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Edith Roller Journals: Transcribed |
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The Microsoft Word file uses hidden text to indicate the source file and page of the source pdf file. 1 March –Wednesday 1978 I had a talk with Inez Wagner. I had thought she had gone to Guyana with Mark. As it turned out, she had been in Los Angeles. I think she personally had difficulties getting out. I walked to breakfast with Inez, difficult because she stopped every few minutes to be greeted by an old friend. The new people were to meet in the pavilion with Lee Ingram and Judy Ijames for orientation. I asked Lee if I could go on tour if there was time, as I learned that the high school classes were not to be held. I did a little work on my journal. I had lunch. Waited in the Book Depository for 1:00 at which time the tour was scheduled to start. Suddenly a downpour came and lasted for sometime. This relieved my mind, as it made watering unnecessary this afternoon. I had intended to join the water brigade. The rain stopped but it took until 2:00 to get the group together. Johnny Jones first displayed a young tree boa constrictor to us. This was the snake used last night in one of the dances. Stephen Jones was handling him. We were told not to kill snakes if encountered in the bush. But to call security. They are valuable for food or for export. Jack Beam was put in charge of the tour, with Ellie Beam and Rochelle X as guides. They pointed out the crops along the road: citrus, pineapple, cassava, cutlass beans, sugar cane and rice. We walked down the road to the piggery, chickery, dairy and cassava mill. It is 1-1/2 miles from Jonestown to this point. We saw our two horses. They are apparently scarce in Guyana and are “riding horses.” We saw a big boar (we have two), a young boar, some of the hogs we brought on the boat and piglets which arrived yesterday. We saw chickens, both broilers and layers, several varieties and all ages. I did not see the cows, of which we have X. The cassava mill was not open, as articles from the boat are being moved into it for storage but we saw some if its auxiliary space. While we were in the area, more rain fell. Walking back was very different because of the mud. The piggery yards are 1-1/2 miles from the Front Gate. On arriving home, we had a shower. Did a little more work on my journal. Inez was home. She is having a problem with vaginal itching. Luggage is still in disorder in the cottage. For dinner we had a special meal in honor of the new arrivals: fried fish, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, cheese bread and a grapefruit. I saved the latter two items. Read Cities Without Crisis in the pavilion until time for the rally. Jim and Marcie were present at the beginning. There was a short program. Peter Wotherspoon and Tchabaka Baker sang a song about Victor Jara and one to “Fallen Comrades.” The kindergarten children did a dance to welcome Mother. The Misfits sang “Don’t forget to Remember Where All Your Blessings Come From.” Mother responded. Diane Wilkinson sang two songs. Jim said some don’t appreciate how we feel, some wish we hadn’t come, but he described the situation in the states. The Christian Science Monitor is now branded communist. Jim said he didn’t believe the world will escape nuclear war and concentration camps. Jim gave a summary of world news. Jim spoke on his own indispensability to this cause. “They” better hope we fare well, for it we don’t their ass is grass. Those bastards murdered Chris Lewis. We have an opportunity to defend ourselves here. Approval to purchase a boat was given today. It will transport cargo and people. Discussion on government advice on contour plowing and windrow systems. Jim asks for clarification of this issue. Russ Moton reported urea fertilizer is available at a good price. Jim insisted we should have proper storage, doesn’t want any waste. A problem concerning the order for pumps for the irrigation system: some essential parts were not ordered. The problem was one of communication between Rob Christian and Richard Janaro. Responsibility