Letter # 71 - June 8, 1979

Sorry about that! Your last letter says that is was 7 weeks inbetween letters. That means that at least one got lost. I think that it was one that we gave to a woman in Kamiendor to mail for us. I guess that she didn't know what a Post Office was. Writing a letter at least every two weeks appears to be an impossibility. When we go up to Kamiendor, we usually don't come back out again for up to a month. Also, as we found out, we can't really depend on anyone to mail a letter for us. Diana wrote a letter a few weeks ago while we were in Kamiendor, but then we didn't get a chance to mail it until we came to Freetown a few days ago.

I hope you received the letter with the "affidavit of Support" in it. This has to be filled out by you in two copies, showing that you can support Diana if need be. They don't want one from me because I am just a Peace Corps Volunteer and I don't yet have a job lined up in America. When you get the two copies filled out, then send them to us here so that we can proceed with getting Diana's immigration visa.

Work on my project is coming along slowly but I guess steadily. It looks like I might have a chance to finish it up in a few more months. Plumbers are theoretically coming up next week in begin on the pipe laying. I'll expect them only when I see them, though.

We had some excitement on the well site last week. A large cotton tree, 116 feet high and 9 feet circumference, fell down on top of the well, pushing a palm tree down with it. It did some damage, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

The curcumstances of this tree falling down are curious.

• Firstly, it fell down during the daytime, at a time when we would have been working on the well, but it fell down on Thursday, the one day each week that we do not work (market day). If we had been working at that time, then we would be counting how many people dead or wounded.
• Secondly, it was a perfect hit, just like it was aimed for the well. It was also aimed directly at the pumphouse, but came up about 5 feet short. It fell down, just barely missing the bailing pump by 3 feet with its trunk and by 3 feet by one large branch. Also, another large branch came down on the place where another bailing pump was just removed a few days before.
• It was like the tree wanted to fall down to show us that it meant business, but that it did not want to do any serious damage.

Because of the circumstances of the tree falling down, it sort of makes it hard not to believe that there is a devil guarding this water. It makes one think.

Diana had malaria at the end of last month, and then I got a bit of it a few weeks ago. I look after her and she looks after me. We are both well now, though, so don't worry.

We are starting into the rainy season now. It has just begun here in Freetown, but has been going on in Kamiendor for two months already. It will come to a peak in September.

Love,
Donny and Diana