"Eisenschmid to Basel"

The letter is concerned partly with impressions - he obviously feels surrounded by an alien and hard society. In the palace in Kibi the first thing you see as you go in is an image, with an offering, of food in front of it. The king himself is usually drunk. They have had to deal with a case of a slave woman left to die on the street, because people prefer slaves not to die in their houses. They took her into the missionary quarters, and tended her till her death two days later, at which friends came with clothes, some gold dust and a dish of fufu as an offering. Strömberg spoke to them about their superstitions and accompanied the body to a grave in the bush where he said a prayer - thus they show the people that they have come for the good of their fellow men, and not for their own advantage. Although he does not say this clearly he is obviously on the side of the Basel Committee over the slave question, saying that it is at the root of much of the harshness. They are faced with theft, lying, laziness, begging, the latter even from the king. There are rays of light - old Jacobo from Gyadam is with them, very attached to them, and very quiet in his ways. And in Kukurantumi the people are singing Christian hymns, although they are still heathen.

05.05.1862

05.05.1862

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