Msengedzi
July 12, 1951
Dear folks,
Russ is going into town Saturday and so I’ll send this letter with him. I suppose that you will get it quickly. Today the post came and my what a bunch of air-mails from my kin – nearly everyone but you. One came from Don, believe it or not, one from Lois, Ila, Mary O., Grace, and Lill. Ila’s was written the 3rd of July. How nice to get it so quickly. She told me that she was moving.
Wyn is coming back with Russ on Tuesday so I’ll not be alone much longer.
Last Friday the Blairs flew in on us with a couple of men visitors whom they had. They came from a little place near Salisbury. They only stayed until night but it was certainly refreshing to see them. I killed the fatted calf, so to speak; threw a big dinner that evening before they went. I stayed home from my village meeting in their honor and I got a lovely supper, and I had the table looking so nice. I happened to have two lovely rose-buds just out and I put them in the center of the table, then I used candles, those white ones of Grace’s, plus my white dishes, etc., and it really looked super if I do say so myself. I just love doing something like that.
You’d sure be surprised to see how well I’ve done on my diet. I believe that by Saturday I’ll be down to between 142 and 140 pounds. It will be one month ago that I started weighing a good 156 pounds. I’m going down to 135 just to see what I look like. I’m sure I’ll be thin enough then. As I am, I’m a very nice size. Imagine me saying that. I eat mostly vegetables, meat, and some fruit and that’s all, no bread, potatoes, etc., and it really is a very healthy diet, and it isn’t nearly as hard to do as one imagines. I must try to induce Evelyn and Grace to try it. Margaret also has been on one and she is doing about the same as I.
I suppose that you enjoyed Ila’s visit home. It is nice that she can come like that, off and on. I’m so glad that you went up to Evelyn’s. I got your letter telling about it. And, say, those papers and magazines came. How nice of you to send them. You have no idea how we devour reading material around here. I think, though, that you don’t need to send the Recorders – I read them but really I’m not much the wiser after I do so – but those Pathfinders we like in a big way. I’d appreciate if you’d collect them each month and send them out monthly. Couldn’t you do that? I also enjoy the Chev.1Transcriber’s note: I could not track down which magazine exactly she refers to here with this abbreviation. If you know, please write it in the comments and I will update the transcription. magazine. Stick it in, too. I was glad to see your swanky car. Please try and send out that Pathfinder at the end of each month. Try and send all of the copies. You get them all of the time, don’t you?
Were those slides good of the wedding? What did I look like? Jacksons just got theirs back which they took and they have some very good ones. I looked quite nice in them, too, which is something for me.
So Lois is in Kansas. She seems to like teaching Bible school. You’ll have to admit that Lois is quite a nice girl, isn’t she? I shall write to that little Fox boy; you remember that he was quite fond of me when I was home. May he grow up to amount to something for the Lord.
I’m real busy now with my village work. The Lord seems to be giving me much freedom in the use of the language and the teacher is helping – he goes along – and I trust that these meetings will count for eternity. The people in the villages are hard and indifferent and they don’t care a rap about spiritual things, so it is only as God works will anything be accomplished.
The school garden has lettuce, beans, carrots, beet tops, and a few radishes which I’m enjoying these days. The goats got in one day and ate the beans quite badly. We have a few climbers that are really doing good. Russ made me two flower places on each end of my veranda. I have pansies in one. The man across the river gave me the plants and nasturtiums in the other. The roses are still blooming.
Love,
Eunice