September 29, 1922
My dearest mother and father:
We got your sweet letter and also the pictures. My! it's good to hear from you. We're sorry so many of the pictures were not good, but think possibly that our kodak is not working properly, as we have taken up three rolls of flims lately, and not a single picture was good. Have one more roll from the same bunch so are going to develop this roll in the dark room in order to find out if it's the film or kodak. I don't know whether we told you or not, but we bought a developing tank from Mr. Craig when he first came and have been using that. When we use that, though, we can't tell what is the matter if they don't turn out properly. If everything is all right with both film and kodak, this is by far the simplest method as they come out developed just right.
You spoke of my being so thin. I can't imagine where you got that idea for I look perfectly natural in those pictures, I think. I weigh around 95 pounds most of the time and that's about my natural weight at home in the summer time, is it not? I did not say anything about my weight because I was not gaining, but since my little spell of malaria, I have been feeling just fine. I play tennis nearly every afternoon and I would not do that if I did not feel like it and I wouldn't feel like it if I were not well, for tennis is a very strenuous game. Now please don't be uneasy about me.
I want to ask one question about the pictures, then tell you as much as I can about them, as I'm sure you have an extra copy of most of them. Do you know anything about the girl on the campus of some school between the basket ball court and the volley ball court? This was not one of my negatives. 'can't imagine where or who she is and it has my curiosity aroused. The picture of people on the steps is not my negative. It's Mr. Craig's and was taken in Matadi. I believe you found me there, but I was not. From bottom to top and from right to left: Mrs. Vinson, Mr. Vinson, and Judge, their son; beginning again on the right on a step by herself, Miss Black, Mr. Craig's helper and on the next step beside her, Mr. Craig, our mission treasurer. Next, Mrs. Kellersberger and her two children and standing at the end, Mr. Hillhouse. On the top step from right to left still Mr. Anderson & Dorothy Anderson of Lusambo, and last but not least, Dr. Kellersberger. I can't imagine who of these you thought was I. in the picture of the boys, only two of these are still with me. Reading from right to left Ntakna (a clock), my houseboy at present but generally my wash jack. Cisuaka has been very sick in the hospital with bronchial pneumonia and is not strong enough to be back at work yet. The next two are sentries and last a table boy--all of which are not with us. I left out Bukusa, my cook, standing next to Ntanka.
Our picture has two houses, one furnished and the other nothing but the frame. These are Bakette houses and Bakette stand in front of the frame. Their houses are nothing but palm leaves woven together and can be taken apart and put up at another place without any trouble. Baluba houses are of mud. In the picture of the one Bakette house and the three men standing in front of it, note the man with the long pipe. Does not this remind you of the Indian peace pipe? Only Bakette use these. In the picture where I am standing at the side of a native shed and some children at the other, this is taken to show their frame for making cloth. See the native who is working on the cloth behind. The large groups of people were taken in the market on Saturday. The market is held right behind our house, say a hundred yards away, every Saturday. This is their big day, like singing day at Midway, and everyone goes who can for miles around. My! but they make a big racket. I hope you don't think this large ugly monkey is Joco; this monkey is Mr. Martin's and my monkey is "cute." The pictures that are streaked up so badly are of Teneriffe, certainly was sorry to see they were bad. The big tree is in Boma, and everyone goes to see it as they go through because Stanley's initials are carved on it. It's also an enormous tree. The rest of the pictures are either too dim to see or of no special interest.
