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Sorry, I haven't yet recorded the document.
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Fred enjoys his life as a missionary in Angola, but he does not love the Canadian mission board.
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Dondi Apr 3 1927
Dear Miss Hosking:
Your letters via "Bobby" and Miss H. arrived in due season. Miss H. in forwarding the enclosure said she was disappointed in finding her fat envelope full of "water stock". She even implied that I was no gentleman +c. Perhaps you have heard from her directly her opinions. I told her you had resorted to that strategem to outwit your guards - your mail was censored and you were being shadowed by detectives to prevent your being kidnapped or having any communications from or with the villains.
Bilhete resented your statements concerning him and bit your letter he is at his tricks now and grabbed the pen while I was writing this.
I can't imagine what led anyone to consider me in any way as an artist. I draw teeth and inferences and a lot of unpleasant comments from my opponents and paint the town red when on a spree. As a musician my best performance is with the victrola. I have the feelings but not the training.
If the efforts of the mission were directed more toward getting Hollenbeck off and back in time it would seem to me more reasonable. His staying on at Camundongo just to get a label on Collins does not seem quite right. If he thinks Collins can handle the outstation work +c he may consider a move. If not.....that is another problem. Would he stay and try to run the outstations and boys work as if the man were not there.....Another Lloyd experience? He does not seem to want to develop an extensive medical work.
I will try to get the questions of the Dondi medical work considered early in the Annual Meeting for the action on these things will determine whether or not I put in a request for furlough. If the mission steps on me too hard I will sever all connection with the mission before Dr. McMillan arrives and join him for the hunt and return to America with him. I am not at all sure of returning to the mission, Steed's comments on the Trustees Meeting were not reassuring. How does the A.M. date decision go at Chissamba. We have cabled the Board that the date cannot be changed. Some of the Trustee's pet plans would miscarry even if he were here - such as the joint Treasurship in hishands. The American Mission does not want him as Treasurer of two independent missions. There is too much power in the office to put it outside the mission. To become 1/3 of the executive committee of a mission of which he was not a member would hardly appeal to even the Canadian Mission as desirable. To have the separation complete may be rough on the Canadians as often the missionaries salaries are drawn from the A.B.C.F.M. before there has been any appropriation from Toronto. All the debts at Chissamba + Camundongo are being carried at Boston. Losing a vote in the A.M. is one of the penalties of taking a furlough.
Dr. Cushman wrote asking about plans for a Surgical Clinic at the time of the A.M. That might be arranged if some n.u.r.s.e would stay to look after the patients. We have no beds or other conveniences. Dr. C. wants me to operate on a goitre among other things. I have never done one but would be willing to start at any time.
For Julio keep him on quinine or a tonic. He will not be better for some time. I have not time before the train to add the list of medicines but will do so in the next epistle to the n.u.r.s.e.
It has just started to rain and I am to drive over to meet Dart + Bell at once.
without Bilhete's greetings, poor child
F.E.S.
E for Eicher - my grandmother's maiden name.
P.S. I wrote another sheet but the bat not the cat left his mark during the night.
F.
Dear Miss Hosking:
Your letters via "Bobby" and Miss H. arrived in due season. Miss H. in forwarding the enclosure said she was disappointed in finding her fat envelope full of "water stock". She even implied that I was no gentleman +c. Perhaps you have heard from her directly her opinions. I told her you had resorted to that strategem to outwit your guards - your mail was censored and you were being shadowed by detectives to prevent your being kidnapped or having any communications from or with the villains.
Bilhete resented your statements concerning him and bit your letter he is at his tricks now and grabbed the pen while I was writing this.
I can't imagine what led anyone to consider me in any way as an artist. I draw teeth and inferences and a lot of unpleasant comments from my opponents and paint the town red when on a spree. As a musician my best performance is with the victrola. I have the feelings but not the training.
If the efforts of the mission were directed more toward getting Hollenbeck off and back in time it would seem to me more reasonable. His staying on at Camundongo just to get a label on Collins does not seem quite right. If he thinks Collins can handle the outstation work +c he may consider a move. If not.....that is another problem. Would he stay and try to run the outstations and boys work as if the man were not there.....Another Lloyd experience? He does not seem to want to develop an extensive medical work.
