January 13, 1938 - Aba

Aba, CB

January 13, 1938

Dear family in St. Louis,

I want to send a note of special greetings for the New Year and many many thanks to you all for the lovely Christmas parcel. Your gifts were all so nice, and your parcel each year always reveals to us so much thought and love tucked into it in so many ways. It is the later that means so much to us. We do increasingly value your love and prayers.

The days have been madly busy for so long and since this is our worst season we are feeling very weary. We have been racing time for the hospital is full of sick folks and a large dispensary daily, as well as a number of white patients make it seem well-nigh impossible for us to get away to conference day after tomorrow. However today I withdrew from the rush and have gathered together our clothes and have done all sorts of other things just in case we can go and get out of this heat for a week.

[Personal portions redacted.]

This vacation we have had some lovely times together in spite of the rush all around. They (1) have learned to sew on the machine and we have made some doll clothes and they have done a lot on their own. The other day they helped me make a cake which was a great thrill for us all.

There were tears today because the precious kittens were playing and jumped up on the window sill and overturned their toy tea set. They broke almost the entire set, which Ruth Stam had just given them for Christmas.

Such excitement came the other day when Ralph came back from the Poste with a big turkey gobbler in the car. I sent Amati, one of our boys, to bring it and he was hailed as a hero for not being afraid of it. The boys had no end of things to say about this bird. When I told the cook to kill it for us he said “Won’t it fight me? I am afraid of it!” Later he told me its neck was very hard to cut because it had all those bumps on it.

All around us now they are burning large stretches of grassland. The fires look so pretty at night. However the soot from them makes the atmosphere very heavy and depressing and our house very dirty.

It is already late and so I will close here. This is not much of a letter but it comes to you with lots of love from us all.

Lovingly,

Coralee and Co.

Esther and Edith with their dolls, about 1936

Excerpt from letter written by Esther (age 8)

Aba, CB

January 13, 1938

Dear family in St. Louis,

The night before last this hill was burnt. I mean just the grass was burnt. It was a very pretty sight. 

Thank you very much for the lovely bubble pipes. They make very pretty bubbles.

Mother said that the cats got up on the window and pushed down our nice dishes. They broke all except five dishes, the meat plate and two cups. Ruth Stam gave them to us for Christmas.

One day we went over to Ruth Stam’s house. While we were there we told a native to take down a sausage from the tree. After he had gotten it down Edith made a face on it and we stuck a stick right through it for its arms. Then we gave it a bath and dressed it. We still have it.

With much love,

Esther

Footnotes

1. Daughters Edith and Esther