Thursday, January 13

Have to lay over here a day so just looked around and slept. Went thru a British Wellington, a Grumman Goose, and a Lockheed Hudson. Talked to a boy from Scotland who is stationed here and he told us all about where we are going. His Scottish dialect was really quite 'different'. The natives here are still the surprising element though. We walked over along the river today and saw Jacob there he is the chief of the tribe across the river. He had brought one of his wives across with him - he has two and he was telling us all about his love life. "I've got two wives and one girl friend," he laughed as he told us. "I sure hope my wife doesn't find out about the girl friend though or I will sure be in the dog house." He is always popping out with some expression such as "What's cooking, Doc," or "I'm cooking with gas on the front burners now," or "Get on the ball, youse guys." He is the foreman over about 28 boys who work here on the post. In spite of their still primitive practices they are quite highly educated though. Most of them speak almost perfect English. They were selling this liquor at $8 a quart - not one penny less. They apparently paid $6 a quart and thus made a $2 profit. Tonite they brought over some White Horse Scotch and Three Feathers. Someone asked them for Canadian Club and was told they were all out. They said it cost too much. They said it cost them $8 a quart and if they sold it for $8 a quart they couldn't make a profit so they would have to sell it for $10 a quart and no-one wanted to pay that much. They are really quite shrewd. Jacob was also telling us that wives cost 8 lbs. each (about $35) but if he caught anyone making love to his wife, he could take it to court and sue him for 10 lbs. However, the working man's wage is 20c. to 35c. a day.

Elrod and I were talking to our barracks orderly and he was in the 8th grade up at the Catholic mission they have near here. At the mission, there are about 200 negro boys going to school - they can go clear thru college if they can afford it. It costs $32 per year for grade and high school and $18 a month for college. They earn this money by working during their vacation here on the army base. We asked the boy if he had some shoe shining equipment and he didn't because he didn't have the 35c. necessary to buy it. We knew he could make 50c. a day by shining the shoes of the fellows in his barracks so we went up to the PX and bought him the stuff and gave it to him. The first day, he earned 50c. and he was the happiest boy you have ever seen. We also had him invest some of his new money in Liberian coins which the fellows bought lc & 2c pieces for a nickel or dime each as curios. He has made more money than he knows what to do with. Every time he sees Elrod or I he runs over and tells us all about it. He shows his appreciation more than any white kid you have ever seen. If our American boys had the ambition & guts these kids have, each and every one could have a college education.


This little orderly said that some of the boys gambled or spent their money on girls but that he saved every penny. He couldn't understand why we would pay lOc. for a 2c. Liberian piece. He couldn't see any profit in it for us. We have to lay over several days here now so today, Friday, I had my laundry done and did more resting up. The base company here has a 2 year old chimpanzee - it weighs only about 25 lbs. - when it is full grown it will weigh about 125. This chimp is almost human in intelligence and everyone spent at least 2 hours watching his antics I have never seen anything so comical. They also have a grey gibbon here - about 10 lbs. - and a small dog. This gibbon and dog play together constantly - the monk always having the upper hand in their wrestling matches - his human like hands lets him grab on to the dogs legs and trip him or pull his ears. I took pictures with both the gibbon and chimp wrapped around my neck. The rest of the squadron anyway about half of them - have caught up with us so it isn't so lonesome now - so far I have been traveling with another squadron and didn't know a soul. They have a swell day room here with a small library and a short wave radio - we were listening  to good old American jive - playing records, ping pony, Chinese checkers, and reading most of afternoon. Went to a show - "Assignment in Brittany" - in the evening. It was a story of the French underground - it was quite interesting.