Galilee's first pet

Every day was exciting, and sometimes a little scary. Galilee was six now, and felt very grown up. Here, in this new place, instead of looking out for poison ivy, she had to look out for snakes. There was no lake,

and no snow in the winter. But, there was something different every day.

On her 6^th birthday she had been given a doll. The doll's body was white but the head was a chocolate brown.  Friends of her parents, had given it to her mom and dad, for her before they left America. Mom had saved it as a surprise present for her birthday. The funny thing was, that when they received the gift, the doll was all white.  Something happened while it was in shipping because  when they unpacked it in Africa the doll's head had changed color. 

Galilee loved it instantly and named it Ruthann, after the girl who gave it to her.  It's eyes opened and shut and when you bent her she cried.   This became her very favorite doll.  Because the head was a chocolate brown, all the children she now played with wanted to hold it too.

The kitchen that burnt down was never rebuilt. Rather, an addition was made on the back of the sleeping house.  Galilee liked being able to go to the kitchen without having to dress and go outside.

Some more new people came to live in their ‘station'. Galilee learned that the place they lived
was called a mission station and the people that arrived were called missionaries. Her parents, and the other families, had come to share the news about God’s love for them.

Her mom and dad were very busy. They were both studying K'lungu. Dad said it was a tonal language.
Many words were spelled the same, but the meaning depending on how you said it. Dad said it was inflection. Mary thought it was like music.

 

One day, a man brought a baby antelope to the door.  The mother had been killed for food. The men didn’t want to deal with the fawn and thought the people on the station might buy it. Galilee just loved that little one and named him Pokita.

One morning, when we went out to his pen to feed and play with him he was gone.

Galilee had never lost a pet before and was crying. Mom said he was a wild animal and shouldn't be kept in a pen.  Maybe he got away. 

But Galilee heard her brothers say probably  he'd been stolen for food.  She thought, "I never want another pet, only to lose it."



Soon, a new excitement helped Galilee to not be so sad. Her Dad and the other men decided they would make bricks so they could build stronger houses. The grass houses had some problems. 

 

One night all the men were gone from the station. They had to take all the guns to the Government offices in Dodoma, to be registered.

That night a Lion came and walked around and around and around the house. The people warned mom of  sighting of a lion in the hills so Mom had put boards up at the two entrances and pushed something heavy up against the boards, but there really was nothing to prevent the lion from pushing through the grass walls. No one slept much that night. Finally, the lion went away without getting in but no one knew, while he was padding around outside, if he would get in.  So, Galilee thought it would be better to live in a house not made of grass.  She just didn't know how long she would have to wait.

The Fire May 1954

                                    The Fire

 When Galilee woke she could tell by the light coming in at the door, and that her tummy was empty, that it was late.


She got up and went over to be by Dad, who was typing. She liked the sound of the clickety-clack of the keys as they hit the paper. He stopped and gave her a hug and went on.


“Where’s mom?”

“She went to take a quick bath in the tent while the boys get supper ready.”

“They started long ago. I thought it would be ready by now.”

“Mr. Deming came and asked them to help him so they’ve just gotten back. It will be soon now.” Dad replied.


Galilee went and stood at the door and looked out. She was shy to go out because she didn’t want to see the kids laughing at her.


She could hear her brothers talking in the ‘kitchen’.

Mom came around the corner from the tent carrying a towel and washing stuff in her hand, and looking very pretty. She paused by Galilee to give her a squeeze and went inside.

Galilee heard Jim say, “Okay, Jerry, you and Dick need to start the fire now. I’ve got things mostly ready and we need to start cooking.” Jim was always very bossy in the kitchen.


“Dick” Galilee heard Jerry command, “You pour a little gas on the kindling and I will light the match. That will get it going quicker.”


Suddenly there was funny whoosh sound and a terrible yell. Dick came stumbling out the door.



Galilee could see fire in the grass on the roof.


Fire, Fire” Dick was shouting.


“Here’s some water in this bucket” Jim said.



“There’s not enough. The roof’s burning. Dad, Mom, Help!” That was Jerry.

