,. n d fW 2 n () t . 77

} y ear l-hy~ lis ,

Th anlcs for your long , if rather s ad le tter , an d what c::.n I say to c heer you up ? Very little bec ause I als o seem t have so many problems .

f ,

Sure ly the ~riends in London will see that the children get into s c h ols . n ritain has tight e n e d u n the Or immip-;T c tion In..; but t here are always strings for exceptions . You had a v ery g ood re ationship ,~i th Y0ur c h ildren and J am s u re y ou "rill be r e ­conciled.

RBiB. Robin Cr~11ko owen Eli som e money . I se t a f) unts "for 8bo t;

six mot"ths and t h en, being in t he nei gl, bourb o od one day, d ropped in i:b find t hat t e y had sold t h e h ouse . The b yer gav e me a ph0ne humb e r . When I phoned Ru by ' v A 5 v e ry hor t with me , 5 a i e she would tell Robin to pay, whi('h he d idn ' t d o, s o just '~r ot e it o"ff . "I· e don t know their pre s ent ddress and su s t y ou contac t them through S t anger.

Helene Am Oe is ere fr om r r i f o r h er annUR v is Ot t o e r s on , Alex . She a sked aft e r you - i t mus t be y ou that she met a y e a r A.go . SlN.B He r grandson, no,.; 4f , '....ho W f'} S r efused a v isa la st ye r , ,v~ s e-ranted one vh; 5 ye0r ,d t b a prmmi e 0 a on t t V O s · t . She will not let the ch ld ou t o f he r si p';"h t in. c ase nyt h ing ,,·e r e to happen to him . Th ey dont k no, e C1ch other ell . Tl ey live s o far apar t in Par os that t hey s e e e a c h o t ner at Xmas and ~~s ter . Mar k pIa ed with him - no t e x a ct l y t ogethe r a s th e r e is the language problem .

flave just f'ini shed r e dine Goodb ye Co l u b us ,- s o me S l o r t s tories by Phillip Roth . I t m~de a b etter movi e but q - te snter t ining i n a Yi ddish way . n d ~ I have a re ~ t trep, i n s t ore : T e S c I pel, Th e ' for h y ~ O dney ""0 clOTI "'='nd To All0 , hae b i og r aphy o£ Dr • • orman Be t hune xkB t h e Canadian h o ~ouc~t

i"1 Spai n and in Ch ina . I ' m sure that lust 11 v e r e"d it i n t ' 0 f'i~tiea w'en i t eirs t ubI ' s ad t s my me mory ' s so shoe r i n fil l e n joy it as £resh .

I~

T ~urs dR Y 22nd Sept.??

Da r l i n g Ph y l l is, Sh eila a n d I bo th we p t when we read your letter of 18 th which a rrived yesterda y. Our o f fice is closed today a s it is the Day of' Aonement, g iving me an opportunity to rep ly immediately '''hich I wabt to do . I only w~sh I could be sitting and chatting and not having to commit t o p a per.

I h a ve also been in a state of depression ~nd letting off s te am at poor Sheila, t a k i n g advantag e of h er go~d nature, b u t ev~n .

. ~ she ~rned on Tuesday so having been watchlng my t o n g ue a bl t Slnce then. Th e follo win g all are contrib uting factors: E l j 's de n a r ture a year ago a n d my efforts since t h en to g et o rganised to jgin h im. On 22nd Au g . I f inally sent off a p p l icat ion for e x it p e rm ~t a nd l ¢ ter bo Nagistrate£ for permission to leave Jhb . on 9th Dec. b e in ~date of booki n g as r e q uired by a pp lic. for E . P . n ave ask ed b oth de p artments to send me permits by end S e p t. to e nab l e me to g i ve 2 mont h s n otice at wo r k.

