PORTMANTEAU 005 19361117

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6 pages.

[Betty was 19 1/2 years old, and a few weeks pregnant - news she had announced in Portmanteau 004]

                    Sesheke,
                Northern Rhodesia.
                17th November, 1936.
                Received 2/12/36

Darling Everybody,
        Well, have you recovered from the shock yet? Can you believe it? Are you glad? Are you sorry? Are you excited? Aren't you Proud of Me? We're getting along quite nicely, thankyou, and the nurse Miss Lanz has been up again last Saturday for tea and seemed quite satisfied with Our progress.
        I am afraid I don't think this letter will be very long this week, as I Never seem to have time to write it! Doesn't that sound ridiculous, but you see the trouble is T usually feel rather floppy and sickie-illie all the morning; G. comes back for lunch at 12; go to sleep from one to four; G comes back for tea and we do Nothing for a bit; we then go out for a walk and by the time we get back it is dark and time for supper; after supper we usually want to read quietly before going to bed, So you see our day is very full!
        We got some lovely letters this mail: Daddy and Mummy, a nice one from Mum as well as a Peter-letter from her too, another lovely one from Dad, and a Simply Champion one from Heather, telling us all the local scandal and titbits - a real Prize of a letter.
        About Mankoya, which seems to be worrying you. The Govt. has a New Policy, which is that everyone shall go back to the same station for two tours, and then be moved somewhere else. We are only at Sesheke to take Phibbs' place while he is on leave, then he comes back here for his second tour, and we go back to Mankoya for the rest of our second tour. Next tour we may be sent out of
Barotse, but we don't really know that yet.    Actually, their plans may be altered a bit, if Phibbs manages to get a doctor's certificate saying he is unfit to come back here, which one seems to think he can do; if he can't do that he's going to pull all the strings he can to be kept away from here, so if he succeeds (which wire-pullers often do) we will probably stay on here for the rest of the tour.
We are NOT going to make a fuss if we ARE sent there, even though it will be a bit awkward with the Brat coming and all. It doesn't pay, and people in this country seem to be getting into a dreadful habit of refusing to go where they are told - especially people who are told to go to Barotse, which most people hate - and they are usually given in to too because they can't afford to lose people.    But it can't be any good for their records if they are always grumbling and refusing to go where they are told, and there is a Big Book at Lusaka, with records of everything everybody has done, which should go against or with one's hope of getting on well.
        So if we are told to go to Mankoya, we GO to Mankoya, and that is all there is to it. They are very busily continuing the road that G started, leading from Mankoya to Mongu (125 miles), and about forty miles away from Mankoya along that road is a Mission which contains a doctor and his wife, also a doctor so if by the time we go there the road is finished we will be within about two hours of a doctor, so MIGHT be able to take the Brat (i.e. Mankoya) there when he was safely old enough to be looked after by a Most Incompetent and ignorant mother!

        But we are not going to risk taking him there if it would not be safe - it isn't worth it, as so many people have lost their children out here merely because they couldn't get help in time. So IF it isn't safe I would either stay with him in Lusaka all that time - which would be absolute misery with dear husband sitting all by himself at Mankoya - or else go whole hog and bring him home. Still, I'd better HAVE the thing first, before deciding what to do with him, and meeting our bridges before we've come to them!
        But we both have a feeling we aren't going to leave Sesheke, and it's very likely true, so don't worry about it, will you, as we aren't.
        Now Mum's letter. Thank you so much for it, And I am glad you were able to take pore Peggy out. It does sound a forbidding sort of place, and it must be beastly for her to go back to school so to speak, when she has had these last two years so free in Switzerland.
        I'm so glad they took such nice films of the wedding. We are longing to see them, and I do wish we could have seen the newsreel of it on the flicks! Was it awful fun seeing us all, and it wasn't a Talkie, was it?! You needn't bother about not having taken many while we were there, because we have taken quite a few, and actually we took some more this morning - quite a dull bit, but just showing G and the great Hunk-dog walking out of the front door and down the path under the bougainvillea, and a little bit of Musonda, which I don't think will come out very well as he came towards me and I didn't have time to change the distance. I sent one home to you last week, with a tiny bit about the croc, but it won't be very good as he was so far away and flat, but you might be able to just see him, and it was so exciting that I HAD to take him even if he doesn't show! Anyway, you'll know he's there, lying like a log on the surface of the river - SUCH a big log too.
        I AM glad you love Rusty so. Daddy had a priceless remark in his letter, saying "The Red boy at Pax is still in high favour and more than compensates for any other losses they may have suffered in the last month or two!"  That's what he was meant to do, so it's a good thing he is doing his job so well. TI almost brought him away with me, I'm afraid!

