Aba - October 9, 1940

The war affects the mail, the girls get new swimsuits, and twins make a delayed entry into the world. 

Aba

October 9, 1940

Dear folks,

It has been so long since any letters arrived that we have forgotten the date of the last one – it’s at least several months. But we still have hope that a lot of letters will turn up somehow one of these days. And one big event that has served to stir up our hopes is the arrival day before yesterday of the parcels you sent! More of them later. We are still enjoying the thrill of realizing that it is possible for parcels to reach us, and if parcels certainly letters should arrive eventually too. Mail routing has changed and that partly explains the long time necessary for mails to come. For the present it would be better not to address mail of any kind via Egypt as that route is probably completely closed at least as far as American mail is concerned.[1] There are several other routes available and it would be interesting to try to see which proves the quickest.  Our address would be the same as before, i.e. c/o A.I.M., Aba, Congo Belge, but in one case the words “via Matadi” should be added; and in another case “via Mombasa, British East Africa”. Then there are two Air-Mail routes available. The first is by American Transatlantic Clipper by way of New York, Durban, and Juba. Another way, and the one by which this letter will be sent is by way of the Pacific. As addressed from your end it would be: “… c/o A.I.M., Aba, Congo Belge, by Transpacific Clipper via Hong Kong, Manila, Entebbe and Irumu.” I rather think the transatlantic route is quicker and it is cheaper, but we are going to try the Pacific Route this time anyway. Another thing – parcels sent “via Egypt” require more postage in America, and if they would really go that way the total mailing charges would be less by the time they reach us here as there is additional transport charge to pay for all interior transport in the Congo, but in the case of Aba there is no such charge on parcels coming through Egypt and the Sudan as Aba is on the Sudan border practically. When parcels are sent via Matadi the original mailing charge in America is less but the additional charges on this end are very high as they cover the distance from Matadi to Aba, all in the Congo, a matter of several thousand miles, so that the total cost by the time they reach here is higher. Of course now via Matadi is probably the best way for parcels, but the point is that if they go via Matadi anyway there is no use marking them via Egypt and then paying the extra high postage for that route.

Now for your parcels. They produced the climax at the end of a perfect day, a day that brought us relief from a long period of strain and tension due to a native case at the hospital. For last Saturday I was called very early in the morning by Akulu, a native workman on the station who for years has been a great help to all of us as an auto mechanic doing much of the routine upkeep work on our cars as well as giving help in actual repair work. He said he had just brought his wife to the hospital as she had been in labor since the day before without making any progress. Examination revealed that there were to be twins, and one of them appeared to be in poor condition so that we began to make preparations for operative delivery if necessary. However we watched things closely and the first baby was born spontaneously in the evening. But the second baby failed to arrive soon after as is ordinarily expected, and finally labor stopped altogether. The circumstances were such that any kind of operative delivery would have been very dangerous for the mother, and as she and second child appeared in good condition we decided to wait. The waiting time, however, proved very long and we had nearly reached the point of despair for both mother and child, when, almost suddenly, the second child was born and in perfect condition, 45 hours later than his sister!

Such a case is nothing to be proud of and so long a delay would not have been permitted at home[2], but the conditions and circumstances here in this particular case made waiting even so long the only justifiable procedure. Best of all it was all clearly answer to prayer, and so the more glorifying to the Lord and the more blessing to all of us. The twins are now two and four days old and they and the mother are getting along very well. Today the old grandmother arrived, having walked a hundred miles and having no doubt expected to find her daughter dead.

Well, all this is still just leading up to your parcels. I got home a little while before Coralee, and found on the table some local letters and among them the most lovely ones from Edith and Esther whom we had taken back to Rethi just a few days before.  Then in the next room I found piled on the table all three of the parcels from you! It was just like Christmas and you can be sure it was a happy evening we spent together opening them.

