Letter to Marian and Frank, April 19, 1974

 Biel Family, mid-1970's, Brazil

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, Frank, Lisa, Eric and Julianna,

We received your package the day before Easter.  Joey brought it when I was trying to decide what to make for dessert on Easter- we made the cake.  Delicious!  We will have the other one on Joey's birthday.  Needless to say, we enjoyed the candy, too.  Thank you for the "sweet" gift.

We heard that you were going to Julia's for Easter.  I imagine you saw several changes in her house for Harvey wrote that he had been puttering around there and Julia said Martha went to help one day.

We remembered Julianna's birthday even though we didn't send a card.  It is easy to remember since Marian's is the next day and my sister Marian is on the 14th, too.

I suppose you are starting to enjoy spring weather.  We still have summer although the mornings and evenings are cooler.  It was chilly when we went to a mission meeting at the end of last month.  It was held at a city in the mountains of our southernmost state.  We traveled 24 hours by bus to get there, stayed two days, then spent another 24 hours traveling back.  That shows you are far away we are from some fellow American pastors.

Cliff Biel doing the Hamburger Skit

You would have enjoyed seeing Joey in a skit at the mission conference.  He did it at the fun night at Bible Camp and the youth really thought it was good.  A man who owned a hamburger industry liked to try hamburgers out at different places to see if anyone served better hamburgers.  At the place where Joey was a cook, he thought the hamburger had a different flavor so he asked for the recipe.  When he found out the same ingredients were used, he asked to see the cook making them.  Out came Joey, shirtless, oil on his skin and then water poured over to look like a lot of sweat, cigarette hanging from his mouth and a tattoo on his heart saying "meat".  He demonstrated and at the end, to flatten the meatball, he put it under his armpit.  That was where the different flavor came from. 

The next day, when Joey came late for breakfast, I told the people at our table that he was helping to make more hamburgers.  We had hamburgers that noon but round ones.  Several people told us that if and when they came through our city, they hoped we won't serve them hamburgers.  We have been having the mission meeting with wives every two years.  The men get together once a year for a business meeting.

Helen is doing fine.  I called the doctor yesterday after receiving the urine results done last week in Londrina.  He says to keep on giving medicine to keep the urine free of germs and do another urine test in a month.  Apparently, this will go on for some time.  It take three hours to get to Londrina by bus, about 15 minutes to do the urine exam, have lunch with Gaylord Grant's and then come back.  Thus, it takes all day.  We leave at 8:30 and get back at 5 p.m.  We have a laboratory here but the medical care is better in Londrina so the doctor thinks they are more careful in doing lab tests.

Helen saw an unpleasant sight when I took her swimming  two weeks ago.  While we were there, a 16 year old boy was pulled out of the deep end of the pool.  They don't have lifeguards at pools here.  No one did anything-  I went and turned him over and barely started giving chest-arm respiration when a doctor who was playing tennis started mouth-to-mouth respiration and his wife, an anesthetist, gave heart massage.  I couldn't find any pulse.  When they got their instruments, the doctor couldn't hear any heartbeat and said that just by looking at the boy's eyes, he said that he was dead.  He used an instrument to look in his lungs and said that there wasn't any water in the lungs.  Apparently, the boy had eaten off and on during the afternoon, had stomach cramps, and disappeared without any signs of distress.  He had been under water for at least half an hour, the doctor thought.  After seeing this, Helen said we can sell our membership at the club as she doesn't want to go back. 

For some time, Rachel and Charles haven't wanted to go- they have friends playing here all the time.  It is too bad that they don't have public pools and we could pay whenever we could go.  The club fees have gone up to $10 per month and now gasoline is so expensive so we might as well sell our membership.

Since the children didn't have school on the day after Easter, we went to a city one hour from here to visit with the pastor's family there.  We will go as a family to get together with all of the pastor's families in our area, about nine of them, on May 1st which is a holiday.

You may have heard from Cynthia's letter that Joey was in bed for a week due to a swollen knee.  After a week, he hobbled around.  He thought he would need a cane, but an ace bandage helped.  Now he has been fine.  I told him that he should play mostly chess since he hurt his knee in a soccer game.