was not clearly fixed as yet. Jim said he had never seen the value of getting the pumps. People power has proven able to do the job, a great value to them. Seniors should realize the benefits of vigorous daily exercise. Kay Rosas had been reported as saying “God damn Dad; I wish I hadn’t come.” Rose Shelton and Lula Ratin[?] pummeled her. After discussion of putting seniors on the Learning Crew (they are not immune), she was assigned to it. Alleane Tucker didn’t care to come to the program to welcome Mother. She is a good worker but has a nasty disposition. Vincent Lopez is another one who didn’t want to see Mother. Vincent admitted he is lazy. Danny Beck mocked Mother by giving an imitation of her. Rose chastised him. The Christians sent a note complaining about the treatment of their child, Tina, on the learning crew. Jim said they interfere with the supervision of children. Rob Christian stated that he disagreed with the discipline program. Jim damned him for criticizing the office. “You underestimate my intelligence.” Vernetta admitted she can’t see the faults of her own child. Jim said Rob had wanted to leave. He warned him his wife wouldn’t stay with him. It was reported that Rob had showed an interest in cutting a trail through the bush to the river, that he wanted to look good. Rob admitted he is arrogant, puts his own family first. Jim read the report on Tina about her misbehaving on the learning crew because she gets support from her parents. Vern and Rob talk firmly to Tina and Vern spanked her. Rob asked to be assigned to learning crew for two weeks. Jim refused. Jim asked that the problem about Kimo be brought up. He is a child about 3 in the toddlers group who, I thought, had been brought to the Temple by Carolyn Layton and her sister, Annie Moore, probably from their father’s ministerial group. He is in the nursery school group. and is seen often with Annie and Carolyn in the Jones family surroundings. It had been stated in the nursery school group that he was getting special attention. The statement had been made by Marlene X , who has a bad effect on her own child X. She was accused of picking on Jim’s child (the first time I had heard that Jim was the father, though I recalled that a Herb Caen column had said Jim fathered a child after John). Marlene said she thought Kimo’s case was exceptional. Jim said things like this shouldn’t be brought up on the side. Mother asked if she tried to find fault with Jim’s child, taking out hostility on a child. Jim said, “You’re looking for a cop-out because you’re a permissive type parent.” Jim said he had been offered $7,500,000 as a bribe (probably to give up John) which he could have taken, but he refused to abandon any child. Teresa King had agreed that Kimo gets special attention. Harriet Tropp said that Kimo has been subjected to particular terror. He has to be guarded from kidnapping, threats, he wakes in the night screaming that someone is coming out of the bush to get him. Jim asked what special treatment, any of the children receive. Teresa said the workers take extra time with certain of the children. She admitted she was wrong to have said anything about Kimo’s getting special attention. Jim said there was shooting around his residence eight times. He asked what children did not get enough attention. Two were mentioned and Jim held each one and talked to him. Paula said the central question was hostility to Jim. “You keep skirting around it.” Stephen said there were worse hostilities held by other people and Jim said the remark was a sign of leadership. Returning to discussion of agricultural programs, Jim said it was fortunate that we got the burn out of the way (because it had rained the following day) though it could have been done better. Ten pigs were born, eight came through. Volunteers were requested to work on the fish heads all night. Chris Talley needs cages for a young deer and an anteater. This involves the whole problem of an animal shelter. Michael Simon sprayed James Turner in the eyes with insecticide today. Jim saved his eyes. Simon was very casual about the matter. Jim gave him a warning.
