When You Were Absent

32

Quarter pound chocolate Quarter pound toffee

90 cents

Section D

$1.20

Quarter pound milk powder

$4.00

Section E

Quarter pound cheese

$1.50

Section F

One small tin asparagus tips

$4.50

Section G

Section H

One pkt. razor blades One box matches $0.30 One bar laundry soap

Before the war $1.00 Hong Kong was 1/3d.

Children at first had no tickets, so that if I were lucky enough to get to the canteen before the raisins were sold out, I might get a half-pound to last me six weeks. I did not care particularly for my share of sugar and found that I could trade it off for tea or sweet potato skins. There was one couple in the bungalow who were sugar crazy and during the sweet potato season we were given small potatoes which our cook baked instead of putting in the stew. This couple never ate the skins, but peeled them off and I could toast them crisp for the children in exchange for sugar. I also traded sugar for yeast, which was the best bargain of all.

One night Celene spoke in her sleep. She said "I don't want a piece of bread, I want a sandwich."

About the beginning of May there was no oatmeal to be bought in the camp. For some time I had been feeding Van Dyke at three hour intervals and longer feedings in order to try and increase the milk supply. Finally one night I cried to God about it. It wasn't like praying for food for myself but for the child. Here was this beautiful baby God had given us and would he not supply me with something that would give him the nourishment he needed. I cried only to God. The next day a woman came to see me and said, "You are nursing a baby,

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