One of Rachel's English students gave her an egg (chocolate) that cost about $6.  I told her that maybe I should start teaching if I could get valuable gifts.  I spend time every day helping Helen with reading in English as she is weak due to not paying attention to phonetic sounds.  She is improving but is having a harder time than Rachel or Charles for they went all day to school in English until last August and had Portuguese on the side.  Now it is the opposite for Helen-  having little time of school in English.  Her main problem has been spelling but by studying, she is doing much better.  In Portuguese you spell as you pronounce a word.  Charles is too busy playing to do hardly any extra reading in English, but Rachel reads many books.  One of the books that I read I found interesting, "Ana and the King of Siam" for which the movie "The King and I" was made.  A television series about this is being shown.

We went to see the movie "The Day of the Jackal" about the plot to attempt to assassinate Charles De Gaulle.  It was interesting and full of suspense.

We have a shampoo that you might like, Marian.  It has vitamins in it and brings back the natural color.  Several of our pastor's wives have started using it. One who was much grayer than Joey has no more grey hair.  Joey refuses to try it as you would have to wash your hair two or three times a week and he goes for three weeks without washing as he feels that washing it makes it soft and it doesn't stay in place.  With all the talk about streaking, they said at our mission meeting that now with this shampoo, no pastor has to have streaks of grey hair.

Love,
Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, May 9, 1968

 

Donna Biel at a farm in Brazil.

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, Frank and Lisa,

We have had a taste of some cold weather.  It rained last Sunday and then turned cold.  Wednesday it was 41 at 7 a.m. and 49 in the house.  Fortunately, by Saturday it was nice again.  We got our barrels a week ago and have made use of our electric blanket.  The children have flannel sheets and Charles and Helen have sleepers.

Our barrels, gas dryer, sewing machine, etc. arrived in good condition.  Rachel and Charles were thrilled to get their toys as they have been packed since the end of January.  Boys in the neighborhood think the wagon is wonderful.  I spent one day separating things and putting each person's clothes in a separate barrel.  I have been doing some mending on the sewing machine.

Starting last Thursday, a girl from our church that is working in a doctor's office started living with us.  We had an empty bedroom and she has her own bedroom furniture.  She plans to stay here four months and then she will be married.  She does the supper dishes and pays about $9 dollars a month for food.  If we decide to go to a movie or visiting she will babysit.

Now I have a good helper who comes every day and stays until 5:30 and on Sundays until 3:00.  We pay her twenty dollars a month but she eats well and only weighs about 90 lbs.  She is 20 years old and had worked for five years in Sao Paulo.  I will need a good helper as it looks like the American school here will not have first grade so I will teach by Calvert.

The children and I went with Cliff to work in the rural areas.  One Saturday he had two services.  One was a wedding.  The kids were somewhat disgusted with the horrible roads.  On that trip, I got about 25 bites on each leg from a mosquito that lives near a river.  My legs swelled up and itching was terrible but this was taken care of by antihistamine medicine.

 Unpaved roads in Brazil in the 1960's

 

Friday we were gone all day to different farm homes.  Charles fell off a wall and on to cement where coffee beans were drying.  He scraped his nose and forehead and has big scabs but we were glad he wasn't hurt worse.

 Clifford Biel at a Brazilian farm in the 1960's

The farm homes that we were at were nice.  These families live about 12 miles from here, half of the way on country roads, but they come here to church.  Sunday we went to other rural areas where he usually has service twice a month.  The roads are better than at the other rural areas but when it rains hard he doesn't go as it is too hard on the jeep and several don't have cars.  It was interesting to see where Cliff goes but three little children who aren't quiet in church has made me decide not to go again except for Bible study once a month in the largest area.  In the rural areas the women preferred to speak German amongst themselves.  Sunday Cliff will be officially installed by a pastor from Curitiba representing the German church of Brazil.  A choir of 25 is singing for the occasion.  I hope they will continue to sing every Sunday.  In the afternoon, the women are having a tea for Mother's Day.  Cliff has started a Wednesday service with Bible Study and a film but so far the attendance has been poor.