First of all Coralee wants to say that she is very highly pleased with her dresses. They certainly are pretty and will be most useful to her. The shoes for the girls too are just right and I know they will appreciate them a lot. The hat for me is swell and fits perfectly. It will go well with my grey flannel trousers and light grey sweater, as well as with the grey suit. And I wish you could know how welcome the shirts are. I had almost no decent shirts left and so these have come just in time. Please pass on my warmest thanks for them and for the pretty pillow cases and the Chinese Checkers. We played last night and Coralee wants me to especially tell you that she beat me – though just why that should be such a feat I don’t know. You will probably never realize what a joy such things as the tacks, the waxed paper, and the real American candy bring to us.

The girls have not yet seen their swimming suits but it needs little imagination to see how tickled they will be with them. Coralee has just finished embroidering a yellow duck on Esther’s. We saw them in swimming in Rethi a few days ago and can testify that they have thoroughly outgrown their other swimming suits. They can really swim now and are very pleased with themselves. The pond is a great boon to the kiddies at school. I paddled around in it myself that day and was surprised that I did not freeze nearly as much as I had expected. The water is cold but the sun is warm and that makes a good combination. I had to puff quite a little though what with the altitude of 7000 feet and me getting “aged in the middle”. 

My mother's caption on the back of the photograph:  At Victor's Pond, near Rethy. Coffee plantation. Victor had dammed the local stream for his plantation and allowed Rethy Academy to bring kids to swim. Very cold. Mud at bottom. Front to back: Esther Kleinschmidt, Edie Kleinschmidt, Jacques Closset, Carl Becker Jr. Possibly taken 1943. 

To get back to the things you so kindly sent, once more our heartiest thanks to all of you for all you have done to get them out to us. We realize a little something of what is involved in the shopping, the packing, and the mailing, and we appreciate that as well as the fact that many of the things were gifts besides. But we do hope you have felt free to apply to the Mission office for the remainder and for the postage. Only so can we ever feel free to ask you to do shopping for us.

The occasion for our going to Rethi near the end of September was partly to take the children (ours and the Stams) back to school, and partly to see the doctor. Coralee was in need of a small operation and I felt it ought not to be done by her husband and so we asked Dr. Trout to do it. The stay in bed was only a few days and so she didn't get much rest out of it. But we did enjoy the few days with the children while they were attending school and over the weekend, as it helped us picture the various phases of their life there, the work and the play as well as the spiritual side of it. They are certainly well situated there and we are very happy about it all. An especially fine feature now is the fact that they, together with Ruth Stam and Mary Grimshaw who are now in the “older” group at school are living in what they call the “Annex”.  This is really Miss Brown’s [3] home which she has cleverly adapted for their use as a place to sleep and study. They still have their meals at the Dormitory with the other children, but Miss Brown’s place has been made a real home for them. Miss Brown herself is especially well adapted to give them this care because of her previous experience as well as her exceptionally fine quiet spiritual life. Our girls’ room is fixed up like a ship’s cabin with a double-decker bed, and appropriate pictures and decorations. The living room is light and cheery and has a nice big fireplace, an important feature at Rethi. The impressions of these years will mean real blessing for them throughout their lives.

There is little evidence of the war to be seen in these parts. Of course some conditions are changed, prices higher, longer delays in correspondence and in getting supplies from the homeland. Through certain difficulties about banking arrangements, and poor management at the Mission office allowances have been held up for some months but now that is better. We have no radio of our own but there are two others on the station which we can listen to whenever we like – which isn’t often, as it takes out practically a whole evening every time – and so we can know something of what is going on. We are glad that we are at least spared all the excitement of the election campaign just now![4]  We are sorry to hear that missionaries who are on furlough will probably be delayed in returning until next spring at the earliest.

[Personal portion redacted.] If you see any of the Gospel Center folks please give them our greetings and tell them we remember them in prayer with thanksgiving constantly. Let them know that all is well with us and that the Lord is blessing in the work in many different ways. Now the night is far spent, and so is the five grammes of letter space, so must close. Coralee promises to write before long – and we hope you will do the same! 

