Msengedzi Mission Station
15th March, 1951
Dear Folks,
I guess you are getting tired of getting my letters which do not have enough postage on. I think that it has been twice that I have forgotten to put the extra amount on. I have it already on this one so I won’t forget it.
My it has been so terrifically hot. Every day without a break it is terrible. I perspire so much. Well next month there should be a change. We haven’t had any rain for so long. The time for rains will soon be over, too.
I suppose that this will reach you about the time of your birthdays. I wish you very happy ones and I hope that you bake a lovely cake. It will be good to hear from you all again. I have been getting my circular out and what a bunch of personal notes I have to write. They always take a lot of time.
I got my bedroom fixed real nice. The drapes really look lovely and the gray in the walls just match that in the curtain. The bedspread looks so nice, too. Really it does look good. Even those doggy pictures which you had laying around upstairs look very nice just above my bed. The rag rugs are so nice. I wish that you could see them. You’d think that they are nice, too. Well I guess that I should not rave on much more about that.
Yesterday I canned beef. Russ killed a steer the day before and so yesterday the big job after school was to get it canned. I even boiled the bones and canned the soup off of them. Did you ever do that? It should be good. I did most of it in pints. I got 49 pints and 12 of soup concentrate. I appreciated the big kettle in which to boil some of the jars but I also used my boiler. I boiled it all outside over a fire, even that kettle. Then I boiled the bones in it, too. Worked lovely.
Russ has fever tonight, I guess. Malarial. He went out on trek last week and I guess this is the results. This is no time of the year to do that. Mosquitoes are very bad.
I’ll send you my circular but I’ll not enclose a personal note in it and that will be one less. I suppose that spring is beginning to make itself felt there. I wouldn’t mind enjoying another one myself. Boy do I ever remember the robins last year. My hair is so wet from perspiration now. Well I don’t seem to know of much news.
Saturday we are going over to the tsetse fly ranger’s place. It will be the first time that I have been over since I’ve been back. We will wade across the river and he will meet us there with the car. It is only three miles over anyway. He is supposed to be bringing his wife down here after the rains. She has been living in Bindura these years that he has been on this job. They have a daughter who is in England studying. He is an ex-major or something of the British army.
It won’t be long before Conference time. I’ll have to get busy on that dress soon. I really hate to get at it. I hope that it soon cools off some so that I have a little more heart to work.
How is everything there at home? What have you been doing? I haven’t heard from Inga since I have gotten back. I guess she is not too happy over the way things have turned out with their Mission Station. I’m wondering if she will come into our Mission or if she will stay in the Zambesi Mission and go up to their work in Nyasaland. I hope that she soon writes.
I thanked her for you for that Rhodesian Annual. If you like that I could probably send it to you every year, but if it isn’t of much interest to you I’ll not bother as it does cost a little. I sure wish that I was getting the Reader’s Digest. I always liked that so much and no one here is taking it. The Ideals should soon be coming again. Isn’t this a paper without a paragraph or any form?
Since it is so hot and my brain refuses to think of any news to write to you I believe that I shall not struggle along any longer but say Cherrie bye. I trust this finds you all well. So Jim is stepping out. Well, well. Be sure and let me know when Larry takes that “little” Rockford girl out whom I met at that picnic that time.
Love to all and a very happy birthday to Mom and Pop,
Eunice
P.S. I’ve never gotten down to business of practicing typing yet.