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"Lost" pioneer tells her story
Audrie Reynolds has been a "lost" UK pioneer, out of touch with Pioneer Post for many years but having been "discovered" she has written the following about her experiences in USA and Russia:
At the World Congress in 1963 I met Johnathan Reynolds, a Baha'i from Massachusetts, USA, and we were married in Chester. We intended to pioneer to Africa but didn't have the money for the trip so decided to go to the States and save up. Well, it didn't work out that way; the Bureau of Indian Affairs offered Johnathan a teaching position as music director on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and we found ourselves in a pioneering post.
It was quite a change for both of us, far out in the prairie on the Missouri River, with only Indians and a few white ranchers. Johnathan, used to singing opera and playing the organ, found no organ existed within hundreds of miles. We acquired a raccoon who was a good public relations figure and attracted many people to our firesides. We learned Indian dancing and some of the language which had almost died out. They were interested in what we believed and then asked if this new religion would divide them as other groups had done and if it would forbid them to practise their culture. After hearing favourable answers they decided this was like what their grandfathers had always believed. We stayed there for seven years and an Assembly was formed at Fort Yates Indian Agency.
This was a time of great learning for us as neither of us had encountered native people before. We tried to be as natural as possible, knowing that we were being closely observed. One Indian said, We can tell what you think of us by the way you sit down in our homes. We were greatly enriched by learning their culture and value system which is said to be the same across North and South America. We also learned how to listen.
Finally we realised that we couldn't both continue school-teaching. I gave it up and with Indian friends and a visiting Baha'i who was black, travelled as an interracial team to all the Dakota reservations and issued a newsletter to those we visited. The Indians were to write it themselves but they were usually too shy and so we interviewed them on different topics and wrote exactly what they said. The newsletter was distributed to Indian areas in the Lower States, Alaska and Canada.
In 1970 we were asked to carry out mass teaching and wondered how the reserved Indians would accept it. But we followed directions and it worked wonderfully. Several new Indian Assemblies were formed, one in the Cheyenne area where six months later the tribe refused to accept new white religions - and found that all Baha'is on the Assembly were Cheyenne! Then Johnathan was transferred to the Navajo Reservation in the South West, to a completely different tribe of sheepherders in the desert. Only 60% spoke English so an interpreter was essential, usually a school child. It would take us all day to collect everyone from the mesas, hold the Feast and return them by van at midnight.
At first we were part of an Assembly that stretched 100 miles across the desert, then we moved to a school at Kaibito Trading Post near Flagstaff. The older Navajos still wore their costume daily and I remember one impressive gathering in Phoenix when Hand of the Cause Mr Khadem addressed them and referred to Abdu'l-Baha's promise that the Indians would enlighten the world. The translator hesitated, not knowing how to explain this and Mr Khadem said: "Go ahead. Translate it. Abdu'l-Baha didn't give this promise to the Persians or anyone else." I was sitting at the back of the room and as Ben Kahn translated, it seemed as though everyone grew six inches higher in their seats.
The Navajo Assemblies included medicine men and hand tremblers, those whose hands shake over patients as they diagnose illnesses. Their old ways were very different from the Sioux; for example they would destroy a home where someone had died, and people were buried far out in the desert, whereas in Fort Yates, they held all night wakes before a funeral and we were able to say Baha'i prayers at all their services. Sometimes we travelled with native Baha'is to other reservations in the West and took part in mass teaching in California and the Pacific Northwest.
After seven years in the desert and having by chance acquired a sled dog and taught her to pull a sled, we moved to an Eskimo village in northern Alaska, still under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Again a big change. Our sled dog had lost her undercoat in Arizona and arrived in Unalakleet shivering in the cold of March 78. The Eskimos couldn't understand a sled dog that shivered. By this time we also had a pet skunk which is not native to Alaska. They were afraid of her but referred to her "good pelt" .
Finally Johnny was transferred to Juneau, the capital in Southeast Alaska, and a time of continuous air travel came when the Juneau Assembly bought a small four-seater plane. We followed the Yukon River each Ridv n from one Assembly to another. This was a time when Baha'is were allowed to take the whole 12 days of Ridv n to form Assemblies. Sometimes when the pilot turned to us and said: "Pray now!" we knew there was some danger ahead, either bad weather or no radio communication.
Since Alaska is considered the backdoor to Russia, it seemed natural, having learned some Russian, to move there when the door opened in 1991. The move was supposed to be to Vladivostok but they didn't give foreigners visas and Kamchatka did, so we now live among the many volcanoes and earthquakes of the Far East. It was especially interesting to be here before the Soviet Union broke up. There were no Baha'is in Kamchatka at the time and people were very interested. Now there is a community of fifty adults and twenty youth and children, only one assembly as yet, but two Baha'i centres. Baha'u'llah planned the move to Kamchatka so well; for this area has native people while Vladivostok does not.
Johnny and I have been teaching English. At first life was hectic with food coupons, clothing rationing and empty shops but the people were so friendly and hospitable. Everyone brings food to Feast. Many speak English and it helps to have the equivalent Writings in Russian. I don't speak Russian well but can read and understand the NSA letter sufficiently.
Audrie and Johnathan plan to visit the UK in April and hope to attend National Convention.
Karen and Tim Shrimpton moved to Uganda in August, after having spent two years as teachers at the American School in the Philippines:
We just have to tell you some incredibly exciting news! We have been looking into adoption for several years now and had no luck at all in the Philippines where there is very strict legislation against Foreign Nationals living in the Philippines, adopting children there. We started making enquiries as to the process in Uganda as soon as we knew we were coming here and things seemed much more hopeful.
We made contact with two orphanages when we got here, but little did we know how quickly things could happen. Yesterday, as well as being the Birthday of the Bab, Tim and I attended court in the morning and received a care order for two gorgeous Ugandan babies, a boy called Kenneth and a girl called Jasmine. They are about two years old and were both abandoned in a market place in very bad condition around the age of about six months (nobody knows for sure). They are not blood siblings and we are now trying to make up birthdates for them. We will probably wait a month or so until we have a better idea of their ages.
Both these children were on a list to be taken away from the orphanage last week to make room for more tiny babies. Once they are taken to the villages, they grow up in a sort of community home as orphans and there is virtually no chance of adoption. Because we were willing to take older ones, the process was speeded up so fast that our heads are still spinning! The entire process from the first day we went to visit the orphanage to the granting of the court order was a mere sixteen days!
The court hearing was very quick and we proceeded directly to the House of Worship to take part in the Holy Day celebrations. This was a Birthday of the Bab that we will never forget. As you can tell, we have really got stuck into Ugandan life and it's wonderful!
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