With lots of love,

Ralph

Footnotes

1. World War II started in September 1939, and mail routes through the Mediterranean would have become problematic after Italy declared war on Great Britain and France on June 10, 1940. There is a comprehensive and fascinating history of the Clipper routes here.    
2. Apparently this has changed.  From a brief review of “delayed twin birth intervals” it appears that the present approach is to allow the second twin as much time as possible in utero, to encourage development. The incidence of twins in the United States is much higher due to the prevalence of in vitro fertilization, and I saw reports of delays of up to 93 days! The instance reported here is unusual though both for the time frame, and the fact that these twins were probably full term. 
3. Eugenia Brown, sister of Paul Brown who served at Banda.  She was a single woman who finally married after she retired in the U.S.  She loved orchids and grew lots of them, and painted them too.  Mom remembers her with fondness. 
4. The presidential campaign of 1940 was between Franklin D. Roosevelt (running for an unprecedented 3rd term) and Wendel Willkie.  Roosevelt won handily.  

March 8, 1939 - Aba, Belgian Congo

16 days of surgery, 200 operations and an airplane crash.  February and March of 1939 were full of adventure and excitement!   

Aba, Belgian Congo

March 8, 1939 (completed two weeks later)

Dear folks,

Our last trip to Banda (1) for surgery was over fifteen months ago, when in eighteen working days we operated on 101 people. Soon after we left others began to arrive at that station wanting operations, and when told that we would not return for at least a year and maybe more, most of them said they would just wait anyhow, and so built little huts for themselves near the station and started gardens. Thus easily can they adjust themselves – a simple life!  As the months passed more and more of them arrived until, when they got to be around two hundred Mr. Dix refused to put their names down in the book. That was four or five months ago, and Dix estimates that at least five hundred had come during the fifteen months.

It was hard to find a time to get away for the trip, what with maternity cases, Christmas time, the children’s vacation and other affairs to keep us here. As it turned out we had to squeeze the trip into a comparatively few days this time, as first we had to wait for a meeting of the Field Council of which both Dix and I are members, and then we had to be back in time for Yoane Kusala, the head medical boy who went with us, to be here for a government medical examination which he has to take. That meant rushing to get through with as many patients as possible and rushing to get back; and now that we are back we learn that the exam will not take place for at least three more weeks and we have already been back a week!  We wanted to take three medical boys along this time, one to act as “assistant surgeon” and two to take care of the post-operatives, but with all the supplies we had to take along there wasn't enough room in the car and so we had to leave one behind, much to his disgust. At the “last minute” too we found that we would have to invest in two new tires, and we were fortunate enough to be able to get them within a few days more or less “locally”, i.e. 100 miles.

Well, to make a long story short, this time we found more patients waiting than we could possibly care for in the time at hand. However, things went smoothly and by the Lord’s enabling we were able to operate on 120 patients, about 50 of whom had double or triple operations, this time in 16 working days. This time also there was one death, a very old man who got along well after an operation for double hernia and elephantiasis but about two weeks later developed dysentery, which proved too much for him. A larger proportion of the hernias this time were comparatively early than at previous times, but a few that we turned down were so large that they contained more of the abdominal contents than the abdomen itself.  One woman carried her hernia in a cloth that was slung around her neck and shoulder, somewhat as they would carry a baby, the kind that one book speaks of as “having forfeited its right of domicile.” The largest elephantiasis (scrotal tumor) this time weighed 78 pounds after removal and had hung to within a literal inch from the ground.  An interesting feature about this case was that, in spite of the fact that there is usually considerable hemorrhage in such operations, there was a very marked sudden slowing of the pulse just as the tumor was being removed from the body, due probably to the sudden decrease in the load on the heart. All the cases were done under spinal anesthesia only, a great boon in such work out here. It makes it possible to do more cases during a morning than if one had to wait for the induction of general anesthesia in each case, and eliminates the need for an anesthetist or frees the nurse for her many other duties.

It was interesting to note again that the people came from widely scattered areas and many of them from 200 or 250 miles away. Some had been waiting for as long as fifteen months and over half of them for more than six months. According to Dix, who is stationed at Banda, there is some real spiritual fruit evident as a result of previous visits, and all through his district new openings into villages have been made easy for him and his native evangelists. Some of the area from which the patients have come are as yet unoccupied by any mission, and the only Gospel witness they have had has been that received at Banda, or through those who have been there.

