Letter to Marian and Frank, February 5, 1969

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered in chronological order, so the best way to view them is by year, found in the index on the sidebar.


Dear Marian and Frank,

We have read in the TIME magazine that the peak of the Hong Kong flu was in January.  We hope that those of you who had it have recovered.  There have been a few cases here but since it is summer, it has been no more than a cold.  So the newspaper says.

We had a nice rest at Bible Camp for our missionaries.  Bible students who are on vacation and work there during the summer take care of the children in the morning while we had Bible studies or listened to lectures.  In the afternoon there was swimming.  There were volley and basketball courts.  Cliff and men played against youth at a youth Bible Camp 15 miles from our camp.  The food was excellent but we had to wait up to 45 minutes to be served after we sat down and it was late by then- 1:30 for lunch and 7:30 for supper.  A couple of times Helen fell asleep before the food came.  There wasn't room for all of the families on the main grounds so four families had to be 1 and a half mile away.  We were the only ones with very small children and it was inconvenient as we only returned there just before supper.  One day, Rachel was sick with a fever and the next day she had diarrhea.  The camp is located in the mountains by Sao Paulo and was cool in the evening and excellent for sleeping.

On our way home we had car trouble and spent a total of 7 hours at a gas station in the country while Cliff went to a city to get different radiator.  It had a clean bathroom and eating place.  We got home at two in the morning.  We had a 20 year old youth with us that was going from the Missouri Lutheran school in Sao Paulo to near our city.  We met this youth when we went to visit missionaries of the Missouri church that are studying Portuguese in Sao Paulo.  One family is from Brownton, Minnesota and have met my sister, Olive, who lives there.  They spent part of one day with us at Bible Camp.

The church in New York where Cliff interned wrote and asked him to find a work of art to be presented at the end of April for churches in the Eastern States that have been promoting missions and that have mission interest.  It was hard to find something but Cliff got a primitive art of Jesus and disciples around a triangular table with flowers in the middle.  Above them is a curtain with gaudy ribbons to pull the curtain back.  The colors are vivid and the painting is simple but we found several things that are meaningful such as a table shape that could signify the Trinity, flowers for the ressurection, and the curtain could represent the sin which separates us from God and the red curtain could signify Jesus's blood which took away our sin, etc.  They wanted to spend $50-$80, but it cost $130.  Now we are going to wrap it for air mail and hope we can send it or else find an American going there soon.

While at Bible camp, we had a birthday party for 4 children that had birthdays that week.  I went to the nearest city and bought things to go with the cake that was made at the camp.  One girl was 2, another 5, Charles 5 and Rachel 7 and besides them, two adults and one teenager had birthdays. 

Since we got back two weeks ago, we have had someone for dinner almost every day.  The first few days other missionaries came through on their way to their homes, then a Brazilian boy from our former parish came here for three days and traveled two days with Cliff when he had services, and other Brazilians, mostly youth, have come on the other days.  We had Vacation Bible School here last week with about 26 children.  Next week it is in our country church.  This week Cliff is gone to another state for meetings on Evangelism.  He is near a beach and we could have gone along but I didn't think it would be much fun if the children couldn't be with cliff, as he has meetings all day and in the evening.  In two weeks he will be gone for 5 days for Bible camp in Londrina which is the time that many Brazilians celebrate Carnival before Lent starts.

The last two weeks we have been going to a dentist who is our neighbor.  Cliff had most work done- one tooth had an abscess and had been hurting but most dentists were on vacation.  Rachel and Charles had their teeth coated with fluoride.  I had some work done and Charles had two large and two small cavities.  In the States, Charles was given medicine to make him sleepy so here he almost didn't let the dentist work but with medicine on the gums he didn't feel the shots but it was hard to convince him of this.

Rachel starts Brazilian school in two weeks and we will continue with Calvert for English.  For her school she needs a white duster to wear over her clothes so that all the children will be dressed alike- some schools use uniforms. In August, we were told the American School plans to have second grade so we can send her then.  During vacation we have gotten some library books from the American School.

It is still very hot- 90 to 95 every day, but I have started to think of winter clothes as May last year was our coldest month.  I have taken apart some of my skirts that haven't been used for years and am having them made for slacks for the girls.  The many dresses we brought along for the girls are out of style for they don't use dresses with full skirts that tie in the back and for this hot weather, straight dresses are cooler but with material from full skirts, dresses can be made.

I read in the newspaper from my hometown that a girl who I at times babysat for when I was in high school, was elected as one of the representatives of the Lutheran Church of America for a meeting to be held in Brazil in 1970 of the Lutheran World Federation.  We hope that she will be able to visit us in our home.

We have given three male puppies away but have Luci, a white female and the mother.  Last week, a friend of Rachel's gave us a kitten but it doesn't like the dogs and has had to be rescued from a tree, the roof, and inside the attic of a bedroom.

We got pictures of Ricky and Shannon.  When do we get one of Eric and Lisa?  We have to try to get some pictures taken soon.

