Saturday, February 14, 2009

Congo (5.5) Brussels, Belgium, 10/20/1920 [DCS]

Brussells, Belgium

October 20, 1920

Dearest homefolks,

Hasn’t very much happened to us the last few days, we are leading quite a quiet life here in Brussels. Studying pretty hard, and it’s so nice to be able to stay somewhere this long at a time. It seems to me we have been on the go so long and still not half way.

It has been quite cold for several days, and we have had to have a fire. But we manage to keep real warm. The Hobsons have a north room, also not so good a stove as ours so they are having quite a time keeping warm. They stay in our bedroom part of the time.

Coal is pretty hard to get both here and in England. The miners are striking for higher wages in England and many of the trains and possibly boats will be taken off Monday. We are hoping this will not interfere with the Bedingers plans, as we were expecting them here the latter part of this week or next.

We were all four vaccinated day before yesterday and the Dr. said it would swell by Saturday or Sunday (5 or 6 days). B. M.’s and Rowena’s are red and have begun to swell already. They have been vaccinated before, and Kemp (Mr. Hobson) and I have not been. I am afraid ours will not take, but some say if a vaccination doesn’t take it’s good for two years anyway. Whether this is true, I don’t know.

There are very few negroes here, in fact I have only seen one, and we have seen him several times. B M. spoke to him today and found he was from the Belgian Congo, but further south than Luebo. He had large holes in his ears, just as the natives do in the Congo, and this is what attracted B. M’s attention.

We are enclosing a check which Mrs. McKee sent us to New York as a wedding present and which we didn’t have time to get cashed. Please get it to the bank soon so the check can go forward. Just keep it for us as we’ll be asking you to get us something.

[This letter ends without any complimentary closing, but it is, of course, from Dorothy.]

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