Monrovia, Liberia

Sept. 20, 1935

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I was down on the Kru beach last evening watching the Kru boys trothing for Cavalla. How I envied them. They were out in little two-men dugouts paddling back and forth with no more concern than if they were on land.

I bought a canoe two weeks ago but it has not come down from the Du. All the trucks have broken down and it is about sixty miles or so by water from there to here.

This month is supposed to be the last and worst month of the rainy season but the rains are not bad at all and sea food is abundant. Twenty-pound groupers bring a shilling, sorry, twenty-five cents. Lobsters are two cents a piece and crabs are the same ridiculous price. I can get a bucket-full of "prawns" for a dime. Turtle eggs, three for a cent -- and watercress for nothing. Imagine lobster salads, watercress and egg salads, prawns and rice, limeades, fruit salads, avacado salad!

I was reading a Cosmopolitan a little while ago when some bush acrobats came by the house. They were really good, much better than vaudeville and two small girls were thrown about and were not hurt. It was spectacular.