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[in the upper right-hand corner, diagonally]
convalesce
convalescing
[the rest of the letter, with what looks like planned changes like this: P.]

Chissamba, Feb. 15/1926.

My dear Miss Jamieson:-

For some time now I have been trying to write you a letter in which I’m going to express my joys and discouragements, and give thanks for things received and ask for some things which are needed.  Please pass on to our girls all that you think is wise.

About the second week in January I returned to Chissamba and began steady work in the hospital with Dr. Hall.  I have enjoyed very much indeed all the time spent in working with him and it is certainly good to be back in my field again, although I find things so different in Africa from conditions which exist at home.  P.  Dr. Hall is certainly to be congratulated on the splendid buildings which he has erected while still carrying on his large practice.  In Africa one meets with very many difficulties and disappointments and he has certainly had his share.  But because of his keen interest in his medical work he has very unselfishly overcome his many trials and hardships and now has a splendid place in which to perform his daily duties.  I am anxiously looking forward to the time when he will return to us again.  He is also hoping to carrying out some of his plans in the next five years which he has not been able to do in this time because his time has been spent on building and other things.  It seems to me that it is absolutely essential for a doctor to give his whole time to the medical work if he is to do his work at all satisfactorily.  Dr. Hall has tried very hard to do this but because of the lack of men he has been given other things to do as well, which brings about unsatisfactory results.

For about one month we had the pleasure of having Dr. Cushman from Chileso with us.  She brought over some patients who were in need of operations and to-gether Dr. Hall + Dr. Cushman were able to perform seven operations which have turned out successful.  Later Dr. Hollenbeck came from Kamundongo for another very serious operation which the doctors were anxious to do before Dr. Hall should go on furlough.  I wish I could tell you in detail about our work, but just now time does not permit.

It certainly makes me happy to be able to help in relieving some pain + suffering, and I enjoyed being of assistance to the doctors.  It is so difficult for them to do everything alone.  Perhaps I could tell you of one days work.  I have opened my diary to Jan. 19th.  In Africa we rise early about 5.30 having our morning reading + prayers and breakfast over before seven o’clock.  I then set aside my first hour for Umbundu study while I’m fresh and at 8 a.m. Dr. Cushman + I went to the hospital where we found Dr. Hall already dispensing medicines.  One can easily see his whole heart is in his work as he takes bottle after bottle from the shelves to prepare his many prescriptions for the large number of people which are gathered outside the door.  It is very pathetic to see the old men + women, the young mothers with their little sick children on their backs or in their arms, all of whom are waiting for the relief which they have learned can be obtained from the medicines of the missionary doctor.
​
Now come with me over to the building on the left where Paulu or Kanjango, the doctor’s assistants, are doing the dressings for patients who are non-residents, but who come every day to have their sores attended to.  Here we find many bad sores and these people bare pain so bravely, never murmuring.  They help by removing their own dressing and applying the outer bandage themselves after the dressing is finished.  We will not stay here long today because I’m in a hurry to get the operating room in readiness for the two operations which the doctors are going to do.  Yesterday afternoon I had all the linens etc. sterilized.  This morning I have just to prepare the instruments and arrange the necessary things.  After Dr. Hall completed his work at the dispensary, he had only four teeth to extract this morning, both patients being young women who did not complain at all of the acute pain and no sedatives were used whatever.  Afterwards they bravely went off to their fields for their day’s work.  I was ashamed when I remembered the way I used to shudder at the thoughts of the dentist’s chair, when I knew precautions would be used to prevent pain.

Now all is in readiness in the operating room, and the patient is brought in who has had a persistent bad sore on his right leg for many months.  Dr. Hall will do skin grafting using the “button” method.  His work is beautifully done and his long nimble fingers move so skilfully, at last 41 little pieces of skin the size of small buttons have been carefully transferred from the left leg to the raw surface and this is finished for to-day.  After eight days we examined the sore and found to our great delight that the little grafts were alive and soon all will be well.  You can hardly imagine the joy which the patient expressed and the many “twa-pandulas” (thank-yous) which we heard.

To go back to our operating room, our first case is over.  Now some quick moves and all is cleaned up and fresh things are brought out in preparation for the removal of a “Lipoma” which is a large fatty grow which has annoyed this man for a long time.  This was also successfully performed and the patient was very happy.  In the afternoon we had things to clean up and to sterilize for to-morrow’s operations.

I might say here that we had two good assistants in Sapunga, who is Dr. Cushman’s helper and had assisted her before as a sterile assistant or as an anaestheticist and in Paulu who Dr. Hall has trained so that they are reliable young men and now considerable responsibility can be entrusted to them.

In the evening Miss Read and I go for a short walk after supper along a very pretty winding road and enjoy the African evening sky with its myriads of bright stars and a new moon which is just rising.  Oh, how thankful we are that dear Elizabeth has arrived she brings such joy and helps in making our home a very happy place.

These are some of the things that make the missionaries very happy, and feel that life is worth while, if we can only teach and train so that the African can help himself.

This evening also there is a business meeting for the missionaries of Chissamba station.  There I hear of the terrible debts and the word from Mr. Moore, that there is no money coming from home to pay it off.  This is certainly a great burden which hangs like a dark grey cloud over us and which shadows our days.  In my own department there is no money to be used and there are some things that are needed to be bought in the country.

There is at the hospital a good supply of medicines at hand.  But there are a few which are needed.  I understand it has been the custom for you to send the order to Eng. so I’ll make a list and have it go before the stations meeting of things required.  Then possibly one of the outcoming missionaries could bring them.

