started in Beni, 
mailed Bukavu 
May II 4 , *55 
I^ar B 3 ruoe and Mra« Bredin, 
How time flies, so fast it seems I shall never catch np with the 
letters I siKJuld be writing you. I an not unmindful of the many things 
I owe to you, but there Just do not seem to be enough hours in the day 
to do all that should be done* 
I left you last time with our returning to Stanleyville to start 
on our cross country auto trip, with first stop at Nia^Hia or Kya Nya 
as it is variously spelled. The pronunciation is something else again,- 
a sort of contradiction when I try to reproduce it phonetically— the 
German yes, -and no, one after the other, **flein-Yah!“, with I must confess, 
a nasal sound given the "Mein. ” On the road vie had our first auto 
trouble j a spring shackle bolt gave way and then either as a result, 
or Just happen sttince, the left rear shock absorver had to come loose. 
We limped along for some miles (kilometers) and fortunately came upon 
a filling station and repair shop way out in the sticks? 152 miles 
(2ii5 kilometers) ort from Stanl^ille. He did a weld Job on the 
shock absorter and found a spring bolt of the right size, -a quite 
primitive, yet quite complete repair shop. There will be sane pictures of 
this delay — Baker gathered mites from the roadside vegetation aid I poked 
through the leaf mould in the nearby woods (forest) while repairs 
were being made. They cramped our style for the day as we had to make 
Nia-Nia before too late in the day, as it was, it was close to 8 p.ra. 
However, we did sample a few streams in passing, and with local native 
help got a crab and a few shrimps. 
The hotel at Nia-Nia is old, how old I cannot say, but it certainly 
goes back to the colonial days of this country, at least the plumbing does. 