Rural Congregations in 1960's Brazil: 

We bought linoleum for the kitchen.  It is pretty.  The other day parts of it had paint eaten away when we gave our sink a lye treatment.  I was cleaning with rubber gloves and the pail was accidentally spilled.  Now we will move the rug so the spots won't be so noticeable.  We were surprised to see that a wall of the living room was removable in three parts.  Now we have a dining room.

Thanks for your card, Frank.  We were shocked to hear of Martin Luther King's death and yet I suppose it could have been expected even earlier.  We don't get the Time Magazine now but Andy Olsen's sent us a Newsweek on King's death.  We are waiting to see who will win the nominations for Presidential candidates.  Frankly, I can't see Bobby Kennedy as President but he seems to be popular.

Tomorrow our city celebrates its 21st birthday.  There is a parade and it's a holiday for this community.  The governor comes to dedicate some new buildings.  The Japanese ambassador will be here and a Brazilian marine band that took second place in the U.S. at a band exhibition.

Helen kissing the Brazilian flag at the parade.

Are your plans any more definite about moving?  How are you feeling, Marian?  Harvey wrote that Lisa has to have supports in her shoes due to poor arches.  I'm not surprised for her feet turned outwards.  Will she outgrow this or always need arch supports?

Helen is quite a talker now- says short sentences.  "Shut the door, it is mine."  She says Jesus, jelly, butter, etc.  She misses Rachel and Charles when they are at school 8am-11am, then she sleeps in the afternoon, so she doesn't play with them much until epm.

I went to the delivery room with the American teacher at the American School.  I helped her translate as her Portuguese is more limited than mine.  It was her first baby- total labor and delivery time was less than four hours.

Hope we get a nice long letter from you soon.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, October 24, 1966

 In our front yard, Loanda, 1966.

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.

Dear Marian and Frank-

Here I thought we were getting news of the arrival of your little one.  It is good to hear tht you have been feeling fine.

It's apparent you didn't get the letter I wrote answering your questions.  I sent it a few days before we got a letter from you saying you had changed your address, but I had hoped it would be forwarded to you.  I wrote that you shouldn't send us anything unless you want to send more candy.  For one thing, custom duty is too high and we will be ready to go on furlough by the time it gets to us.  We don't want to get new clothes until we are in the U.s. for we are limited to certain weight on the plane.  We have given a lot of old clothes away to the poor.  There is a possibility that we may be home before July- we will know at a conference in January.  It is certain that this station will be closed so we could go in February but Joey has to teach 2 weeks in Bible School in Cianorte which starts in March so we may be here until April or July.  The reason I think we may go home early is that next year there will be nine families to go and some will have to go earlier than others to spread out mission expense and not to leave so many churches vacant.  So who knows?  We may see you before you go to Europe.

In the other letter, I wrote that I had read "Bloody Morning" and enjoyed it.  It tells about the Hungarian revolution.  Last night we heard that it was the 10th Anniversary since the revolution started.  We think the embroidered things that you sent are lovely.  Someday I would like to hear of Frank's experiences when he left Hungary.

In the other letter I had thanked you for the presents you sent.  Charles likes to bang on things with his plastic hammer.  Today Joey was working on his car.  Charles took some of Joey's tools and was banging on his tricycle (my car, he says).  Rachel is forever taking some of Helen's clothes to put on the doll you gave her.  I gave her booties, a cap, and a couple things that are too small for Helen to use.  The necktie you sent is about the only one Joey uses and I use the half slip all the time.

This month has been lonely for Joey has been traveling.  He was gone one week to Umuarama, where special services were held in a tent.  Joey was the technician, so to speak, for he used his motor to show films as the town doesn't have any lights.  The following week he was here and Andy Olsen from Paranavai was special speaker at services held here.  Beautiful films that came from the U.S. in August were shown every night.  Films were shown outside and attendance was good bus, as usual, hardly any new ones come to services that are held regularly.  Last week, Joey and Andy went to a town 2 hours from Paranavai for the same film and service campaign.  It is a German community which Andy serves.  Tomorrow Andy comes here and they go for four days to a town one hour from here.  They both serve this German church but many members are spiritually dead so they are praying for a revival.  All of this has left Joey with slight liver trouple and upset stomach, but after a day of rest he is better.  Charles was so thrilled to see Joey the first week after he was gone that he couldn't say anything but laughed and laughed.