I will try to get the questions of the Dondi medical work considered early in the Annual Meeting for the action on these things will determine whether or not I put in a request for furlough. If the mission steps on me too hard I will sever all connection with the mission before Dr. McMillan arrives and join him for the hunt and return to America with him. I am not at all sure of returning to the mission, Steed's comments on the Trustees Meeting were not reassuring. How does the A.M. date decision go at Chissamba. We have cabled the Board that the date cannot be changed. Some of the Trustee's pet plans would miscarry even if he were here - such as the joint Treasurship in hishands. The American Mission does not want him as Treasurer of two independent missions. There is too much power in the office to put it outside the mission. To become 1/3 of the executive committee of a mission of which he was not a member would hardly appeal to even the Canadian Mission as desirable. To have the separation complete may be rough on the Canadians as often the missionaries salaries are drawn from the A.B.C.F.M. before there has been any appropriation from Toronto. All the debts at Chissamba + Camundongo are being carried at Boston. Losing a vote in the A.M. is one of the penalties of taking a furlough.
Dr. Cushman wrote asking about plans for a Surgical Clinic at the time of the A.M. That might be arranged if some n.u.r.s.e would stay to look after the patients. We have no beds or other conveniences. Dr. C. wants me to operate on a goitre among other things. I have never done one but would be willing to start at any time.
For Julio keep him on quinine or a tonic. He will not be better for some time. I have not time before the train to add the list of medicines but will do so in the next epistle to the n.u.r.s.e.
It has just started to rain and I am to drive over to meet Dart + Bell at once.
without Bilhete's greetings, poor child
F.E.S.
E for Eicher - my grandmother's maiden name.
P.S. I wrote another sheet but the bat not the cat left his mark during the night.
F.
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Here are the people mentioned in the letter. They should be in the Non-Family Mission Folks page, except for the cat and Julio.
"Bobby": I think this is Mrs. MacAllester, stationed in Sachikela.
Miss H: This must be Mary Hurlbut, a teacher stationed in Dondi.
Bilhete: Fred's cat.
Hollenbeck: Dr. Hollenbeck, in Camundongo
Collins: I don't know anything about him.
Dr. McMillan: I don't know anything about him.
Steed: Rev. J. Arthur Steed, stationed in Chissamba.
Dr. Cushman: Dr. Mary Floyd Cushman. I don't know where she was stationed.
Julio: a native, I think.
Dart: Sid Dart, in Angola with his wife and young child.
Bell: Mr. Bell. I don't know anything about him.
There's lots about mission management that I don't understand. But Fred doesn't like the Canadian mission board much.
There's enough that answers Sibyl's previous letter so that it's simpler for you just to go read the letter:
1927-03-27 LETTER FROM SIBYL TO FRED
Miss H. in forwarding the enclosure said she was disappointed in finding her fat envelope full of "water stock".
Google told me about stock in water utilities, but nothing about whatever Fred and Miss Hurlbut were talking about.
E for Eicher - my grandmother's maiden name.
Fred's paternal grandmother was Marie Eicher Stokey. Also known as Mary Eicher Stokey, but she was from Alsace, so I imagine she thought of herself as Marie.
"Bobby": I think this is Mrs. MacAllester, stationed in Sachikela.
Miss H: This must be Mary Hurlbut, a teacher stationed in Dondi.
Bilhete: Fred's cat.
Hollenbeck: Dr. Hollenbeck, in Camundongo
Collins: I don't know anything about him.
Dr. McMillan: I don't know anything about him.
Steed: Rev. J. Arthur Steed, stationed in Chissamba.
Dr. Cushman: Dr. Mary Floyd Cushman. I don't know where she was stationed.
Julio: a native, I think.
Dart: Sid Dart, in Angola with his wife and young child.
Bell: Mr. Bell. I don't know anything about him.
There's lots about mission management that I don't understand. But Fred doesn't like the Canadian mission board much.
There's enough that answers Sibyl's previous letter so that it's simpler for you just to go read the letter:
1927-03-27 LETTER FROM SIBYL TO FRED
Miss H. in forwarding the enclosure said she was disappointed in finding her fat envelope full of "water stock".
Google told me about stock in water utilities, but nothing about whatever Fred and Miss Hurlbut were talking about.
E for Eicher - my grandmother's maiden name.
Fred's paternal grandmother was Marie Eicher Stokey. Also known as Mary Eicher Stokey, but she was from Alsace, so I imagine she thought of herself as Marie.
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LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT PAGES IN THIS WEBSITE
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- FRED: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- SIBYL: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- NON-FAMILY: MISSION FOLKS ----- Related
RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
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