Rosie Olivia & Sophia 'Milne
Author of Olivia & Sophie , Rosie Milne, explores what the expatriate life was like 0 years ago.
My novel Olivia & Sophia explores the lives of two predecessors of modern joint monitoring. Olivia and Sophia both traveled from England to the east in South Asia in the early 19th century, and doing must have been like a journey to the moon today. Each was a bold and admirable woman; they were respectively the first and second wives of Sir Stamford Raffles. today is remembered as the founder of Singapore, but in his time he was the governor of Java, and later Bencoolen (Bengkulu) on Sumatra. Wherever Raffles went to the East, his current wife tagged along.
Write to Olivia and Sophia made me grateful to be an expat wife now, not 0 years ago.
First, there were the horrors of the journey out, which could take anything from six to ten months. This was before the sailing ships had stabilizers, and the passengers were often prostrate seasick for most of the trip. Imagine the lingering smell of vomit in wet clothes
Except for the very rich, the cabins were dirty miserable little holes !; dark, airless, and sometimes divided by nothing but the canvas shoulder strap, making it impossible privacy. To ensure the supply of fresh meat, milk and eggs, animals and birds must be transported on bridges, adding to the general din and stink. And then there was the risk of shipwreck and pirates. Even the most nervous flyer would surely admit that 15 hours cramped in Heathrow at Soekarno-Hatta economy must be better than the previous expatriate endured.
And what about travel in Asia? Bali-residents are probably accustomed to hopping Lombok or the Gili Islands for the weekend. If you live in Jakarta, you probably think nothing of taking houseguests to Borobudur. But 0 years ago, Europeans were mostly confined to their colonies like rabbits in the traps. domestic trips were often walk through the jungle clogging.
Olivia Mariamne Devenish, Raffles first woman
Raffles' second wife, Lady Sophia
Sophia, the first white woman to explore the interior of Sumatra, slogged mountains and down waterfalls in skirts -. no breathable hiking boots or tissues for her
How was she able to wash and go to the bathroom? What rations? She found herself living off rice and burgundy. And there was no card, so the more adventurous were constantly in danger of being lost.
It is not enough ease of travel that we take for granted today, but also the ease of communication. At the time of the house letters took ten months to wend their way to England, and the answers took up to ten months to reach the East. Imagine a woman here receiving the news of her adult daughter had died months after the event. What happened to Olivia - when she married Raffles she already had a daughter by a previous relationship. Imagine a woman who receives a letter from his mother investigate the health of a child after the death of this child. Four of the five children of Sophia died in Asia, and my novel imagines it receives such a letter. How lucky we are to have Skype, email, Facebook, and so on.
And how fortunate we are if we have five children, all five of them, in all probability survive to adulthood. Whereas, at the time of fever tore through the body as baby tigers by chickens. How do women cope with the death of their children? For its part, Sophia based on religion: a committed Christian, she considered the death of his children as a lesson of faith of his merciful Creator. Can you think like that? I could not - even if I had to pretend that I could be when I imagined Sophia
There were no children who have dropped like flies .. Europeans few years ago here 0 simply did not know how to deal with climate or tropical diseases. People got sick the morning and died in the evening. So many people connected to Olivia and Sophia died, I found myself cut many deaths, to avoid having a funeral every page. But my poor subjects had to endure the frequent bereavements. How brave they were, and how lucky we are not to have to bury a friend, a child or spouse every two weeks.
Not to mention that modern Western medicine does not actively harm us, unlike the treatment in favor Oliva and Sophia of the day: .. mercury
This drink involved salts mercury, which made the breath stench caused the constipation, and has made people drool like dogs
liver problems were particularly prevalent among Europeans here, probably because parasites, and because they all drank like fish because the water was so bad. Olivia, who loved his cherry brandy, died of a liver disease, after suffering years of mercury treatment.
And that pregnancy? Ladies, imagine having to deal with the tropical heat in your skirts and woolen underwear while you were the size of a house. And, yes, women here have thought it was healthy to wear wool next to the skin! Furthermore, there was no air conditioning, no deodorant, and no running water -. Nothing to do with living more bearable heat
And finally there was spawned. Sophia had no painkillers to the birth of his first four, but maybe she ether to the last. Her first child was born on a boat: imagine the layers of processing difficulties! Her second child was born on earth, but also happened while traveling with her husband, no nurse on hand, no friends who she could call for help, and only a botanist to help. Not that she was complaining; women should be strong, and she was.
So next time you're tempted to complain about your lot in life, just be thankful that you are an expat today, not 0 years ago.
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