Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1922-03-09
Mrs. Maude Newell Williams Writ
es of Their New Home at Buc-
aramnaga in Colombia
DONKEYS BRING ALL
THE WATER FOR FAMILY
Trip Full of Thrills Is Taken To At
tend a Missionary Meeting at
MedeiEn

Mrs Maude Newell William, daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. w. H. Newell,
Baraboo, writes an interesting letter
from Bucaramanga, Columbia, South
America, where they have been engag-
ed in missionary work for a number
OF years. The letter follows.
II is nearly a year since we moved
into our beautiful new house, where
we have some of the modern conven-
fences, such as electric lights (al-
though OF very weak current, and
telephone; no water, however, ex-
ceut that brought by the donkeys, sell
ling at fifteen cents for four gallons
Neither do we have a stove, or an
oven-just the native box with narrow
openings of brick, where the charcoal
is laid But we have wide corridors, a
bit of yard in front and on both sides
of the house. and most wonderful
flowers every day of the year A per-
| feet riot of color and beauty literally
surrounds us. Troublesome, to keep
| ii watered, for unless IL is watered
this mercileBs sun burns everything
up in few days time. Our houseboy
brings water in a water-tight box set
in wheel-barrow Invented and made
| by Mr.. Williams, barrow and alb, a
distance of half mile. Fifty-four rose
bushes, of seventeen varities, nine
teen dahlias of ten kinds, phlox, bal
J sans, several varities of Towering
vines, unknown in Wisc onsin, scores
of Towering bushes and foliage plants.
everywhere borders of red geraniums,
and everything blossoming all the days
of the year. Then we have rows OF
ferns, and fifteen palms. with two
scraggly pines. The palms we wanted
the pines were given us and we had
to have them. A pine out here is con-
| sidered a wonderful tree-befng a cur
iosity-and in one sense il Is wonder
full. In this climate only about one out
of fifty manages to live, which natural
ly greatly enhances its value in the
eyes of the people. But il is never a
beautiful tree here. and being no
novelty to us, we could very well have
| managed without these two, which
must be constantly coddled, to keep
them alive. The palm on the con-
trary, pops up everywhere, and needs
no care, while, in our opinion, It is
far more beautiful than it's poor little
transplanted sister OF the Northlands.
AS soon as we were settled in our
house, | opened a school for the child
rem of our Protestant families, which
managed to keep going until the
end Of the school year-the last OF
November. Our school year commen-
res with the first of February The ses
sions of the school were held here in
the corridors OF the house, and we
closed the year with an entertain
ment, in the form of public oral exa-.
limitations, according to custom.
Leave For Mission
The next week we set cut for a
Mission meeting. All big missions
have yearly meetings and in most OF
them all the members are supposed 20
attend each meeting. Here the dis
4
travel so primitive. and the number OF
missionaries so small II has never
been the custom to have general"
meetings, or TO have any oftener
than once in two or unree years So
this year we had our first general
meeting. where all the missionaries
of the force in Colombia were sup
posed to meet. This was appointed
in Medellin, the most progressive
and modern city of the republic; a
city which lies on the west bank OF
the Magdalena, distance Of a little
less than one-hundred miles from the
river We are about the same dis
tance east of the river and a little
north of Medellin. Thus we had some
thing less than three hundred miles
TO travel. and we did il il eight days
Ia quick trip-by mule, train, steam.
er. and coach. This time we did not
use the airplane, which was about
the only means of travel that we
slighted 1--WE took an automobile in
place of the coach on the return
trip)-but next time we may go the
whole distance in an airplane, since
mail is already being carried in that
manner between Medellin and the
coast cities. and also to Bogota Blu
caramanga's turn is next.
Trails Almost impossible
We found the trails almost impas-