Galilee just stood there gaping. She had never before seen such a thing. She didn’t even cry out. Dad and Mom pushed past her and ran over just as Jim and Jerry came hurtling out the door.


Then everything was wild. It was a swirling mess of color, smoke and flames, and a roaring crackling noise. The air began to smell strongly of burning grass. It is a very distinctive smell. Everyone was running up - the people from the village, and all the people living at Tatanda - the name of where they lived.


Dad ran to the burning house shouting, “Come help me pull the stuff out the kitchen .”


Mom went to the truck that was very close to the kitchen. She got in to move it. For the longest time mom just sat there in the truck. Then one of the men came to her window and said something. Mom leaned forward and did something. Suddenly the engine roared like the gas pedal was on the floor, and the truck jerked forward in hops and jumps and then died. Again, the engine roared to life and Mom moved the car away from the fire.

Getting out of the car Mom saw people just standing around.


She grabbed two buckets by the tent, and Nurse Bjimers and the people from the village all with buckets in their hands followed mom down the path to the water hole.



Galilee just stood and watched, stunned by the noise and the shooting flames. She saw her dad go into the burning house and come out. But, then she saw him go in but not come out. She was looking and looking for him. She could not  see him anywhere. Frightened now, she started to cry and run toward the burning house. Someone caught her and held her still.


Galilee fought to get loose shouting “Daddy, Daddy” but the hands holding her didn’t let her loose. She slumped down on the ground sobbing.


Finally she looked up to see buckets of water being passed hand to hand from a line of people leading down to the water hole. The front person threw the water on the fire and jogged down to the end of the line to get another bucket. Galilee didn’t really understand what was happening but later heard as everyone talked after the fire.


There was an after the fire, time. It was night time when the fire was finally out. Black specks of ash floated around in the wind. Everyone just stood and looked at where the house used to be, now a black scar on the ground.

Everything had been taken out of the house. A big box in the middle was the last item they drug out. It was too heavy to lift. Even as they drug it clear, the roof collapsed. That was when Galilee saw her dad on the other side of the house. The flames were dying down and at last the buckets of water were poured on the smoldering grass and then it was out - everything was dark. For a few minutes there was only the sounds of the night and people quietly milling around in stunned silence.

Dad and mom went to the different men and women who had helped and thanked them. Then, the village people slowly turned and walked back down the dark path to their homes.


Someone came out the Deming's house carrying a light. It was Mrs. Deming. Dad gathered us all around to check if any of us were hurt. Galilee hardly recognized her dad and mom. Mom was all wet. She told dad she just got down into the water and filled the buckets as they were passed to her. She was leaning exhausted on one of the rescued boxes.

Dad was black with soot. I started laughing. He looked like the other people here now, with his white skin all black. The others just smiled but clearly didn’t see anything funny to laugh about. Dad started to hold his arms out to hold us all in his arms but he was so dirty, mom said he should wash first, and not get those of us who were still clean dirty - that was mostly me. I was about the only one clean.



Then Dad bowed his head and said quietly, “Thank you Lord Jesus that we are all safe!”



Then the men went down to the water hole to wash.  It was their source of drinking water but by now it was so filthy they figured a couple more people in wouldn't matter.
Mrs. Deming spoke up quietly. “Thank the Lord. I knew I couldn’t help so I went and prayed that God would change the wind. It was blowing sparks toward the other houses. Then, I thought maybe you would all be hungry. I made some soup and sandwiches. I think we should feed the children and let them go to bed.”



Galilee found she was very hungry and was so glad for some food. Then Mom walked with her over to the sleeping house. Dick came also. Mom changed into dry clothes and helped Galilee ready for bed.



The next morning Galilee woke up late. She could see the sun shining through the open doorway. She laid in bed and could hear quiet talking outside. There was a horrible smell in the air.


Then she remembered the fire. Mom had placed clean clothes under the net for her to put on.   She got dressed under the net, even remembering to tip her shoes upside down and shake them before putting them on, and fully dressed, crawled off the bed. No one else was in the room.