While on the subject of pictures, I want to explain why I never sent you the pictures of the mission meeting as I said I would. Well they got lost. I said they had been stolen. B. M. said don't be so quick to accuse the natives. We will find them somewhere. Up until this time, everyone on the station had been losing things at the hands of the natives but us. I think I told you in my last letter that Cisuaka was very sick, and this meant I had to put another boy in my house. Well, I missed more pictures, among them your picture of which I wrote in one of my last letters, and also something in the house. I decided this new boy, knowing he was not going to be kept in the house when our other boy came back, did not care very much if he did get caught, so he was helping himself. I forgot to tell you, though, that this boy is also our wash jack and had worked in the house before, but before he had to gain our deep confidence or he couldn't stay in the house. You see, a wash jack does not have to be so very honest as he does not have the temptations a houseboy has. I mark (check) my clothes every time they wash (twice a week), both when they come in and go out, so you see you don't have a chance to steal much. B. M. searched Ntanka's (that's his name) boxes and found a few things that didn't amount to so much and he said he intended to retum them, but being as he had those things, we felt he had more, so B. M. gave him a strong talking to and B. M. said he cried and said he truly did not get another thing.
Now I stop to take up another trend of the subject. Do you remember about April or May I told you of losing one of our table boys in a bad palaver in the village and that we got another little boy out of the fence? Well, we liked this little boy very well, but especially at first he did not learn especially well and broke more dishes than any boy we have ever had, but we liked him because he seemed quiet and good. He also had a brother in B. M.'s printing office who did good work. Ntanka went home yesterday morning after
B. M.'s strong talk to him determined, I suppose, to clear himself, for he certainly did. He found that our table boy's brother in the printing office had been seen with some of the pictures we were hunting, so we called in all concerned parties, B. M. worked from five to nine o'clock last night, and finally came home with just lots of our pictures, more than we had ever missed, and still there are some that we did miss not there. I haven't counted them, but roughly I should say over fifty of both B. M.'s old pictures and mine. He got not only kodak pictures, but tore out B. M.'s big picture (This had been gotten in the last week) out of its folder, had the folder picture of Dedie Young and oh! I could not begin to tell you all. Among them though I found your picture which I was prouder to get than any of the others unless it was B. M.'s, but even then I have other pictures of him and I think better ones, too. Three whole pages were tom out of myoid kodak book and four or five out of the other one. We are going to try to get all of them back but I doubt if we do. We found most of the things that we missed out of the house and some we didn't miss!! Now Mother, I think it's best not to tell this at home, for I imagine it would sound bad to them for a thing like that to happen in a missionaries home, but it can't be helped. I suspect B. M. will not think it best to tell it, but I just wanted you to have an idea of how things go. At first I imagine it sounds good to have someone to wait on you all the time, but if you only knew how much trouble and worry they cause, I don't believe you would think they were so grand. I just long to keep my own home, but it's out of the question out here. I could not stand it in the first place, and then it is my duty to keep them. Don't get the idea that I don't love my boys, for I do, most of them at least, but I just don't like to have so many around to watch. Georgia has turned over the superintending of the school to me and I'm finding it a big job, but I hope someway to keep it going for the rest of this term. I was certainly not cut out for that kind of work. I have also taken my first reader class back. They are making mats this week, though, or trying to. We have just put mat making into the school for both boys and girls and I believe it's going to work out fine. Georgia and I went with the children into the forest to get the cane, and I also got me some and am learning to make them with the children. They say mine is fine, and I've about half of it done. The splitting and cleaning out the inside of the cane is the hardest job. My! I nearly ruined my fi~gers, but I'm proud to know how it's done, and if we have room, I'm going to bring it home with me.
My tomato plants are doing so nicely. Tomatoes are all I planted this season. In fact, they are the only thing I've tried to raise since my try at first and failed. I have more flowers now. My prettiest things are four foliage plants I have on the porch. They are really beautiful, I think.
We went on a picnic to the falls about two miles away the other night. B. M. and I felt very proud 'cause we were the chaperones; all the others were single people. Can you imagine my being a chaperone? Well, we had a mighty good time, anyway, and I am finding that I was sadly mistaken in my idea that all good times are ended after one marries. .
I have at last gotten me a parrot. Have been trying for some time, but they seem to be hard to get. Someone sent it from Bulape, but there was no letter with it, so I don't know who sent it. Can't talk yet, but I hope to teach it.
It's time for church, so I must close this letter.
Love in abundance,
Dorothy
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