2 March – Thursday 1978 I found my watch under the bed in plain sight. It might have been fallen down from the bedding or even from my suitcase. There were no high school classes. Students were sent to their jobs. I worked on my journal this morning. Shirley Ann Edwards and another young woman who worked cleaning fish heads last night slept in the cottage through a good part of the day. A little rain fell during the day. I was very tired from the trip to the piggery. I got a blister on my toe, which together with my athlete’s foot is giving me some trouble. The athlete’s foot had been nearly cleared up. I took my shower about one and went to the pavilion to get treated. Dick Tropp told me that resumes of all our teachers, anyone who has C-3-A-3 (10) teaching experience or who has any college credits are to be sent to the Guyanese Department of Education in order to forestall any attempt to close our school. The idea is to have already in their files evidence of the number of educated people we have. Dick Tropp had drawn up a sample form and wants me to collect the required information and type it up in a uniform manner. I wrote my resume and also got my adult class list in order so that I can tell who has been coming regularly. Irra was home and scrubbed the floor and then took a nap. For dinner we had fish chowder, made from the fish heads and greens. I met my class tonight, the first time this week. I broached the idea of our doing a little skit about the water brigade. This had occurred to me on listening to Ray Talley describing funny episodes when SAT tries to round up reluctant seniors. The whole class was enthusiastic about the idea and contributed ideas. I had two class members jot down the names of those who wanted to do a speaking part. Jimmy Jo Jones came to the class tonight, taking a prominent part and offered to be a bucket runner and recruit some others. At the end of the class I gave the class an exercise on metaphors in proverbs. This aroused a good deal of interest and several members of the class had a goodly fund of proverbs they could call upon and understood the meaning. Etta Thompson had a particularly rich store. Jim had lent his voice on the loud speaker to encouraging adults to come to the class and a number of people who had not previously been there attended. I later found that Jim had put emphasis on learning to read and write, and several who could not, had come. I had planned with Dick and I had announced that resumes would be taken in the school tent from teachers and others at 8:30. I waited until 9:10. Dick Tropp did not come and neither did anyone else. I read Cities Without Crisis at home.
3 March – Friday 1978 When I went to my class today, I took a viewer for the filmstrips and two of the strips which Tom had thought might be useful in improving reading. Jerome, Kenny and Billy were absent. Billy later gave me a medical excuse. The class seemed to be interested and got some good from the exercise. At 2:00 after I had had my shower, I spent tall afternoon in the Pavilion taking resumes except during the high school teachers meeting. I wrote the information at the dictation of individuals who preferred that way, let them do it following the form if they preferred that. Dick Tropp presided over the meeting. Praises and reprimands were discussed. Mike Rozynko who teaches high school math reported difficulties with Stephanie Jones, who helps teach some classes but is a student in his. Stephanie was called in. Dick and others tried to explain how she might undermine Mike’s relationship with his class. Mention was made of her brother, Billie. Tom said Billy has epilepsy and suffers continued little attacks in his brain but did not think he had to be as unsettled as he is. Stephanie thought Marcie, her grandmother, had not told him much about his illness. A sudden call from Jim went out for Kay Rosas “front and center.” All who could, went to the Radio Hut to which Kay was literally dragged. It was not made clear what her original offense had been but Jim was wrathful that she had said “Fuck Mother.” The workers who came forward were very angry with Kay and Jim ordered her to be put in the “hole,” the isolation box. She was taken away. I took resumes for another hour. We had a good dinner with smoked fish made in the new smoking oven. I got weighed and found I have gained back a pound or two. The teachers of the socialism classes met at 6:30. I cleaned up first and arrived late. I told Don Jackson that I did not have time to prepare to teach tonight, but he suggested I make the presentation from the socialist book. This week we had a section on Karl Marx which I quickly read. Don spent a few minutes on items from the agricultural meeting and very little more on the current news as read to the village by Jim. Many are not in a place where they can hear them clearly. I had not heard them well myself. Someone had typed up and posted the items in the dining room, which helped a little. Don is going to inquire what else can be done. The section I have on Marx seemed to be fairly well received, but it is hard for me to raise my voice above the surrounding clamor. After the socialism class again worked on resumes in the school tent while movies were being shown in the pavilion. At one time I was helping Debby Schroeder. Teresa King, and Becky Beikman and we got a good deal of amusement of some of the incongruities coming out of their background. Debby confessed to taking drugs and anything she could get, so that her mind was very cloudy. Becky told of some of the days in the Valley when she was working as a teacher’s aide, in a convalescent hospital and with a house full of young people. Dad told her she would be a teacher someday, which seemed unlikely as she had not even finished grade school. Mike Prokes arrived for his interview. We got into conversation about his first time at the Temple when he put down his equipment and announced he was joining us and has never resumed his old life. “I had a sudden conversion,” he said. I asked him if he had been a socialist before. He said he had recognized that socialism was right but had never seen an authentic leader before. “Then I had no excuse.” I told him my reasoning had been the same, but a lot more gradual. It was quite cold tonight. Got to bed about 11:00.