When Galilee got outside it looked very strange. A big black area was all that was left of the kitchen. There were boxes and all the kitchen stuff laying all around. Everyone was just looking around. Nobody really seemed like they were doing anything.

Mom was sitting by a small stove with a pot on top. She was making oatmeal for breakfast.

Suddenly Jerry picked up a little gold looking thing. It was the mouth piece for his trumpet. He held it to his mouth and puffed, making a little squeak and a puff of black dust. “Well,” he said with a sad sound in his voice, “I won’t be playing reveille any more!”

Only the men went to church that morning, while the mom and the other women made food and tried to make some order.

After lunch, as mom and dad walked around seeing what had been burnt up and what was left, they found only one of the boxes they used for shelves burned down one side. Then mom and dad started talking about the one big box that was the last thing dragged out the fire.


“What’s in it” dad asked mom.

“I don’t remember. I don’t think anything that important.”




“Well, lets take a look. Dick, will you get me the hammer and that chisel.”

Soon he was pulling the nails out the lid and then lifted the lid off. There was a funny smell as the lid came off. Galilee didn’t like it. Mom said it was smoke smell. They pulled out stuff. The clothes in the box were still hot to touch. It was cooler as they got to the middle of the box, but was still warm. We were all crowded around looking at what was in the box. Then, when mom lifted the next layer of clothes off, dad gasped. Right in the center of the box he uncovered ten or more boxes of ammunition for his guns. The shells were all warm to the touch.

Everyone, move back.” dad spoke very quietly. He carefully lifted the shell boxes out and very carefully placed them in a shady place to get cool.

Again, dad called us all around him. He drew all us kids into his arms and looking around at mom and the other people standing around.

“God really saved us, more than we even knew. Tonight I would like us to all gather together and just thank the Lord for his care and protection.” 




Galilee didn't feel like she knew a lot about God. Mom and dad talked about Him a lot and she knew He loved her but this gave her new ideas to think about. For right now, she was just glad her family was all around her.

Malaria

It was so good to be out in the sun after such a long time in bed. Dad was up today also. Mom said it was Malaria.
Galilee truly didn’t remember much. She remembered being really sick, mom giving her cool water sponge baths. Also, she remembered the walls swirling in like they were going to draw her into the swirl. She would get so scared and cry out. Her mom would come in and comfort her,  and that made the walls stand up properly.

Galilee had been getting up and going for meals for the last 3 days, but only in her robe and pajamas. That meant going out the house where they slept and over the house where they food was cooked and they ate. Life was so very different from how they lived in America.  Galilee still was not used to living in two houses that were made of grass.
Today, mom had placed her clothes on the end of the bed, under the net and told her she must get up. She needed to move around to begin to regain her strength. She didn't much feel like running around but with everyone out all day it was lonely, so she was glad to get dressed and go out.

Mom thought Galilee would forget about emptying her shoes out and staying under the net to dress after being in bed for so long, so she reminded her. The children from the village sometimes parted the wall grass to see what these strange people who’d come to live by their village were doing. The net helped not to be seen so well. Also, it protected them while sleeping from bugs, lizards, and worse, snakes. They killed snakes on the property every day and her brother Jerry had even killed a snake in the grass in the roof a few mornings ago.

The last thing before climbing off the bed was to raise the net and carefully empty her shoes out before putting them on her feet. She remember the morning her brother was careless and when he put his foot in the shoe, something wiggled. He had yelped so loud they all came running to see why. He’d managed to yank his foot out the shoe quickly and wasn't bitten. In fact, when he emptied the shoe it was a lizard. Galilee thought the lizard was more frightened than Dick was. But it is when little creatures feel trapped that they bite so this, and also the possible sting of a scorpion was most fearful. Everyone quickly learned about checking shoes and clothes laying around before putting them on.

 As she was dressing Galilee was thinking of their new home. Everything was so different from when they lived at that other house. The one by the lake in a place called Camp JIM, in Minnesota. That was before they got on the big ship and crossed the ocean. That house had running water, and lights you could turn on with a switch, and a toilet inside that you could flush. And, there were no nets over the beds there. 

