Letters From Africa

  48. May 21, 1968 Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barb) Got your letter and it is seven miles to Embu. Now, who wins the milkshake?! Yes, I did get Mrs. Hansen’s Christmas card and have mailed her a letter the same time as this one. I know I should have written sooner, but just didn’t do it. Wish I could send you some rain. What we have had in the last two hours would really fix you up good. We have fog or rain almost every morning until noon and some showers at night. Martin Luther King’s murder was in all the papers at the time. We listen to Voice of America, and so heard about it real quick. We get good news reports from them, also subscribe to Newsweek, so feel pretty well up on what’s happening. The newspapers here are something else We’ve been clipping some of the more interesting items. I feel bad the pictures weren’t as pretty as the slides but guess that’s just the way it is. We got a refund from Idaho on State Income Tax today, $40.00. It was a nice surprise, and the first ...

  47. May 20, 1968 Dear Mom and Dad (Line from Barb) Last Saturday we went to Nairobi and brought Diane home. Frank decided she wasn’t covering enough, especially in Science to  make her ready for the tenth grade at Madrid, and that on top of everything, moving so slow in class that she had to be first in the class and keep up two correspondence courses, one in Algebra. So she’s home to finish the correspondence course we brought, plus an extra course in Earth Science that Frank is teaching her. We are all real glad! Especially Vicki! I don’t think they have stopped talking since we got home! I suppose it will be just as bad when they go off to Madrid next fall, but at least we are all together now. Lately it seemed every time we wanted to go somewhere we felt we couldn’t because Diane wasn’t along. And when we did go somewhere it was always to Nairobi and to see Diane. Now we are thinking of some one-day weekend trips around here to see the country in some other directions be...

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...

  45. May 13, 1968 Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barb) Well, I’m pretty late with my Mother’s Day greeting. I hope the pictures got there and since someone (Me) forgot to put a note in them, that they will convey the greeting. Seems like our forgetters have been working over time! We even neglected to get a letter to Frank’s dad on his birthday. Looks like I’m doing a good job of putting off myself. It is Tuesday now. About the time I got as far as I did, Milt woke up with a headache, and Ellias arrived to go to work. So after putting the sick back to bed, feeding all breakfast, and issuing the orders for work for the day, I started back to the typewriter. No luck. Milkman arrived, Amy started her lessons, and Ellias had to have a refresher course on how to run the washer. (It’s finally here!) Then I pasteurized the milk, put the dishes to soak, got a cold cloth for Milt’s head, explained to one of the workmen that there is no medicine left (at the dispensary), and comforted Kiva, w...

  44. May 11 Dear Folks, (Cochrane from Frank) Another week has passed. The time seems to be really rolling on. Monday we started classes again and this time we are in session until August 5 or so, with a mid term break sometime. Diane has her first exit tomorrow, so we are going down today to spend the night and pick her up in the morning. These exits are a real drag. She can’t get out until 10 Sunday morning and she has to be back at 6:30 pm, so we have to drive home after that time. We intend to take her out of here tomorrow if she wants to. The school isn’t that good, and if the promotion she got didn’t improve things, then we are through with it. That is if she wants to. When you read White Fang for literature in the tenth grade, there is something wrong. And only two periods of science a week … she can do much better working on her own. Enough of that! I was sorry to hear that all of us let you down so badly on your birthday, Dad. It was pure neglect on our part that we didn...