.MTY.NDA

no 15
jan 25

dear mother, dad and sis

received a v-mail letter from you just now — dated Jan. 12. This is very much better than air mails, which have been taking between 25 and 30 days to get here. V-mails can't contain very much, but the great difference in time makes them worthwhile.

our spirits have been all hopped up again, although nothing concrete has happened. We are scheduled to move up along the line — but to remain in new guinea. Presumably, we will finally open a hospital at this new place. But the experience of the past months cautions me not to get excited until the thing is actually done. We may sit around for months at the new base before anything happens.

I'm a little tired, to say the least, of the constant moving about from place to place. With materials — lumber, nails, etc, etc., — relatively scarce wherever one goes — and with the fact that one must make everything for himself — it takes a long time to get comfortable and to make even a modicum of conveniences and neatness in one's surroundings. Just when I've about made myself cozy in one place, I'm off to the next. I'd like to settle down in one place for a while and not go hopping about like a mexican jumping bean.

Incidentally, about half of our nurses just arrived at this place yesterday. They have been assigned to one of the hospitals at this base — presumably on temporary duty. They are not going further with us now — but the expectation is that they will follow as soon as we're set up. However, one can never know what will happen.