worry about that, you just drive with extra caution. On the way to see Diane last Saturday, we saw two wrecks. One, a bus was laying half way down an embankment on its side and a beer truck was off on the side of the road. No smash marks so we guess they must have dodged each other. Farther on down the road near the entrance to Kenyatta College there was a bad smash-up. A station wagon turned on its side with the back end smashed and the front end of the other car smashed in. The station wagon had slowed to turn right, and the other guy was coming 90 per (actually claimed that!) and slammed into him. It really seems like people don’t use much sense when driving. It’s a heck of a lot worse than at home. But our old car is big enough to be seen a long ways off, slow enough that we don’t worry about going too fast, and old enough that a scrape or two is nothing to worry about, so we will work our charms and figure we will come out all right.

We had a nice day with Diane. We went down on Saturday and stayed over, so we could do some shopping. Also it is nice not to have to drive both ways on one day. We took one of the tents that was in the sea freight and stayed in a backyard at Kenyatta College. We enjoyed sleeping out and the tent really is waterproof. We had a rain shower to test it! That will be nice on our next trip.

Frank already told you about bringing home the sea freight. It is extra nice to have the washing machine. The hired man is real proud of it and shows it off to everyone who comes by. He is pleased that the washing can be done so fast, and I’m pleased because it comes out cleaner than he could do it, and with half the wear and tear on the clothes.

Sorry to hear you feel so bad, Dad. Is this the same hip that was operated on? Byron told us about your hassle with the mower and the tractor. That sounds downright scary. I sure hope you take it easy and don’t try to mow down any more trees!

Looks like the spring there is a pretty cold dry one. Jim said he had already sprinkled the pasture. And my dad mentioned how dry it had been. I wish we could send you some of this rain. It is hard to believe your eyes, it comes down so hard, and then dries out so fast. Our corn looks lousy. It’s had just too much rain. But the row of African corn right next to it is twelve feet high, beautiful and green, with one ear per stalk. The American corn is three feet tall, brown and icky, with a half formed ear here and there. Frank is hoping that he succeeded in cross-pollinating the two kinds.

Amy and Milt have finished lesson 100 in their correspondence courses. They are a little behind the schedule at home because of the long Christmas and Spring vacation, but I figure that we can finish up by the time Frank’s term is ended in August. There will be another in-service institute, a continuation of the one we had between terms. Vicki is on lesson 36 of her eighth grade and doing pretty good. Kiva still gets out books and spends time coloring and looking at pictures. I haven’t pushed the reading. It seems too hard for her yet. But she can print every letter in the alphabet and knows most of them by name. The numbers are a little harder, but she tries.

I am working on a sweater for Vicki. It is knitted from the bottom up, and I have it finished to two inches above the arm holes. It is grey with a purple snowflake in it. It looks like it will fit right!

I guess that’s about it. We had stuffed peppers for supper tonight. Peppers are one thing no bug bothers. They have been real nice.

By now you are having some nice twilight evenings and even daylight past supper time. Here it is still dark at 7 pm and the sun is just coming up at 6:30 a.m. Hard to realize that the year is progressing when you don’t have the change in the length of days to remind you.

Bye for now. Love from all of us and I hope the warm weather will make you feel better, Dad. Barb

46.1 May 17, 1968

Dear Grandma and Grandpa, (Cochrane from Miton, written by hand, his penmanship lesson for the day!)

We are going to Nairobi tomorrow to bring Diane home. 

Vicki’s sunflowers and Dad’s morning glory are blooming.

It isn’t raining today, so I can ride the bike.

Love, Milton