Love,


Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, September 22, 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.

Dear Marian and Frank,

We just got a letter from Mary informing us on the birth of your son.  Our heartiest congratulations!  We haven't heard the weight but she said that you might call him Eric Tomas.  He must have been born the day after you sent your last letter.  What does Lisa think of him?  Two little ones should keep you quite busy.  Now we are anxiously awaiting for Julia's news.

It certainly was something about Mike's sudden case of pneumonia.  Helen had several colds when we were home but all of us have been well since we came back.

We recently got a letter that Rosie sent in July.  It must have come by regular mail.  The snapshot she sent of Rachel is very good.  Rachel was very happy to get it.

It seems like time flies now that I'm teaching Rachel first grade by correspondence course.  It takes 1.5 to 2 hours every day and this is done when Helen naps.  There are 160 lessons to do and four covered readers with lovely books on the four seasons, arithmetic, writing, stories to read and a teacher's manual for me.  The last lesson was on two different sounds in "th" such as in "this" and "thank" and several words like this.  I pleaded with Joey to do this part of the lesson as I never learned to read by the phonetic system.  Rachel likes to study but I don't know how it will be now that the hot weather is arriving.

This last week the weather was very variable.  On Monday, it was cool- 58 in the morning and in the house.  By Thursday afternoon it was hot and stuffy, 90 in the house and outside, then it rained and back to 56 again in the morning and 75 in the afternoon.  Actually, I prefer the cooler weather as hot weather makes me tired.  Next month we go on daylight savings time.

We have two boys staying with us for another two or three weeks until houseparents come from the States for the hostel.  They are gone most of the day.  The seven year old enjoys playing with Rachel and Charles and the 11 year old likes to read books.

Rachel and Charles go to nursery school in the morning until the summer vacation comes in December.  Now Charles can speak Portuguese much better and always is playing with someone while I teach Rachel.  Helen plays many mornings with a four year old girl from our church.  Helen has learned a lot of Portuguese, too.  I'm amazed at all of the things that she can say.  When people come for church, Helen shakes hands with them and says, "Good morning" in Portuguese.  As yet, I haven't gotten her toilet trained but now with warmer weather I hope to have it done soon but she loves to play outside all day long.

I certainly have enjoyed the navy blue blouse you gave me for Christmas.  I have one skirt I wear it with and hand another skirt made that also goes with it, from a skirt that you gave me.  I had a blue lace dress made to go to a neighbor's 15th birthday part.  Fifteen here is considered the year for debutante.  The party we went to was more elaborate than any wedding I've been to.  We didn't stay for the dance which started at 1 am and finished at 3:30 am.  I plan to use the lace dress for weddings in the church.

 Donna Biel in her blue lace dress.

Joey was gone from Monday until Thursday of this week for a mission meeting.  Gloria Grant stayed with me as she didn't want to stay alone and her five boys are at the hostel in Campinas.  We seldom see Joey on weekends as he has three services on Saturday and three on Sunday.  He has been trying to visit the members plus spent a week three weeks ago in Cianorte at a Bible School teaching the students.  I have learned to drive the church's jeep and use it for taking Rachel and Charles to and from school and for getting groceries.

To raise money for the church, the women are embroidering aprons, pillow cases, dresser tops, tablecloths, etc.  I'm doing a pillow case.  In November they will sell everything and at the same time serve cakes which one can buy.  Another thing to get ready for is the last Sunday in October.  Our women's group will have women from nearby cities here for a day while we have two guest speakers.  One speaker will speak to the older women in German and the other will speak in Portuguese.  We will have to feed the women that day but the speaker suggested making soup with potatoes, macaroni, meat, vegetables so not much time would be needed for preparation.

Women from our church in Maringa, 1970's

If we decide to apply for a three month furlough after three years, we have to apply by March of 1970.  It would be June to September in 1971 so it wouldn't interfere with the children's education.

Greetings to Rosie and Louie, Cynthia and Nels for I have to write to our parents yet.  It seems like Joey doesn't have much time for writing and it is getting harder for me to do it.  Tell Rosie Rachel has worn her dress from the wedding almost every Sunday.

We hope all is going well for you.  I wrote to Mary to get you a present from us so hope you get something you need.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Feira Hippie,1980

Dad had a darkroom when I was growing up and taught me how to use it.  I have always loved photography and continued to play with it in high school and college.  I also started selling t-shirts at a hippie fair in Campinas and became friends with some full-time artisans who took me on an outing to a neighboring city that had a large artisan fair.  I took these photos then and developed them in my high school photography class.

O meu pai era fotógrafo e tinha um quarto aonde revelava as fotos.  Me ensinou como usar e continuei a estudar fotografia em Campinas e na universidade.  Também vendía camisetas que eu pintava numa feira hippie em Campinas e fiz amizade com uns artesões que me levaram a esta feira.  Eu tirei as fotos e revelei na minha classe de fotografia na Escola Americana de Campinas.