A MISSIONARY'S LETTER.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 26, Issue 12, 1 December 1936, Page 4

A MISSIONARY'S LETTER.

The following letter was received m August from Nurse R. Lindsay, C.M.S., Kibondo, Kigoma, Tanganyika Territory, East Africa, and will be read, with interest:- — The house where Miss Veal and I are living is made of sun-baked bricks, with, a grass roof which is airy and cool. Captain Geikie (C.A.) has a similar house further up the hill. There is also a Dr. Bell here, who is m charge of the .concentration camps, and he, too, is most of his

time out on the "safari" visiting all the sleeping sickness areas, so really Miss Veal and I are, at present, the only two Europeans m Kibondo, though when the two men are m from their travels we number four. Kibondo is, I think, our most isolated station; we are 150 miles from the nearest Post Office and 90 miles from any other Europeans, except the White Fathers. Our mail is taken each week by runners. . Our loads (foodstuffs, etc.) have to be carried by porters— also a five-day journey — so we shall have to be like the ants and lay by a supply for the wet season. My medicine, etc., from England have been at Kasalu since March, and to-day, about 3 p.m., we heard a terrific noise — horns blowing, people shouting— and behold! there were my boxes of medicines being carried by about 10 or 15 men, who were doing their best to let us know of their arrival. They had been five days on the road, and so carried their bedding too, which consisted of bark mats and skins of animals. The Waha are very, very primitive; m fact, the Government officials say they are 50 years behind any other tribes of Tanganyika; they are undoubtedly the real raw heathen, untouched as. yet by civilisation. At first the women were terrified of us, and hid whenever we went near their houses, but now they are becoming more friendly and come about the Mission station. They are also bringing their sick babies (such miserable little things), covered with charms given them by the medicine man. One evening lately we were visiting m the villages and they showed us an earthern pot half buried m the ground which they said was inhabited by evil spirits. It was at the foot of a banana palm, and there was also a little garden of potatoes near by, which also belonged to the spirits. They are too simple to hide these things as the more advanced tribes do. These Waha women do not understand Swahili, but it is amazing how much they do hear when they want to. We have a splendid African clergyman here, the Rev. Joseph Kamuzola. He is the first man to be ordained m the Western Mission, and is doing splendid work among the people.

There are also two Evangelists who are most of their time out m the villages preaching and teaching the people, but owing to the rains we have only as yet been able to visit m the villages near the Mission, though later, we hope to go from place to place with our tent, staying a few days here and a few days there. Our Sunday services are quite well attended, and the people are very reverent, though occasionally one or two women engage m a conversation quite out loud. Miss Veal has about 100 children on the school roll, most of whom are dressed like their fathers, m the skins of animals, which, it seems, are most convenient, for, being hung from the shoulder, they just move the skin round to the weather side, and so shelter themselves from the cold winds. Their houses are tiny,' beehive-shaped places, made from grass, but I do not think a full-grown man could stand upright inside. The women mostly dress m bark cloth, and are very dirty. To-day, about 15 or 16 brought their infants and small children for treatment — such miserable rickety babies, too. One woman had a bad foot, the result of a snake bite. She had been treated by a tribal dresser, but came on here. I asked her why she left him to come to us, and her reply was, "How could he do me any good? Isn't he a heathen? " And you should have seen the woman herself. This afternoon we have been busy making boxes into cupboards for our medicines, and while hammering arid sawing we had quite an admiring crowd of men around us, who, I suppose, wondered whatever sort of people we were. Later they all helped carry the things down, and were as pleased as children.