4 March – Saturday 1978 I spent the whole day typing resumes, except for taking my shower. I got my typewriter out of the crate, putting some of the other items from the crate on my bed. The day was hot and humid with no rain. Diane received a letter from her mother, Marian Pursley who is living in Cuba. She compared Cuba favorably with New Mexico where she had formerly lived. She speaks Spanish. I have met Marian in the Temple and thought she was a member. I asked Diane if she not intend to come to Jonestown. She said Marian would like to come for a visit. As far as living here, “She’s getting on in years.” When I asked her age and the answer was that she’s in her 50’s, I reminded Diane that I am 62. Went to dinner at 6:00. Rally Jim entered. For the benefit of the new people Patty Cartmell repeated an episode formerly given of an episode which took place on the river, to her, Tommy Johnson and Rheaviana. The Apostolic Singers sang. Marthea Hicks recited a poem for Chris Lewis, as this was a memorial program for him. Diane sang “Strong, Gifted and Black” for Chris. Becky Beikman recited “If” ending with the word “You’ll be a socialist, my son,” dedicated to Chris. The Misfits did two numbers. The agricultural meeting: Citrus and nursery report. We have 10.000 seeds in citrus nursery which will cover 40 acres. We have 1000 young Liberica coffee trees. We’ll get our own seed for coffee. We raise acerola for vitamin C. Ming beans bear one ton to the acre. They are the best bearer. We maintain a mixed fruit orchard. Space is being saved for the breadfruit. There was a difference of opinion whether or not to prune citrus. North America almond won’t bear fruit here because we have no frost. Chaikin thought he should visit people who grow fruit here and look at what they are doing. Patty Cartmell mentioned a big citrus grower here who wants to come in here. Jan Wilsey says rice grows best on bush soil which has just been cleared. One variety is doing well in spite of having no rain. It is ready to harvest. She wants land to plant 3 different varieties experimentally. She wants Patty and others to look for pineapple suckers. Becky Beikman says pineapple is not a good money crop here, but it is in Linden. The government says we have the soil here for pineapples. Chaikin said the farmers around here have different kind of land than we. They grow yams to make money. Guy Mitchell reported six piglets out of ten died. Ten piglets were born today. We’ve been having a problem with mastitis. [infection of the teats from bacteria entering, permanently damage the teat] It is caused by nutrition deficiency [Not true according to internet and vet]. Guy underwent sharp questioning because of the loss of the piglets. Why was Larry not consulted? He didn’t succeed in reaching him. He was told from now on, contact Sylvia if he can’t reach Larry. She schedules his time. Larry said Guy has a lackadaisical attitude. Jim said it is the duty of the livestock people to contact Larry. Wanda’s attitude and activities were questioned. Wanda didn’t tell Guy of books brought from the states on tropical pig raising. Morell [Jim Bogue] also backed off. Guy said he’s [unreadable insert noted above these words] glad not to have the responsibility. Jim said the IRS has come down on us all with tax threats. Morell [Bogue] was charged with holding out on information because he wants to spend time with Minnie Buckley. Morell was not present. Jim said people like to eat collectively but don’t like to work collectively. All were told to solve the problem. There were complaints that fence posts were burned down a second time when burning was done. Then new poles have to be made. Fire makes galvanizing come off the wire and it will rust fast. Tropp said the reports here have been too Pollyannaish. The people had to dig out the facts. The cows were discussed, were said to be low milk producers. Wanda bought them. Morell was now in the meeting. Questioned about the production qualities of the cows. He said they are not big producers, have to be upgraded by two or three breedings. Wanda said Fernandez recommended these cows as did two other government experts. It is possible the cows were switched on her overnight. Jim had told her what to do, how to bargain. Jim: if we don’t succeed, we face the gun. The boom is being lowered. Charlie Touchette says Morell must stay with Guy step by step and teach him. Jim and Johnny Jones