After our time was up there were still left around a hundred people in need of help. About twenty of these were considered inoperable, and of the remainder about seventy said they wanted to go to Aba. That would mean a good three hundred miles to walk and some of these had already come over two hundred miles from the opposite direction. We didn't really expect that many of them would actually start for Aba. Two more weeks have elapsed since this letter was begun, and a few days ago we were surprised to see these people begin to arrive here. Sixty-four have come, besides ten or a dozen friends or relatives who came along to help. They had done the trip in three weeks in spite of physical handicaps, fair sized loads, and little food. How they managed to get food and shelter along the whole way is more than I can say, for in one of the groups there were around forty people, a large number to make their appearance at a village all at once. For a couple of nights we were swamped for sleeping space, beds enough being out of the question; but somehow they all found places to stretch out, on, under, or between beds all over the place. After one day of rest they got busy building little houses of poles and grass, and tonight they are serenely comfortable around their various fires.

Photo taken by Ralph Kleinschmidt in March 1939. 

The further delay in writing has been due in part to extra duties with white patients since returning home. One of these is a missionary from Ibambi here for an operation. Another was an officer of one of the Imperial Airways flying boats which got lost on its way from the Cape to London and had to make a forced landing on a small river forty miles away from us (2). This was quite an exciting event – for Aba. One morning a shout was heard that an airplane was coming, and as everybody ran outside we saw a huge airliner approaching, flying low and slowly, and circling about as if in distress. A few hours later we heard that it had run out of gas and had landed at Faradje. They had finally found the small river there, not much wider than the plane. After “landing” on the water the plane had to turn around two sharp bends in the river at full speed, and then it struck a large rock. However, all the passengers and crew were safely landed before the plane filled with water. The radio officer had struck his head when the plane hit the rock and was dazed for a few minutes, but after that swam about for three hours rescuing mail and other

Reverse side of the photo taken by Ralph Kleinschmidt.
Description written by Esther Kleinschmidt Meyers. 

things from the ship. A little while later, however, he began to act queerly and then became unconscious, and so he was taken here (Aba Mission Hospital). We sat up with him a good part of the night, but his injury proved to be not very serious and after a few days of rest in the hospital he went back to help salvage the plane. One day Coralee and I went with him and had a very interesting time seeing the huge machine. It is one of the very latest models, much like the transpacific “Clippers”, weighing 18 tons empty, and using three tons of gasoline in five hours – enough to last our car two years! One of the passengers, by the way, was a sister of Prime Minister Chamberlain (3).

It is only five more weeks until the girls come home from school!  And that’s another event!  They continue to be happy down there and to do good work in school. The school staff will be short soon, as Mr. and Mrs. Winsor (4) are leaving for furlough. Their home is in Wheaton. Mr. W. is a brother of Mrs. Pierson. He is a very fine fellow and we certainly hope that you will get to meet him while he is in the States. We are expecting the Piersons (5) to arrive almost any day. They left America about three months ago on their return to the field. We have just heard that while driving up through Kenya from the coast their car was stuck in a river when suddenly a very heavy downpour caused the river to rise so fast that within a few minutes the car was nearly covered, and they barely had time to get out, and nearly lost their car and everything in it.

[The letter has no signature, so I don't know if it closed here, or if there was another page that I do not have.]
Ralph

Footnotes

1. I have not been able to locate Banda on the map. Mom says it's between Niangara and Asa.  
2. This photo was taken by my grandfather, Ralph Kleinschmidt, of the Corsair which crashed on the Dungu River on March 15, 1939. My mother remembers it vividly. Here is what she wrote on the back of this photo: "The village that grew up around it for the workmen and their families was named Corsairville. It took months to build a dam and repair the plane. First they failed. More repairs. Second try it took off successfully, all 4 motors in full thunderous throttle."
3. The story of this event is also told in "Corsairville - the Lost Domain of the Flying Boat" by Graham Coster.
4. Mr. and Mrs. Winsor (Earl & Ada Rury). Earl was Mom and Edie's math teacher at Rethy. Ada was Earl's 2nd wife. He and his first wife Mary Park Winsor had two children, Faith and Austin.  
5. Mr. and Mrs Pierson (Floyd & Amy Winsor) were AIM missionaries at Asa at least 50 years. They had one daughter, Betty Lou, who married Paul Teasdale.