b o u t ] mo n ths a go I g a ve up smoking as ci g arettes t a st e d lik e pmison. I t hi n k t h at I could possibly tolerate t h e m no1,,, , but dont wan t to start again as I think it is a filt h y habit, but i t is a btt of a strain - like now I woul d love one. On 4th Au g . I had quite a big operation on my foot. A week in hospital, two weeks at h ome then four weeks in plaster of paris, which comes off' to-morrow. An anaestheti c is a terrifi c shock to the system a nd am not sure t h at I have comp l etely recovered f rom tha t. Th en I have been dependent on oth ers to fetc h a nd c a rry me a nd for me , wh ich hasn't alwa ys necessari ly been con ven i e nt. Caugh t a bus for ~e f irst time yesterd a y morning as J wanted to go to the hairdresser before work. 1{h en I g et up in t h e mo rn i no- , my le g and ank le are f i ne. By t h e ~ f ternoon i t i s t wi ce the si ze of t he other. I t h ought t h is ,,,"ould vanish when the pl a ster :i s removed, but doctor says it will g o one for mo n ths. Eli brok e h i s h e el in 1952 and often h is ank le still swells. So a m wonderinF i f i '''"as really worth it. Then ofcourse t h ere's my job ",-here t h e l"lndl ords a nd t l1 e ten a n ts te a r me apart and I h a ve to run to keep up'! Huch as T h ate it, I am terrIfied o f losing it b efore J am re8dy to give it upo An d I sup p ose b a sically t h e w11 01e climate is so frustrating . F riBds in trouble and not being able to do any t h ing to h elp - like you. Gani Surtee Wa S a g oo d fri e nd of ours those years ago when Eli used to tramp in t h e Ma lutis. Do hope he is n ot a mong st those T{G O ave g ro,..n rich and cold. I c qnnbt acce p t your statement th~t you h ~ ve lost the love of your cfuildren with whom y ou had auch an abviously warm, c los-e relationship. The separation has p robably been a shock to -them, Cl nd you simply must main!ain contact. r-l eau\vhile I find escap e mn re n dine , mainly novels. When my eyes are tired I croch et a nd listen to t h e radio. R ecomend au thors ' ~ orris West, Gr a h ame Greene. Re ~ ding and enjoying V~ ll ey of the Dol ls by Jac q ueline Susann - it may be tripe but it certainly holds my attlntion. It is quite well ' ....ritten and c h aracterisatiOfl is n otbad, but it is ab out the sup erficial American '-lay of l i fe in sho w biz o E.L.Doctorrow is another very good author. \Y o k e up t hi s morni n g to t h e first - roper rain of summer. TlLe i rises i n he garden a re in fuLl bloom and I wonder if I wi ll see t h e m a gain. The uncer t a i nty orf one's Mi' future, both individually a n d collectively is the most undermining factor. It Wa S s i mp le when we were young - there was the dictatorship of t h e p rolet a riat. In Tb Valley of t h e Dolls, a man who has just come out of t h e army, 2nd World War says: 'Th ere's only one thing I want. I want to be a ware of t h e minutes a n d b e sec onds, a nd to ma k e each one count.' An d heewe ape pushing away the hours in escape literature, a nd tak i ng ~anquillizers to ensure a good ni g h ts sleep a nd some more b ours of escape.

~~o

I Ma r k has had two b ou ts of tO Ds il t tie in t h e p as t fe w we e k s . T i m prescrib e d pe n i cillin f or the f irst, bu t h e wa s ~way the second t i me s o we l e t it cure it sel f, which it did a s qui c k l y and ef f i c ient l y as hhe me d ic i ne. I a m ,.,a i ti n g for him to come f rom scho o l ~nd we wi l l ~ve lun c h toge t h er. Sheila d id not g o t o work e i t h e r to d AY, b ut ha s g on e to p ottery a nd to attend to s OHle ot he r t h i n g s . She h a s h.a d to st a rt worki n g full t i me s ince t h e b egi nni n g of t 11i s month, "rhi ch doesn't give h e r much free time, h a v i n g to he h ome by 6 . .. .... ~ She i l a Sutn er's mot h er wh o i s 8 2 has j u s t h ad a st o mach o pe rat i on f or c a ncer, but i s ma ki n g remarka ble p ro g ress.

~

Thursday evening. We hear from Eli practically every week but h is l etter of 9,h Se p t . only arrived tod ay. He is well, sha ll we sa y 'touch wood'? - ama zing ly so for h is age.

Fond l ove my de a r f r om all of us.

You$' t ruly,

~~ .

•

..,

T .. ~

ill' ~111. u'

Dear Phyllis,-Thank you for undated sad little letter. Nrs.Ka.bpah phoned on the day letter arrived. I asked her fo keep tea chests for a couple of "/eeks. \'Je alWaystave ,two1" three 4xtra people living here. Everybod who has ever stayed here, and they are legion, has left some possessions behind. VIe are also accommodating the . entire contents of Eli's darkroom and workroom. Somebody was supposed to have bought it all some months ago. They confinn~d deal l ast week but yesterday said there was a hitch and suggested another likely purchaser. I sent 15 apple boxes of sv~mer clothes and household goods to Stuttafords for delivery here. This 'lift' has been lying at the airport for about 6 weeks but is on the verge of being cleared and where will I put it all? I rather contemplate difficulties as all the cupboards are full of photographic equipnent, but we will meke some plan.

How's Sukthi getting on? Perhaps she would like to vlrite to me.