 Loanda, 1966 with Bobby

Our dog had a cut on a a leg that got inflamed with bugs.  Joey put medicine on it twice and that apparently killed the bugs for after a week of hardly eating anything and staying in the hole under our tool shed, Bobby now is barking as usual.

Rachel is super active and always into something.  One day she dumped out my perfume and filled the bottle with water to use in her playhouse.  She and Charles fight from morning until night.  If Helen turns out to be like them, I will be grey soon.  People can't believe Rachel is four because she is the size of three 8 year old girls on this street.  She weighs 46 lbs. and Charles is a chunk, too- weighing 35 lbs.

Helen at 2 months weighed 13 lbs 4 ozs.  Quite a fattie!  Besides breast feeding, she has cereal twice a day and sometimes a banana.  It is quite a chore to make baby food as there isn't anything available except in large cities and then it is only soup or bananas.  She doesn't have a tummy ache much anymore.  Since 3 weeks old she has been smiling and now laughs out loud.  Rachel likes to hold her and Charles gets upset if I let her cry for more than a minute.  He calls her "my baby" and refers to her as "he".

Are you going to breast feed?  It is nice that one can eat a lot and not gain weight.  I am at my normal weight now.  The biggest disadvantage is that whenever I go out for any length of time I have to take her along to feed her but it is nice not to have bottles to wash and prepare.

One hears such sad stories.  A young woman who had eight children (one every year) discovered she was pregnant again.  The baby is 4 months old.  This lady put a stick up inter her uterus to try to have an abortion.  A piece of the stick broke off and lodged there.  She died of tetanus.  Many babies die of tetanus because the mid-wife or whoever delivers the baby don't tie the cord with an antiseptic string.  As yet there aren't any planned parent clinics.  The middle and upper class use pills.

The doctor, who is good and very nice, was with me most of the time I was in the delivery room.  He took fetal heart tones just four times in nine hours before delivery.  The "nurses" here aren't trained to do much but they are good at giving shots.  Blood pressure was never checked nor flow of blood (except right after delivery I was given a shot for hemorrhage) and on the second day when I told the doctor I was passing large clots he took my blood pressure.  Blood flow didn't stop until two months- with Rachel and Charles it was three weeks.

Love, Donna

Notes along the side of the letter:

We are getting excited about going on furlough soon.  Rachel is anxious to go to kindergarten.  The children want to ride on a tractor with Grandpa and think it is great there are many farms to visit.

Louie Biel

We were surprised that Louie has already joined the Catholic church.  If only he could see how corrupt that church is here and pagan like with their processions.  Rarely does one meet a Catholic who reads the Bible or who knows anything about what it in the Bible.

Biel Boat Barco Biel

I have no idea where this was taken, but it's been an all-time favorite that I would like to someday make into a large image. It says "Biel Rio" on the front. Click on the photo to see a larger image. You will see two men lounging around, shooting the breeze...

Nao tenho nem ideia aonde esta foto foi tirada, mas tem sido uma favorita por muito tempo. Algum dia, gostaria de fazer uma copia grande. Na frente do barco se diz: Biel Rio. Clicke na foto e vera uma imagem mais grande. Vera, tambem, dois homems conversando, batendo papo...

-Rachel/Raquel

The "Rio Biel" boat was in a port of Northern Brazil when we sailed on a cruise ship the first time down.

O barco "Rio Biel" estava num porto no norte do Brasil quando nos viajamos num navio de passeio na primeira viagem.

-Pastor Biel

Waiting At The River

Waiting for the barge.  Mom and Helen are in the car.  I'm trying to get something from my brother.  Below, we see it coming.  We went over many barges during this time period- a sensible replacement for a bridge.  The problem was all the waiting and waiting and waiting...

-Rachel