        The latest excitements are:

Scorpion number Three. He crept over the top of the wall in the "little house" and walked all the way down the wall behind me, seeming to get lower and longer as he got nearer the bottom, and then he started to walk all the way up again - silly little animal - so by the time Musonda had arrived on the scene (in answer to my "isa pya kamini" - "come and kill scorpion.') he had disappeared between the tin roof and the wall. No amount of prodding and poking with a long stick would induce him to come out, so we got three prisoners on to it and they took the roof off - just like that! The only thing we got out of it were two tiny white lizards - no sign of Kamini!

Tarantula Spider number One. He was also in the "little house" and rushed about wildly when T shook him out of the duster, and Chishimba came and killed him - a most Evil looking fellow, about the size of a very large spider at home with legs sticking out rather in front of him and at the back, not so much at the sides as spiders usually have. he was not very fast at running, and that a funny thing about these animals, anything fierce is slow, so when you see a thing dashing about at break-neck speed you'll know he isn't dangerous, which is such a good plan, as it saves you from all sorts of "glyffs".

Spitting snake number One. While we were having supper one evening we heard rather a lot of noise outside, so G. went out to the back to see what the fuss was about, and there were all the boys standing round by the kitchen with lamps and sticks, and a boy standing fairly close to the big fig-tree, with a very long stick, one end of which he had shoved against the ground in the roots of the tree. And underneath that end was the Tail of a Snake. So we got out our gun and the torch that goes with it and we shone it on, and there was his wicked little head standing up and waving about rather, and he made a lovely fierce spitting noise at us, and tried to wriggle away from the stick that was holding him down.   G. shot at his head, and he collapsed in a heap and it looked as if the whole of his head had been shot off. He went and picked him up, and he was about three feet long I should think, and G. waved him about and then threw him at the crowd of boys, and they all fled for their lives, shrieking and laughing. Shimeo wasn't there, so Ohishimba, who is braver than the others, and has learnt that what is safe for C to pick up is safe for him, picked the beast up by its tail and called Shimeo, and when he appeared Chishimba ran towards him and held out the snake to him. Poor Shimeo, who is always the one to be made a fool of and laughed at, ran for his life and we could hear him howling as he dashed down to his little hut! He is rather nervous, and the others just love giving him a good fright, because he's such a marvellous "fish" and always rises beautifully.

Mouse number One. When we went to bed last night we heard a scrabbling Inside the mosquito net, under the beds, and there was a little mouse running round and trying to get out. We knew we had quite a lot of them because they will leave their calling-cards in the drawers containing my best sheets!    So we dashed out to the verandah and collected another lamp and a couple of golf-clubs, and went back to have a good hunt, but could we find that little thing anywhere in the room? No. Not a sign. We searched the whole wall for holes where he could have got out, we looked in the cupboard and drawers and behind the boot-rack (where the Scorpion number Two was found) and there wasn't a sign of him or any exit. Then in the middle of the night - scrabble scrabble scrabble, gnaw gnaw gnaw - so out we jumped and there he was behind one of my tin trunks. He dashed about all over the floor and then we lost sight of him, and we were so sleepy we thought it better not to have a wild hunt in the middle of the night, and, being certain he was in the room and couldn't get out we decided to leave it till the morning and have a Grand Mouse Hunt with the boys.
        So when we'd had our morning tea (which I have taken to on the advice of Miss Lanz) we called them all in, and they armed themselves with Boots, and we opened the drawers of the dressing table, and there were his calling-cards. We took out the drawer, and there was he. He dashed out and the boys had a lovely hunt, which they thoroughly enjoyed, and finally they killed him with a Boot and removed him - a tiny little fellow, but he DID make a lot of noise in the night.