Fond love,

~~M' ~ S~ha<A ~' 4 ~ ~~~ u

18th April , 1978

foly dear Phyllis,

Many thanks for your photooopy letter of 7th April. Two birds - nothing. }lY l ast oircular to friends written on 15th will be read by no less than , 10 people! However as I have had yo~ on my conscienoe for a long time you will get the original and Sheila Buttner a copy. The posts are very pecul!ar. You do not acknowledge a l etter I wrote on 8th Feb. i n reply to your note, . 80 would be glad if you and Sheila wi I oheck with each other if you get this. The reason I have a guilty oonscienoe i s that ~our goods are still wit h the lady who brought them. I explained Jbn 8th Feb . t hat from the day we got here we always had two or three people staying with us ; that certain parties were negotiating to buy Eli I S equipment and until they removed i t I oould not accommoda te even another shoe box. . gs move very slowly and the negotiations are still in process . They ~ they have bought it, but there is no movement. I explained this t o you:r fri end and she agreed to store meanwhile. I said that I would like to meet her but as I did not have trans­port would she come to me. She said that she woul d phone t he following week, but as she did not do 60 I took i t that she didn't want to came and left i t at that.

The local government owned Daily and Sunday News and the external service of Radio Tanzania give S. African news very good ooverage so we also heard about the Pretoria 12 immediately. My reaction was one of joy t hat six people got off and I think the wo~ld wide campai gn hel ped . The campaign probably got no }JU.blicity at your end.

I guess to whom your original letter was addressed as we saw the third of the films on TV in London - excellent. And this morni ng we heard about the fiasco of the Soweto elections .

I met MD and Sahdan briefly at a demo outside S.A. House t he day before we left London. There are always t wo s ides to a s tory, but havi ng hear d yours I felt a bit inhibited about talking to MD .

We are very concerned about Shei la and Mark as we f eel that their lives are in danger, particularl y sinoe the death of iok and what worri es me more is that Sheil a's charactertistic equanimity has been disturbed ­shets worried. What is also worrying is that whil e she has one young man staying in the house , they cant find anybody else to share.

Eli left., for Amsterdam at 6 a .m. yesterday moming. The Amster dam City Council and Ar ts Coumoil have given him a handsome grant to mount a photographic jxhibition of his pictures of the liberation struggle whi ch go back to about 1932. Every picture will requi re a full caption and thereafter they may publi sh a book. He was told t hat there is a story going axound that he haa sold his negat ives t o a commercial fixm. We are very angry as he intends giving his negat i ves to D & A after the exbibition, which i s being mounted as soon as he i s ready. He has taken all his nega t ives and will print there. Eli will be away f or a month to six weeks and as I dont have a car I am somewhat housebound.

I cant go back to the beginning of my arrival here but br i efly: i t i s damn hot. February and Maroh were killers , but there is a marked improvement since the rains started at the beginning of April . We have a young man William, working as a domestic. He and iIi walk about in shorts, topl ess, with the~ sweat pouring down. H usekeeping is difficult beoause t here are

- 2­

often shortages of things \>1e take for granted a t home e.g. f ine salt, butter. Three of our ne i ghbours are very friendly and he l pful. FJ..orida and Norman are from the Seychelles. They go shopping every afternoon and as soon as something comes on to the shelves, she buys . Sometimes I ask her to get things for me and she never fai l s. We are in a flat with Indians , on both sides. Zainub t called Je~ drives a car and she oft en gives me a lift. She introduced me to her hairdresser 3nd takes me there. They are both l"iuslim families but the other family are Ismailis whioh is something different. On Th~day night Jenny took me along to the third day of a wedding of a friend. First we went to the bride ' s house where certain rites were perf ormed and where not only the mother cried (traditional for all r aces) but each guest in turn greeted the bride who in turn wept with each one, except me who also had a picture taken with t he bride . Then we went to the mosque hall where we took our shoes off and sat on mats and thereafter to the groom's house where they had t he cutting of the cake . I commented to one of the guests ~at I didn ' t think t his ,-ras an Indian tradition. She told me that they acquired it under British colonial rule ~

After a month in London and 10 days in r ance, I arrived here in a state of ~xhau8tion . A couple of weeks ago I went through a nasty depression, but tranquillisers have set me again. Stopped smoki ng h /ice but 8m on to it in full force again. Sis.

There has been a cholera epidemio since about July l ast year, but it seems to have eased off. We were advised to boil water f or drinking and as everybody drinks enormous quantities, keeping the fridge f ill ed with bottles • of boiled water is in itself quite a ohare . Friends walk i n and th8 first thing thydo is take a beer mug and knock back a couple f i lled Hi th water. Some people had mats soaked in disinfectant a t t heir doors and me t you wi th a ditto cloth on which you had to wipe your bands be f ore shaking wi t h them. By the way everybody shakes hands wi t h everybody every t ime they say hulla and goodbye. Takes me back to my days on the farm where this was the custom of our Afrikaans neighbours.

The mangoes were beautiful and enormous but season is over. Lovely limes, pineapples and pawpaws still in good sUPily, the latter very cheap at present. I make lime juice and then marmalade f rom the peels - both very popular.

'.