51, 51.1 June 9, 1968: Letters from Barbara and Frank to their parents

 51. June 9, 1968

Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barb)

We heard on the radio about Robert Kennedy’s assassination a few hours after it happened, and the papers were full of it. It is hard to believe it really happened.

I have finally finished Vicki’s sweater, and it looks good and fits! Now I’m going to put together the one I finished knitting two years ago for Diane. I can’t think why I brought it. It must have been one of those days packing when I was throwing in everything I ran across.

This week has been the unusual nightly rain storms with one or two exceptions. Yesterday was one. It rained all afternoon instead! Last Monday Diane and I took off for Nairobi to get the wheels aligned on the car and get the flat tire fixed. I wrote about the trip around the mountain last week, and the next morning the rear tire on the bus was flat. I was glad it didn't happen on the way home.

We left home Monday afternoon because we could see a storm coming and the appointment for the car as 8 in the morning on Tuesday. We got to Nairobi and stayed with Dr. Bevan. We played Scrabble that evening and Diane got 78 points for playing the word “quays” on a triple word spot with the Q on a double letter! Needless to say she won that game! It was a real luxury staying there this time, because I stayed out of the kitchen and let his house man do everything. He even brought us tea in the morning! 

When I went back to the garage at about noon to pick up the car, expecting it to be finished and ready to go, the mechanic had discovered that the reason it was hard to shift into second gear was something worn in the clutch; slave cylinder or something, and he said he had ordered parts and that they were on the way, and the car would be ready at 4:30. I hated to wait that long to start home, thinking about this last seven miles, but felt there was nothing to do but have it fixed. So we did all the shopping and walked miles hauling the stuff to the car in order to be ready to whiz out and head home the minute the car was ready. I went back to get the car at 4:15 leaving Diane with a load of stuff at the supermarket. It was just too far to carry it all the way to the garage and the car. Finally at 5:30 I managed to get back to pick her up. It took all that time for them to finish up and write up the bill and take my money. It is most exasperating. It takes hours for a part to come from the other side of town and to write it down, in triplicate, what has been done, and what it costs, and more hours for the man to ring up your payment and write out another receipt in triplicate. I finally decided the sky looked so bad over this way, that I called the principal and told him to tell Frank I could not be home until morning. He said it was ready to rain, and when I got home, I found it had just poured. Also Frank wanted me to look for tires, and I hadn’t made any progress on that. So we loaded up our things from the supermarket and headed out to Kenyatta College. I figured Mr. Sentman could tell me about the tires he had bought, and so I could be a better judge of what to get. 

We stayed that night with them and were back in town the next morning at 9 to hunt the tires. The tire man asked for two hours to find the kind I wanted at the price I would pay, and when I went back, he had them spotted. You guessed it...on the other side of town and they would be right over. Then I made a mistake. I should have lit out for home. But no, I took him at his word, and three and a half weary hours later, we were pulling out of the garage. That was only for two tires. I don’t know how long we would have been there for four tires! For the pair I paid 413 shillings, which included a discount of 137, and the tubes cost 33 shillings each. That was for six ply nylon road tread size 670-15. That was the same deal as Mr. Sentman got. Only time will tell if we deal with that man again. We got back here with no trouble around 4 o’clock, and were glad to be here when it started raining around 6:30. I don’t know when we have spent a more exhausting trip.

This weekend the Rhiemheimers stopped over Friday night on their way to Nairobi. Their new baby is three weeks old and a nice quiet baby. Then they stopped by on their way back today looking much like we felt after our trip! I guess the trouble with all of us is we try to do too much each trip. And the reason for that is to delay the next trip!

We are busy remodeling the seats in the bus. They are along the sides of the back so that you ride along sideways, and if Frank stopped suddenly it is hard for the little kids to keep from falling. So now, Frank has rebuilt the frames with two seats going crosswise, one with its back against the front seat and the other facing forward. (They face each other.) Each seat is sitting on a box with the seat for the lid, so there is a nice storage space. There is room between the two seats for the table to set up for eating and lower level with the seats for a bed. Add the cushions from the backs of the seats and it makes a 5’x6’ bed. We bought four inch foam rubber to put on the seats and dark red vinyl to cover them. It will improve the riding comfort 100%! It seems that a little comfort is necessary when most of our riding  is over rough roads.

I have made some new shorts and shirts. Amy’s are finished and the rest are cut out. Also a new dress for Kiva and two shirts for Milt. We have reached the point where a lot of our things are giving up the ghost.

Sounds like you are finally getting some of that rain I’ve been pushing your way.

Mom, the tie dye is cotton and 20 shillings a yard, but I’m going to bring some home anyway.

One of the fun things we did when we were in Nairobi was spend the $50 that Aunt Ruth sent to buy her souvenirs. We sent a drum with a Zebra skin head, three carvings, and a painting made from banana bark. I hope she likes them. The shop was to mail them and I hope they don’t goof.

I’ve got to iron so Frank will have a shirt to wear tomorrow, so good-bye for now. Love, Barb

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51.1 June 10, 1968

Dear Folks, (Cochrane from Frank)

It sure seems that the U.S. has its share of tragedies. We could hardly believe that another Kennedy had been shot. We got quite a lot of badgering around here about how terrible the society in the U.S. is, and some of this was from Peace Corp people. I couldn’t go along with their one track condemnation, but they wouldn’t listen to reason. All the Africans and British think it is terrible to have no gun control laws as they do here. They can’t imagine anyone who wants to own a gun having one. They may be right, but guns don’t make or break morals. One thing about this. They all like to run the United States down, but I couldn’t help wondering how many other countries have personalities that would stir so much international comment. 

From what we could hear by radio and newspapers here, every country in Africa, most of the countries of the Mid East and East all made comments. Most of the comments were praise as I guess it should be expected. The official Tanzania newspaper did nothing but condemn the U.S. for their policies that allow people to be killed. Lots of comments were made to the effect that “so that is the way that so-called Great Society acts.” It makes me mad, but I keep my mouth shut most of the time. I won’t honor their stupid remarks with an answer. This of course is in reference to the local yokels around here. Most of them are not anti-American, just a few.

I guess that is enough of that. Things have just been the same old routine around here. We started to work on some new seats for the car to make it more comfortable riding and camping. I kind of wonder if it is worth the effort, but it will be more comfortable.

Our weather doesn’t seem to improve much. I guess we are too high on the mountain. A family that is stationed up near Meru stopped by Friday night on their way to Nairobi. They said that they hadn’t had any rain for the last two weeks. We have it almost every day and fog every morning. It’s kind of depressing. It would be so nice to wake up in the morning with the sun shining.

I mentioned that we had been trying to arrange a trip to the Samburu Game Reserve, just north of Meru, in what they call the Northern Frontier. They are just not letting anyone go up there because of the Shifta. These are Somali tribesmen that have been more or less at war with Kenya for a number of years. Last November there was supposed to be a truce. It must be the urge to go somewhere you aren’t supposed to that makes going there interesting.

Milton got your letter today and was he tickled! We read it at supper, and he commented that he would have to write you a letter for his school work tomorrow. Now I don’t know if he is trying to get out of some school work or not, but I would guess that since writing seems to be one of the harder subjects that he really wanted to write. Tomorrow will tell the tale!

Say, I thought you would get a place for a vacation home that had less to do than your place at home. Pretty long trip to mow the lawn! We got a graduation announcement from Shirley and sent her some money. What are her plans for next year? Guess I had better write Patsy and find out. This isn’t much of a letter but will send it anyway. Love, Frank