insist on all priorities being taken care of, bring in the healthy pigs and raise those pigs. Jim said 93 crates were coming in, with more of our people. Tommy Keaton gave the chicken report, Rob Gieg added to it. There was a long discussion on arrangements for letting the chickens out. Chris Talley reporting on small animals, said a small zoo is planned. Reference was made to buying a boat. Patty could keep in touch with the Amerindians along the river. Chaikin recommends putting the word out that we’re looking for one. Jim: get it taken care of. Tish said many production reports are not coming in. Follow-up reports were taken: Jack said tools must be checked out to individuals, not crews, to ensure care of property. Responsibility was fixed for repairing the cellar roof to safeguard the urea coming in. Sharkskin, that we had saved, was destroyed by maggots. The group tried to fix responsibility for not getting it taken care of. Juanita Green, a senior, was put on the learning crew for being unpleasant. Eugenia [Regina?] Bowser, who carelessly talks too much, assigned to learning crew. Eileen Johnson for doing a half-ass job, too mouthy, given a warning. Loreatha Buckley was defensive, had a bad attitude, put on learning crew. Kim Fye, talks too much, defensive, on learning crew. Darrel Keller, new, observes rather than working, slept in three straight meetings, given a warning. A long list of others given warnings. Maryanne Casanova on the floor for not doing her inspection job. She says she had too many responsibilities. She wants off the inspection job. Jim let her off but required that she be watched on other jobs, reported if she is guilty of elitism. Cynthia Davis was on the floor for attitude. Given a warning. Tom Partack doesn’t like the country. He was late for work, is defensive, is lapsing into bad habits. Put on learning crew. Pauline Groot graduated from learning crew. Tyrone Cartmell was worse after a long time on learning crew. He is going to the box. Tina Christian cooperated when her parents stood behind her discipline. Shawanda Taylor on the floor. Grandma is weak with the child. Jim insists on parent backing up discipline. Her mother spanked hard. Ted Jensen[?] released from learning crew. Tommy Kice makes fun of people. Made faces at Pauline Groot. Tom Kice gave his son a ‘lickin.’ April Klingman got a spanking from Martha Klingman, she’s back on the learning crew. Nawab Lawrence also received a spanking from his mother. Jim said to him: “you’re a bright boy. Do you understand why I can’t let you have your way?” Jim dismissed the meeting, asked for commendations to be read out. At 1:30. I was in bed a 2:00.
5 March – Sunday 1978 I typed resumes all morning. Then had a shower. My right foot is swollen and I have some pain in it. I had socks on last night to avoid insect bites in the pavilion. I think the foot got too hot . I am afraid it may be infected. I wanted to get back to my resumes but Irra was scrubbing the floor. When she finished and I started work again, the housing investigators came by and objected because I had many of the items from my locker on the bed. I worked for another hour or two on resumes in the afternoon. The other residents had their half day off which they spent in the afternoon and concentrating was not easy. Mended a few items. Did a little work on my journal. Waited until 5:00 to go to dinner. It was near the end of the serving period, but the lines moved extremely slowly as the servers kept running out of food. Jim on the loudspeaker was telling the people that at $13 for which we sold broilers in the market, it costs us nearly $3000 for chicken dinner on Sunday. The chickens cost almost that much with the losses we have suffered lately. He said we had lost some more baby chicks because they had been de-beaked once more in spite of our orders. It may be a CIA engineered plot. I was talking with Joicy Clark and Jim Pugh among others in line. I like and admire Joicy because she is so vitally interested in everything, but sometimes she wears me out because she always talks excitedly. Today a great many parents were with their children in line. We were in line over an hour. I traded my piece of chicken with Joicy so that I could get a leg. Returned to the cottage and read Cities Without Crisis a while. Got my candy. Mother was distributing. It was announced that there would be a meeting of all teachers at 8:00 in the dining tent.
