The things Mr. Woods thinks of First we had a supply of kerosene tins waiting for us for holding water. A few days
later larger covered garbage cans (new) were delivered to each house to replace these. And today mud scrapers were attached to both our front and back steps in preparation for the rainy season which is ahead for us. An incinerator has been built for camp garbage.
Venison today. Deer killed by one of the laborers at camp. We had all we could eat which, seasoned with bay leaves and cloves, was cooked in Dutch oven and was delicious.
Clay has had bad cold for several days. At 2:00 A.M. and again at 4:00 had coughing spells and began to strangle on discharge in throat. Carried him to nurse’s house to have throat swabbed. Nurse cleaned throat with swab, but scolded me for bringing him out without covering. Said I should have left him in bed and come over alone. Couldn’t do this with him gasping.
Onions and avocados. There is a bumper crop of these two commodities and each family is sent an allotment from the Central twice a week. As other vegetables and fruits are short, we are glad to have these, but I never want to see another avocado. We get the fruit green, ten large ones today, but all ripen at the same time so we eat them three times a day to keep from having them go to waste. Beth has learned to eat a small amount but Clay will not touch except to play with a whole one as a ball. Had native large leaf spinach today and Sejio added nice variety by putting tiny green tomatoes in with the greens. A nice flavor.
Yesterday Japs dropped leaflets over Bacolod telling civilians not to fear the Japanese army, that when they came they would only fight soldiers. Civilians should go ahead calmly planting and harvesting their crops and go ahead with their fishing as usual. (For whom?) Bombs previously dropped on Bacolod and the machine-gunning of the town by Japs did not make the civilians believe these leaflets.
When at 3:00 a.m. had to go out with Georgia Miss, the full moon caused me to remember reading that the Dutch East Indies could not be defended against night-bombing due to brilliance of the tropical moon. Bright nights mean greater chance of invasion and attack.