I think that we should have the money on hand for a small herd of cows Mar. 7/26 in connection with the hospital by the time the doctor returns.  If we are to have the hospital full of patients next year we need considerable milk.  At present all milk is supplied from the Ladies House which is quite a drain on our personal accounts, because there is no money on the medical account.

We do miss Dr. + Mrs. Hall so much.  Miss Jamieson as far as I can understand Doctor and his wife have had a very lonesome and difficult five years at Chissamba.  The doctor has put up some fine buildings and done his own medical work very well indeed.  It is a great privilege for a mission to have a doctor who is so keenly interested in his profession and and it would certainly be a great loss [above this is The Governor’s statement.] to our work if he should for any reason not return.  I will tell you frankly Miss Jamieson that it would be very much against my will to stay here in this work without a doctor after this first year.  A nurse is not fitted to do a doctor’s work any more than a doctor to do a nurses, and I don’t wish to spend my life at a place where there is no doctor.  The medical dept has a great work to do.  P.  These people are far behind in the most simple rules of hygiene and their health is so important in making their lives richer and fuller.  Much more time and money needs to be given to this department, if this side of the African life is to be on an equal standing with their mental growth.

Last month we had very much pleasure in opening the bales.  I want to send thanks to all the friends who took such a keen interest in the people here, by providing so many nice things.  I was keenly looking forward to the arrival of the bales because we need absorbent cotton + gauze for the hospital, but this year none came, such a disappointment.  Oh girls please do your very best to support our work.  I shall try to keep you informed as to what good help + benefits your efforts and money bring to these African people, God’s children, therefore our brothers + sisters.  Please think of me day by day and this work which is yours and mine and remember us in your prayers and in your givings.

Trusting in and looking to you, who are disciples of Christ, I am,

Your representative,

Sibyl Hosking.

[below, vertical:]
Letter to Miss Jamieson
Mar. 1925


[paperclipped to the letter]

Pus basins or kidney basins.
Small wash basins.
Tr. Dig.
Glycerine.
Iodoform Powder.
Morph.Sulph. Grs. ⅙ - ¼ 
Ticking.  50 single beds.  26”
Absorbent Cotton
Gauze by the bolt to be cut and sterilized here.
3 Glass Triumph syringes.
Extra (fine stilettos for hypo needles.)
Coarse bone combs
 catalogued as dog combs
More sheets, gowns + towels each year, as these are continually wearing out.
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1926-02-15: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
About the second week in January I returned to Chissamba and began steady work in the hospital with Dr. Hall.
Sibyl had gone to Kamundongo to learn Umbundu from Dr. Sanders.  She had spent some time in Chissamba before this, but maybe felt hampered enough by her ignorance of Umbundu that she felt that January was when she began her nursing work in earnest.

2.
There is a great deal of praise for Dr. Hall in this letter.  There was a difficult situation regarding Dr. Hall that I don't fully understand, but I suspect that Sibyl wanted to put in a seriously good word for him with people who might be viewing him askance.

3.
For about one month we had the pleasure of having Dr. Cushman from Chileso with us.  She brought over some patients who were in need of operations and to-gether Dr. Hall + Dr. Cushman were able to perform seven operations which have turned out successful.  Later Dr. Hollenbeck came from Kamundongo for another very serious operation which the doctors were anxious to do before Dr. Hall should go on furlough.
Dr. Cushman and Dr. Hollenbeck are in the Non-family page for missionary folks on this website.

4.
Perhaps I could tell you of one days work.  I have opened my diary to Jan. 19th.
The description of the day is in basic missionary-writing-for-effect style.  I'm not sure if the date is the  19th or the 11th, but it doesn't matter, so far as I can tell.

​5.
I might say here that we had two good assistants in Sapunga, who is Dr. Cushman’s helper and had assisted her before as a sterile assistant or as an anaestheticist and in Paulu who Dr. Hall has trained so that they are reliable young men and now considerable responsibility can be entrusted to them.
Paulu is probably the Paulo who is mentioned in less complimentary fashion here:
6.
​In the evening Miss Read and I go for a short walk after supper along a very pretty winding road and enjoy the African evening sky with its myriads of bright stars and a new moon which is just rising.  Oh, how thankful we are that dear Elizabeth has arrived she brings such joy and helps in making our home a very happy place.
Elizabeth Read is also in the Non-family page for mission folks.

​7.
This evening also there is a business meeting for the missionaries of Chissamba station.  There I hear of the terrible debts and the word from Mr. Moore, that there is no money coming from home to pay it off.
And there's the reason that Sibyl chose this particular date to write about.

8.
I will tell you frankly Miss Jamieson that it would be very much against my will to stay here in this work without a doctor after this first year.  A nurse is not fitted to do a doctor’s work any more than a doctor to do a nurses, and I don’t wish to spend my life at a place where there is no doctor.
A year and a half later, when Sibyl told the board in Canada of her engagement, there still was no replacement for Dr. Hall, and they asked her to postpone her wedding until they could get a new doctor in.  And she did it.

​9.
I was keenly looking forward to the arrival of the bales because we need absorbent cotton + gauze for the hospital, but this year none came, such a disappointment. 
Band-Aids were invented in 1920, according to Wikipedia, but in 1926 they were too new-fangled, or probably too expensive, for the missions.

​10.
​Letter to Miss Jamieson
Mar. 1925
Sibyl must have forgotten the (not so) new year.
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