Carolyn Layton was in charge. The Guyanese officials from the Education Ministry were going to be in Port Kaituma on Monday and Tuesday. We had heard on good authority they might come to visit our schools and we had to be prepared to demonstrate what we are doing. They might refuse to accept our school and insist our students attending Pt Kaituma school. Plans were made for demonstration classes. Carolyn wanted as many of the resumes to be completed as possible. It was announced that teachers who had not yet given their resumes to me should stay after the meeting and do so. However only three did so. Two of them were Peter Wotherspoon and Lois Ponts. Peter was born in Chile to British people who were second generation residents. Peter said they were now fascists. He had lived through three distinct modes of living in his life: breakfast in bed, literally; the street life of the 60’s in Chicago which reached a high point at the Democratic National Convention in 1967; and the socialist life of Jonestown and he was grateful for having known them all. Peter has an astonishing number of skills and is now interested in fish farming. Lois Ponts seemed disorganized and I would guess is not very well adjusted here. It took a long time for her to recall the facts and dates I asked for in order to fill out her form. I went to bed at 12:00.
6 March – Monday 1978 My foot is still swollen. It worries me as it may be infected. I finished the resumes I had this morning. After lunch I did my laundry. I used the bucket at the toilet area and Diane let me have her little washboard from the pre-school. I took a shower and got my foot treated. If it is not better tomorrow, I intend to go to the Medical Office. Diane Wilkinson moved in with Loretta Cordell; we have a teenager, it is said. I haven’t seen her yet. Did very little on my journal. Took a short nap. The water brigade was called for before 4:00 o’clock. I didn’t want to go on account of my foot and the very little work I had done. I typed the skit for my adult class. I had dinner. A special meeting of all the teachers was called for 8:00 in the school tent. I had to cancel my class which was beginning to assemble. Carolyn Layton told me we had to gather and type some more resumes. She had sent Rita Lenin with her own resume, which she wanted rewritten to submit to the government ministry. Carolyn said it was definite that officials from the Education Ministry were coming to visit us tomorrow. The issue is whether we shall be allowed to retain our own schools or whether our children will be required to go to Port Kaituma. Very careful plans were made to convince them that our school is doing a creditable job. Carolyn said some of the government officials are capitalistic and elitist. Jobs were assigned to different teachers. Jim wanted the Book Depository shown and it had to be straightened up. Bea is too sick to help. Carolyn said the officials wanted to see lists of all the children, their ages and classes to which they are assigned. Since the school does not have such lists, some teaches will have to go to the coordinator’s office to get them. In the middle of the meeting I started taking resumes from those who didn’t give them earlier. I worked in the dining room tent, then did more in the school tent where the Steering Committee was having a long meeting. Had a conversation with Shirley Fields, who has been expressing interest in helping with my adult class. I have been trying to get her to commit herself, so that I can begin reading instruction for those who need it. Now Shirley seems to be interested in helping with my remedial problem in my high school class. I think daytime hours are easier for her. This might be a help, as my class is going to be larger next term, I understand. As the residents in my cottage were asleep when I was ready to type, 12:30, I was invited to type next door. Karen is in Georgetown and Penny was not there. Christine Lucientes went away. Paula Adams and Daisy Stroud went to sleep with the lights on and tape playing all night. I worked until almost 5:00 a.m. and did 11 more resumes, including Carolyn’s which I had to draft.