        It's just been raining - just slightly, and not enough to make any difference to the brick-like condition of the garden, but enough to encourage us and make us think there is more coming. It's been ever so much cooler the past few days, which is a great relief all round, and makes it much easier to do things. Not that I do anything :much - I have become a terribly lazy Woman, but it's so nice not having to do anything, and knowing, there is no hurry.
        We are still in the throes of unpacking the presents, and have four more cases to do. A large number of the things we are going to put in the tin trunks and store them away in the other house or somewhere where we can leave them and forget about them. The silver and good stuff we are sending down to the Bank in Livingstone, as we've nowhere to keep it in this little house and we don't need it at all just now.
        We have got out all Uncle Wilfred's glass, and two of the biggest kind were broken. We probably won't use it for years, but there it is in case anybody comes. We have also got out the big Canteen, but we probably won't use that either unless somebody comes.    The present I've used about most I think is old Gratrick's horse-tail fly swish! (Gratrick is the harnessmaker in Farnham).
Musonda gave me a present yesterday, of a very nice swish with a carved ivory handle, which had cost him 7/6. Wasn't it touching of him.  I thought it was awfully sweet, and it's such a nice swish too. We always take them for our walks in the evening because of the flies.
        Oh I forgot to tell you we tried the fishing the other day. We took the big rod down, with a line made of string and a spoon with an enormous hook and a bit of red wool, and G had first go. The result was definitely humorous, though not half as humorous as it was when Betty tried! We had to start facing away from the river, swing the thing to and fro, and then swish round and heave it out and sort of catch it by surprise. The reel screamed out, and the string fell in folds on the ground, and the spoon landed neatly on the edge of the water and the hook caught itself on a root and we had to break it to get it out We couldn't go and try and free it cos their might have been a croc. lying there in wait fop us.
        G. got quite skilful at it after a bit, but I just could NOT get it to work, and the reel was so queer, and the line did not come right up to the point of the rod because: the top notch-thing was broken off. Our only hope of catching anything is to go out trolling behind the barge if we go on tour soon.
        One of the horses - the least nice one - has developed a horrid sore place on his back; I think he must have scraped it on a low branch or something and then the flies have got at it and made it all cakey. I bathe it with Jeyes and Water every now and then, which he dislikes intensely, and which doesn't seem to have made any difference yet, but I should think Jeyes is as good as anything, and it hasn't got worse.
        We are feeling rather proud of ourselves at the moment because we've very cleverly got the huge Standard lamp that Guide Headquarters gave us to work. It took a long time, and we could NOT put it together, and now eventually we've managed it, and it looks so nice standing up in the corner of the verandah. It gives a good light too and the shade is awfully nice - sort of parchement colour at the top and pink at the bottom, and is that round folding-up sort with pleats all round. It'll look lovely in the sitting-room when we have to go indoors, and the curtains we are getting will match it rather well, I think - a sort of beigey background with green and pinkish patterns on it, nice and "all-over"-ish and vague so that it will go nicely with anything - even the three Scarlet cushions we were given!
        We haven't got the pictures up yet as we haven't undone the big bundle from Livingstone containing the picture wire and hooks we ordered. They are lying on the table in the sitting room, waiting forlornly to be put up and admired. We've got the Family Gallery on the sitting-room mantelpiece, which Is rather
ricketty and will fall off the wall at any minute, and we    got all the photos of all the weddings in the dining room - Hugh's and Charlie's, and Ours, and several of the people walking to them. None of them look Half as nice as we do. But of course we are rather Prejudiced.
        We've got the little folding tables out, one in the bedroom as a bedside table, one on the verandah which is awfully useful, and Gaunt's dumb waiter walks about all over the house carrying the Booze.
        The house is still in rather a mess, with nails lying on the window-sills and vague lamps that won't work lying about the floor, and the cigarette boxes laid out in a row waiting to be chosen, and the four packing cases still to be opened, and a few odds and ends that have been opened and haven't been given a home yet; but it's gradually getting straight, and it's rather fun getting it done bit by bit like this. Every day makes it a bit more homey, and it was a great step getting this big lamp to work - we both feel much more settled.
        The thing we are both dreadful about is leaving books and letters and papers about all over the place. We both like having about two books going at the same time, and when mail day comes round we have all the lovely Snob's Gazettes and Fields and thins, and Punch and the Strand (Blackwoods hasn't started coming yet, but perhaps it will be for 1937) and all those lovely letters and all those horrible bills from Livingstone, and we just open them and read them and put them down and muddle them up and read them again, and then make neat little piles of the ones To Be Dealt With, and then the wind comes along and we have to do it all over again:
        The Frangipani are still coming on beautifully, and the one snapdragon is still struggling against the heat and succeeding in its efforts to keep its flower on. The carnations we sowed in a Clay pot have unfortunately Died, even the two that looked like blades of grass. I think we must have either not watered them enough or watered them too much, because we used to give them a regular soaker every evening and then not touch them again till the next evening. However, Better luck next time, and we are having a long Bed dug along the other side of the house where we are going to put in lovely soil and some seeds and take Great care of them.
        Well, 1 think I've said all the news for this week, and it's getting late, so I'll stop now. Goodnight everybody, and be as happy as we are, if possible.
        All the love we've got to spare -
                                              From
                                                          US.