Nostalgia

No Wi-Fi. No telephones. No fax machines. No pagers. And this was way before any mobile phones.

Communication was all by mail service when we lived in West Africa. The only practical way to send us a letter or a package was by air mail. If a package of goodies from our parents or friends was sent by boat mail, we may or may not even have received the mail or package. Custom officers and laborers in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) were bad about opening packages and taking anything they desired.

When my grandparents passed away, I did not know about it until 5-6 weeks later. By the time our family would hear our condolences in an air letter, it would have been almost three months after their passing.  It was hard to grieve for the passing of loved ones in a timely manner when you lived in the bush of Upper Volta.

One of the young men who worked for us would go to Ouagadougou on a Moped about once every 7-10 days to buy a few things and take our mail to the post office. He would go to the “Tennessee House” to pick up our mail that had arrived in our post office box in Ouagadougou. This house had a couple who were long term volunteers who would serve as the host and hostess for the volunteers when they arrived in Upper Volta and when they departed. All volunteers had to serve for a minimum of 30 days, so we would let them have a weekend in the middle of their 30 days to go into Ouagadougou and relax at the Tennessee House, buy souvenirs, and just kick back and enjoy real toilets instead of the latrines.

We tried to have mail sent to our government office in Diabo which was just two miles from our home and volunteer camp. However, it actually took longer to get to us than when our folks sent mail to the mission’s post office box. When someone would mail us a letter to Diabo, they addressed our mail like this: “Cox, Prefecture of Diabo, Upper Volta.” Sometimes it would take 6 weeks to get an air mail letter from the USA.

Some of the baby boomers will remember air letters. They were a light blue colored piece of paper smaller than a regular 8 ½” by 11” piece of paper. The postage was printed on the air letters, so one could buy air letters at a post office in the USA. The only place in the country where you could buy air letters in Upper Volta was at the Ouagadougou post office and the Bobo-Dioulasso post office which is in the far western part of the country.

We could write on one side of an air letter and about one third of the other side. One third of that same side of paper was reserved for the address. After writing the air letter, you fold it according to the directions printed on the air letter, and then seal it with a lick (that is what people do not do anymore!!). The air letter was also lighter than an envelope and a single piece of paper. It was cheaper to purchase them from the post office for the cost of the postage that was printed on the paper, plus a nominal fee for the paper.

So the airletter was the best deal. We wrote very small so that we could get a lot of information on the air letter. Recently, we have been reviewing some of our old air letters as well as those that our family sent to us. Looking at these letters brings nostalgia and good memories, but they also substantiate some facts that we have been guessing at when we talk about the past with each other or with other family members.

Looking back, I wish that we had sent more mail with Upper Volta/Burkina Faso stamps on the envelopes because I am a stamp collector. Not many people collect these stamps.  

I started collecting stamps when I was 10 years old. However, as an adult I was an inactive collector, but now that I do not work full-time, I have enough bandwidth to work on my stamps. Granddaughter Libby, who lives next door to us, has been helping me with my stamp collecting.

I started this story with some negative thoughts, but here’s to claiming the positive: good memories, nostalgia, receiving mail from family and friends, writing air letters to family and friends, and now rereading those letters that we sent to the USA.

Remembering is good for the soul, but we must not focus on the past. The future is right in front of our eyes and our heart.

Allowing nostalgia to take over a person might result in a variety of counterproductive and hurtful actions. One way to become disconnected from reality is to live in the past. We ought to be involved in the here and now while also anticipating the future.

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.” Isaiah 66:17