Tuesday
May 25
1926

Breakfast is always ready when I get up now. That is[,] the boys have the oatmeal cooked and the tea boiled. I make the coffee in the percolator and get them to set the table. They have the breakfast duties down fine now but I think that it is because Moon[,] the convict Hans and Prince have working with them on the aeroplane[,] is present during the morning meal. He is a good boy. Things would be much easier in connection with the kitchen duties if I just had one more boy like Moon. It was a nice shunshiny [sic] day to begin with and Dick took some movies of Hans and Prince putting the radiator back on [See Film Selection #9]. It is sodered [sic, = soldered] all around now and they think that it would hold all right for they intend leaving off the cowling on the radiator and over the engine to do away with the vibration that always shakes it loose. The Dyaks were busy making a landing down to the river in front of the officers quarters and they decorated it all up with fancy do dads. It was colorful as could be and I shot some stills of it. It was supply day – it comes quickly although {F1.12} it is once in five days – so I had to sit down and see what I needed for the next five days in the line of food. The order was larger this time for Matt is leaving with Leroux tomorrow morning at seven and will visit the Papuans for about twelve or fourteen days. He needed some more supplies also for that trip. After dinner when the material arrived from the magazines Matt and I worked on packing it and just as we were finishing that it rained. And how it did rain. It was the heaviest one to date and it came down in torrents for about an hour. It is still raining as I write. We had our washing out on the line and it got a little damp before it all could be gathered in. We saw the storm coming down from over the mountains in the direction of the mountains for after lunch it started to cloud up a bit. We sure were pleased that we were in our comfortable quarters and not in the lean[-]to during that rain storm for it was a peach. Four of our visiting Papuans just came up. I don’t know how many came with them but they are the same folks that Matt and Leroux are going to visit tomorrow. The river is rising again, having gone up about a meter in two days. A meter is 36 inches [sic, = 39.37 inches]. It must have rained heavily up in the interior during the last few days to raise it that much. But we too have been having some rain almost every day. If it continues to rise it will make it rather difficult for the canoe transport through the rapids which starts Friday morning bright and early. The plane is way below the banks though as yet and it is difficult to get down to it for we have no landing down to it. No one has taken enough interest in it to even suggest that and we haven’t asked to have one built. It shows, however, their lack of interest in doing anything for us and for the plane. Everything for the plane had to be asked for and sometimes several times before it was forthcoming. That isn’t giving it a fair shake either. Yesterday while we were down to the motor shop hut we stopped a Dyak from cutting a tree down which would have fallen directly on it if {F1.13} he hadn’t been stopped. It sure would have wrecked matters entirely and brought the plane’s usefulness to a finish. I don’t know who instructed him to cut down that tree but they don’t do anything without being instructed. He had taken about three whacks at it with his axe and it wouldn’t have taken him long to had [sic, = have] it crashing down through the wings if we hadn’t stopped him. Just seems funny and strange, how that kind of thing happens. The pictures I got yesterday of the Papuans, Dick just informs me[,] turned out all right. I am glad of that. Hope those I took today will be likewise. The navy sergeant showed me the “dingus” (that is what a Dutchman calls a thing he doesn’t know the name of) that was putting the sending outfit on the bum. I think it was the condenser and it evidently had gotten wet and the plates of tinfoil[-]like substance were all coroated [sic].

There was more hunting done today by some soldiers and they brought back a crown pigeon. One of them also brought back a leach [sic] in one corner of his eye which was a nasty thing to bring back, I’ll say. Doc Hoffman succeeded in getting it out, however. The hospital is full now, Doc says and he is kept rather busy so we haven’t seen much of him the last few days. It is a good thing that they have been busy the last several days cutting deep trenches around the various houses and godowns for it helps carry the water away and helps to dry things up. It is a nasty place when it is wet. One good thing about the rain, however, is the fact that we secure a good supply of fresh rain water which helps a lot for the boys don’t have to carry it then. They don’t have to be told to put out the buckets either like they have to be told to do many other routine affairs which they should know by this time. Doc’s boy has improved since his punishment inflicted because of his loafing on the job and is doing real well as is also his companion who loafed with him. We put them to work unloading the ship most of the afternoon and it was hard work. {F1.14} It seems that none of them are enthusiastic over the cooking job so I have made my boy chief cook now for he has developed into rather a good boy on the stuff on the fire. We have been enjoying some good potatoes and friend [sic, = fried] onions the last several meals which we obtained from Korteman who received them from the ship. They sure go good and as they will not keep we are busy eating friend [sic] potatoes and onions every meal. If we had a nice slice of ham to go with them it would make an ideal breakfast. We did have bacon though that wasn’t so bad. We are living well through [sic, = though] for we have plenty to help out among the American canned foods that we brought along. The regular chow we receive from the magazines, however, is not a bit bad. We are getting to like the dry fish and the dry meat called "deng deng" [sic, = dendeng (Malay)] very well when it is fried in butter. I tried frying it in bacon drippings today for lunch and it was even better.

Last evening Leroux had the Papuans who stayed with us all evening sing into the gramaphone. They did and he made a record of it which pleased them very much. When they talk they sure talk fast and it sounded funny coming out of the phonograph. They slept on matting in from [sic, = front] of Leroux’s house. Dick and I went up to visit the army short wave station at ten o’clock to see what results they were getting for they got all fixed up with a new aerial house and everything. Army sparks was busy tuning in. He has two assistants and it is funny to watch them work. They are clumsy as can be and have all ot [sic, = of] the instruments scattered about with none of them fastened to anything. He stands up while he sends. Hans says they are used to that in the army for if the Papuans were to attack they could take their set and run. It sure appears that way for nothing is fastened down[,] not even the key which jumps all over the board when he sends. He called and listened for Ambon but when we left at midnight he hadn’t been able to send a thing. He did hear one station and we listened to some one sending but we didn’t know who it was or where {F1.15} it was. The short wave length set is the best set and if they had some real live wireless bird working it they could get some results. The sergeant, however, depends on both of his natives to do everything but send. Sometimes he has one of them call his station at that. My mustache and beard is [sic, = are] just a month old today. It soon will need trimming.