Womans Endurance | Page 2

breakfast; number of refugees in same train, among them a sick girl, with fever: "Pappie, Pappie, ach mij ou Pappie!" ("Daddy, daddy! O my dear daddy!" Thus she cried whenever she was touched, as they carried her out of the train, and lifted her on to the wagon. She was fever-stricken and terribly emaciated. (Reference is made later to this same girl.) Alas! Arrival village; visit parsonage (Becker's); dinner; things forwarded per wagon; arrival camp (mile out); meet superintendent; given a tent; dust; misery; the Van As's offer me a home; kind; bitter cold night; leakage; bad draught; bad cold; feel lonesome; orphanish; pipe to rescue; great consolation.
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Thursday, August 22.--My tent untenable position; in the thoroughfare; speak Superintendent; obtain new site; private; buy 150 bricks 1s. 6d., hire three boys, barrow 1s. 3d.; with miershoop (antheap, excellent for making floor) make brick kraal; hard work; Mr. Van As[1] and Fourie grand; fine floor.
First visits: Young girl, orphan, bad; Weinanda, little girl, "Ja Oom, ik is nou bij mij Mamie" ("Yes, Uncle, now I am with my mother"); mind wanders. Third tent: Two babies wrestling with death; mothers raadeloos (in despair); 486[2], wife, babe at breast, measles; daughter, 14, convalescent; behind screen three children sick, measles; condition pitiable; husband prisoner Ladismith; great dirt; unbearable; the pity of it!
Pitch tent; wet floor; inside dire confusion.
Meeting Church-square thirty-nine elders[3]; each a block; prayer; introduction Rev. Becker; kind words and cheer.
Early bed; restless night; hospital close by; commotion; groans; fifteen buried to-day; service for Mr. Van As.
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Friday, August 23.--Early bird; wash spruit[4]; first shave (tears); Van As coffee; pathetic sight; old man leading old wife back to tent from hospital; Hugo; son just died.
Visit Hugo's; dinner Van As; outspan (rest); cigar grand.
Unpack; three Red Cross boxes (gift of the chemist); order out of chaos; spirits revive; visits 2.5 p.m.
Dying child; mother broken-hearted.
Dying mother; clear doorway; deathbed grim attraction for our people; prayer; understands.
Widow; husband found dead outside in night; heart disease.
Sick child (since dead); sick child; sweet face; Louw.
Visit sick child of yesterday, also Weinanda.
Stray; hear cough; enter; father invalid (wife dead); three sick children; youngest very bad.
Comfort mother of dead child.
Funerals (seven), Mr. Becker: "I was dumb and opened not my mouth."
Burial ground; about 120 graves; weeping mothers; visit dying child; fool of myself, broke down in prayer; the helplessness in presence of Death!
Throat hoarse; dead off; return tent; meditate; convinced this work the very hardest in whole world.
Avoid taking guide next time (handicapped).
Neglected to visit 486 and mothers of yesterday's dying children.
Stienie[5]; down measles; jelly.
Mr. Otto's dear loving daughter[6] died hospital.
Fourteen corpses (in morgue tents).
Very many old friends all about of Papa's and Oom Jacob's[7].
One man disappointed; had expected Oom Jacob.
Night: Strains of Psalm-singing; calm and fresh after shower of rain; follow ear; Snyman; short conversation.
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Saturday, August 24.--Evening: Coughing; wailing; crying; groaning.
Exhausting day; pure, clear air after refreshing rain.
The misery in our Camp heart-rending; hopeless to cope with work.
Up early; coffee in hospital kitchen; work.
235a; six orphans; baby; dirt; sad!
241; mother died to-day suddenly.
239; boy 12, Ignatius; malignant growth shoulder; hopeless; pining away.
249; child; measles.
468; Venter; motherless infants; all sick; food scarce; despair; powerful grandmother (arms!); daughter; all measles; "Ziet, minheer, die dochter is nog'n lady: sij is nie getrouwd nie" ('This daughter, sir, is still a lady; she is not yet married'); Bengers; beef tea.[8]
485; Van Heerde; mother and tentful of sick children; pitiable; camphor; brandy.
487; Engelbrecht; Mrs. P. de Lint[9]; wonderful discovery; yet withal sad; father India; children ill; wife broken-hearted; great rejoicing; thanksgiving for change.
321; Old Mr. De Villiers, grand old man; great cheer to myself.
268; Mrs. De Villiers; five children sick.
383; mother died last week; daughter this morning; "Minheer, dit was de prachtigste sterfbed wat ik ooit gezien het" ('Sir, it was the most beautiful deathbed I have ever seen'); "Dag, tante, ik gaat naar die Heere Jesus toe" ('Good-bye, Aunt, I am going to the Lord Jesus'); remaining daughter very, very bad; "Minheer, moet assemblief bid dat ik kan gezond word" ('Sir, you must pray, please, that I may recover'); little hope; inflammation.
292; Van der Berg; wife died last night.
81; casual visit; Mrs. Van Staden; Mrs. Otto; sick children.
80; Mrs. Van der Merwe died to-day; old lady, Mrs. Pienaar, ill in bed; when I repeated some verses Gezang 65[10], old lady forestalled me line for line.
612; "Ach mij lieve ou Pappie"; better.
Five hours' incessant work; wearisome; thank God when twilight comes.
Work here for ten men; no chance alone; no show; the helplessness of it all! and there are hundreds sick and dying that I know not of, and that I could not visit even should I know.
My brothers-elders must help me more.
Had I not seen body of 80 removed I should never have known.
Funerals this