The Work at Asmara, East Africa
A LETTER received from Brother Anol Grundset, our missionary at Asmara, Africa, gives an interesting insight into their life there. He says that the people are as a rule uneducated, hundreds being unable to read or write. He will have three difficult languages to learn, which he expects to begin wrestling with in earnest next year. This year he has been so busy with building and looking after many other things, that he had to be content with enough of the language to get along with his native helpers. He and his family live in a stone house built by himself. It has cement floors, tin sheeting for roof, and the ceiling is of unbleached muslin sheeting, whitewashed. With this he says they are well content, though it would be considered very humble in America. Food is very high there, and fruit is scarce. He writes:— “Milk is very high, and we can not afford it, neither can we make use of that sold by the natives; for all their vessels are continually smoked,—never washed,—and for a European to relish anything put into them, it would be first necessary for him to lose his sense of smell and taste. I have wondered if we could get a cow and hay. Butter is one dollar a kilo, and then often not fit to eat, so we can not afford to use it. We sent to America for a shipment of dried fruits, which have arrived and are very nice. Apples are thirty cents a pound. However, we have enough to nourish us and to live on, and we are content, knowing we are here for the cause of God, and shall soon, if faithful, eat of the fruit of heaven. “I am only sorry that our work here was not started years ago, so we could now have a good knowledge of the language, with a literature for the people. As it is, we have none; but we must push on now, and do the best we can. “Our boy is doing well in the language, and we hope by the Lord’s help will be of use to our work here.” How much the faithful missionaries need our prayers to sustain them in their many trials.