Galilee was more used to how they lived by now. They slept in one house - made of grass like the people in the village down the road. Dad and her brothers had started on the house as soon as they arrived. Men from the village helped them.  Galilee remembered her terror when early in the building of the new grass houses she went to see what was going on and got lost in the grass.  One of the men working with dad heard her crying and came to rescue her.  That was the last time she willing stepped of a visible path into that tall grass.  It towered above her head.  But, she found she did like the smell of it, especially when the heat of the sun warmed it.

First thing after they arrived, Dad had put the big green tent up and they stored things in there, and the motor dad called the ‘light generator’ was there. After building the two grass houses, one on either side of the tent dad and her brothers had strung up lines to each house, and one over to the Deming's house. These lines had light bulbs attached. Every evening from dark until Mom and Dad went to bed. the generator motor ran and they had light. That was nice. The little Tilley lamps were not so easy to put on and they had to keep putting kerosene in them. Galilee of course, didn't do this but she watched her brothers do it.

Mom had drawn a picture of their houses with the tent in the middle, to put in letters to their family and friends they’d left behind.

Dad didn't have his photography room set up yet to develop pictures so a drawing had to do.

Finally dressed, Galilee wandered outside. The sun was warm. That was good after several months of very cold weather. Everyone else had had breakfast but mom had some toast with peanut butter and a drink of milk set aside for her.



There was an air of ‘something special’ going to happen. Galilee had heard her older brothers tell Mom that they wanted to cook supper for them. They wanted mom and dad’s 19th wedding anniversary supper to be a surprise. Her brother Jim enjoyed cooking and Jerry and Dick would help by doing all the non cooking stuff.


Some of the village children greeted her and crowded around to play. They couldn’t understand each others words much, but it was nice to be with kids around her own age. They were as fascinated by her white hair (blond) as Galilee was with their short, very curly black hair. It felt so very soft to touch.


Mikka motioned her to come and look. There, going across a ditch, on the road toward the church and school, by the fig tree was a dark line. It was moving . Galilee went close to see what it was. Mikka held her back from touching the line. It was a line of huge black ants, with what looked like pincher's for noses. They were crossing the water ditch. Each ant held onto the one in front, making a bridge all the way across the ditch and then other ants were walking across the ditch on top of the ants under them. It was so fun to watch. Mikka picked up a blade of grass and poked at the ants and one pinched the grass piece fiercely with it’s pincher's.


Then Mikka jumped up and jumped on the line of ants. Her feet were bare but she moved so quickly that the ants didn’t pinch her.


“Come” Mikka gestured, “you do it.”

Mary had shoes on so she wasn’t worried. She jumped on and off. After a few jumps, the ants were in turmoil. Suddenly Galilee yelled. She felt a fiery bite on her leg. Looking down there were several ants hanging on to her by their pincher's. Oh it hurt. It burned and stung all at once.


Mikka, laughing very hard, pulled Galilee away from the now very angry ants and got the pinching ants off her but it hurt for a long time. All the children thought this was the funniest thing. They danced around her laughing and pointing at her. Imagine, this foreign girl who didn’t know anything.

Galilee was embarrassed and pulling away ran to the sleeping house. It wasn’t fun to be laughed at when you were in pain. Mom and dad were talking in by where dad had the typewriter set up and they didn’t seem to notice her so Galilee went and got a doll and climbing on her bed, under the net,  played quietly for a bit - pretending the doll was her baby.

It was her favorite baby doll with a brown body so it fit in with the children she now played with. She called it Amos. You could put real water in the bottle and feed Amos, and then the baby wet itself as the water came through. Mom didn’t often let her play with the water but because they were busy Galilee didn’t ask. After a short while she fell asleep.

Story of childhood in Tanganyika from 1953-1957- arriving

MOVING TO A NEW HOME

Galilee was so excited. It seemed like she had been stuck in this truck all her life.

She could just remember her old home but it was so very far away.

Mom told her, “Today, when we get to the pig tree we will be there.” But, it was taking so long. Galilee longed to just run about and play.

