(Cluster 2. Price girlsÂ’ analyses and observations of themselves. Provides initial insight into their characters both from their own perspectives and from each othersÂ’. Conflict over NathanÂ’s method of gardening.)

Leah

Summary

Leah notes that her sisters work with unusual gusto to help their mother with the housework to cover that fact that they are afraid to go outside. Leah herself follows her father around like a self-appointed shadow trying to please him, learn from him and help him in the garden. She introduces the reader to Mama Bekwa Tataba and the parrot Methuselah, both inherited from former missionary Brother Fowles. NathanÂ’s explanation for Fowles departure is that he had been dismissed for "consorting with the inhabitants of the land."

The first minor crisis occurs when Mama Tataba tries to correct NathanÂ’s garden and warns him about handling the poisonwood tree. He plants in the customary straight rows; in the night, Mama Tataba rearranges the garden into raised beds. Nathan ignores her warnings about the poisonwood plant and finds out for himself that it causes a painful rash. Nevertheless, he drags himself into the garden to redo the garden in his own way.

Rachel

Summary

RachelÂ’s initial concern is with the lack of new clothes for Easter Sunday. As it is, she has the only mirror for the household. Her mother sets it up on a desk for all of them to use.

The Congolese children wear rummage sale rags or nothing at all while the women wrap themselves in colorful sarongs that show no understanding of color coordination. The men dress in long flowing shirts or American styled shirts and shorts as well as in every imaginable combination of accessories from rubber boots to plastic thongs, sunglasses and even woolen caps.

Led by their father, the Prices celebrate a "counterfeit Easter" on the fourth of July because Nathan wants a focal point by which he can get the church "geared up." He plans an Easter pageant followed by a baptism and a picnic. It doesnÂ’t work out very well because the Congolese are afraid of the river and will not go anywhere near the wide Kwilu River he wants to use for the purpose.

Orleanna is the one who wins the crowd over by cooking chickens and distributing the pieces among the people, but Nathan doesnÂ’t seem to notice.

Ruth May

Summary

Ruth May gives her impressions of the people, especially the children. She sees their bloated bellies and does not understand why people say the children are hungry. Because she is a child herself, the adults talk in front of her about things they think she is too young to understand. Thus she learns that Mama Mwanza has no legs because she lost them in a fire. The village woman scoots around on her hands which have grown as calloused as feet. She also has seven or eight children and a devoted husband who adore and protect her. "Mother" has a subtle way of expressing her disagreements with Nathan, a mere tone that Ruth May has no trouble detecting. In spite of her age, Ruth May realizes that her mother is the one with the most accurate understanding of the Congo people.

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