Just as the sun was going behind the hill Dad, Mom and Mr. Deming pulled off on the side of the road.

Dad came over to the truck Mom and Galilee were in, “ It will be awhile Grace, so I think we need to take time to eat and then go on. Mr. Deming says it will be another hour and we are all very hungry.”

Galilee was glad as she was so hungry she could hear her tummy growling.


Mom gave each of them some peanut butter sandwiches and a drink of lukewarm water. The cookie that she had at the end of the meal was the last of mom’s homemade cookies.


On the ship there had been plenty of food and lots of fruit, more than Galilee had ever seen before. But since leaving the ship they had mostly bread, cereal, boiled eggs and sandwiches. She missed the fruit the most. But, she was really glad for the cookie to end the meal.


Soon they all got back into the trucks. Galilee in the truck with her mom, Dick with Dad, and Jerry and Jim with Mr. Deming. Jim and Jerry were twins and almost 15.


Galilee didn’t know when they stopped. She slept right through the arrival. When she woke up in the morning she was laying in her bed in the back of the truck. She could hear her brothers and parents talking and smell toast.


Excitedly she shoved her feet into her shoes without stopping to tie the laces, and pulled yesterday's dress over her head. She didn’t even think of her hair.


She went to the tail gate to look out. The one door was propped up. The other side was still closed. All she could see was tall grass, almost as tall as the truck,and a big tree.

There were people all around. Where the trucks were parked under the tree, the grass had been trampled down. Then she just about fell off the end of the truck. She had just  remembered the tree. The pig tree. Forgetting everything else, Galilee jumped down so she could see the pigs.


She peered up at the leaves overhead. No pigs. She looked on the ground under the tree. Still no pigs. Where were they?


She walked around the tree, stumbling a bit on the tree root, but still no pigs.


Finally she ran over to her mom who was making toast over an open fire.


“Mom, mom, I can’t see them anywhere. Where are they?”


“Careful of the fire Galilee. What can’t you see?”


“The pigs?”


Mom now looked up, but only half listening, as she was watching the toast. “Pigs? What pigs?”


“You said, we would be home when we got to the Pig tree. I thought we were there, but I can't see any pigs anywhere.”


“Oh Galilee” mom was laughing softly, “not pigs. It’s a Fig tree. That's a kind of fruit.


Galilee‘s shoulders drooped. She missed the pigs they had at their old home. She also felt shy because everyone was laughing at her. She ducked her head under her mom’s arm.


Dad came over, tossed her up in the air and carried her over and sat her on the truck tailgate. Her oldest brother Jim came over and tied her shoes. Mom went back to making breakfast.

Well, there were no pigs. But she found she loved the smell in air. She could smell the fire, but,  there was another lovely smell. Later she realized it was the smell of the grass. She was glad they had arrived and were out of the truck.   But, where were they going to live. There was no house, just the tent and the beds in the trucks. And the fire outside where mom was making the food. It was all very unusual.


The people standing around watching seemed to know Mr. Deming. He was talking to them with funny words. Then everyone moved back a bit but didn’t leave.


Galilee was looking at the children but she was shy. She tried to catch their eyes so she could smile but they also seemed shy and would look away quickly, before she could smile. It seemed funny because they were all black and she had never played with anyone who was black before.

She was used to their color by now because since leaving the ship most of the people they saw were black. In fact, her family and Mr. Deming stood out because they were all pink.


After breakfast Galilee helped mom, drying the dishes. Mom brushed her hair and washed her face and hands in a wash bowl of cold water. UGH.

Galilee wanted to run around and explore but mom said she must stay close to the truck and not go out into the grass unless she was with her brothers or dad. Mom said there were snakes they had to watch out for, and also, she could easily get lost. 

Dad and her brothers were putting up the tent so they couldn't take her.  They were busy, busy, busy, moving some of the stuff from the trucks into the tent once it was up. But surely this wasn't where they would live.  Galilee finally just sat on the tailgate of the truck and watched everything going on around her.  She was trying to figure it out.  Later maybe her brothers would take her to explore.