7 March – Tuesday 1978 Terry Buford picked up he resumes to deliver to Carolyn. I returned my plate to the kitchen. The Guyanese officials had arrived and were at that time looking at Jack Barron’s work-study project. Saw Bates who, to my surprise, had procured some surplus material from the warehouse and had one of the other seniors make up a pillow for me, covering it with my material. She will use the rest of the material to make pillows to sell. Did some work on my journal before I went to lunch. Had my shower. The aide who treats sores and athlete’s foot wasn’t at her post in the pavilion today because of the guests. But my foot is better, the swelling has gone down. I saw the new young woman who is going to be in the bed vacated by Diane Wilkinson. Her name in Anitra Green. She rustled through Vercie’s possessions looking for a tape adaptor. I told Irra about it when she came and she didn’t like it at all. Some odd episodes have occurred lately in our cottage. Somebody left some toast in the room yesterday and Harriet said somebody had gone through her cosmetics and taken a bottle of cologne. I tried to take a nap for two hours from 3:00 to 5:00. I thought I just dozed off, it seemed to refresh me. The day was very hot. Spent half an hour examining recent journal entries to see which are incomplete. With so many meetings the first part of March, I got behind. Went for dinner. Then worked on my journal in the pavilion. Jim gave the news at the loudspeaker before the rally started. --The Apostolic Singers sang, “Trusting in that Rock That Wont Give Away” and “Moving Around with Father Every Day.” Jim on eggs that were injected with some disease from which chickens were hatched which we are losing. Agricultural Reports Reports on chickens. We should consider all changes for raising them. Expert says we’re overcrowded. Keep rats out. Walls too high for ventilation. More suggestions: thorough disinfection. Thinks biggest problem is poor sanitation. Jim says Georgetown people must see chicken farm of Mr. Fernandez’ brother. Use more lamps with chicks. Give antibiotics in water. May need extra water. Use circular room to prevent overcrowding. Use aureomyci. Use gravel to help them digest food, screen it. Edwards says we need gravel, chickens not to walk in excreta. Rob Gieg says we’re following all suggestions except probably don’t have aureomycin. Jack Beam says some practices are shoddy. Anthony hard to find. Schacht says disease seems to be Ariz disease. Johnny Jones says put medicine on airplane. Chaikin says Gieg maybe should get the medicine. Discussion on probing or pushing the agenda. Jim says we need coordinator, farm manager. All decisions will have to move up to him. Jack Beam was nominated. Cassava: Keith Newsome, a child. Margarite Romano is head. Chaikin suggests we get good advice on which kind of cassava best for what they want. Also which direction they should be planted. Land Clearing: Mike Touchette with tractor and burn. Also on Machine Shop. Discussion on using windrows. Stephen has feeling Al Touchette reflects on his ability with the tractor. Jim thinks he has paranoia. He had leadership potential and makes it hard for him. Doesn’t blame him for resentment feelings but think of tortures undergone by Biko. Jim: US is afraid of us. 264Question is Caterpillar tractors could be used more, not that Steve was goofing off. Charlie Touchette can’t approach Mike. Stephen agrees that Mike is touchy. Not for Stephen to resent being brought into world. To people: go ahead and have a kid, but when he’s 16 he’ll hate you. Mike says he’ll change his attitude toward Charlie. When you get older you don’t change rapidly. He’s less arrogant. Mike says he hasn’t taken his responsibility seriously. Jim says Mike’s companion is very independent, which is hard on his ego. Jim reported he had heard that Rob Christian said that if anything happens to Jim he said to Marie Lawrence he couldn’t stay with the movement. Jim said for a person without an ego this is the worst thing you can say. Rob doesn’t remember saying this exactly. Jim: One reason enemies do what they do, they want us to fail, so then they can say, “I knew it. It couldn’t work.” Utility of windrows discussed. Erosion control. Chaiken says we get sheet erosion. Chaikin thinks one windrow down the side of a hill was discussed. They take up valuable land. They make it harder to turn machinery around. Need contour plowing. Windrows also harbor insect pests. Keeps good ground covered. Jim: needs longer range planning. Hope analysts can handle this. Jan Wilsey speaks of immense manpower needed to get rid of wood. Many suggestions of dealing with logs and windrows. People power to remove and stack them. Jim says idea of using them instead of diesel fuel for power. Gardens: somebody wanted report to indicate how much of each for a meal. Jack Barron reported 25 gallons wing beans soured during picking. Suggestions for avoiding. Herbs: Shirley Fields Safety Steward: To be assigned to and report to steering committee. Chris Lund reported on what has been done to cut down on electric power. Jim: Necessary for conserving. Our enemies are going for our jugular. Stoens, Mertles, We have evidence that they are involved in he murder of Chris Lewis. Warning from Jim: someone in shipments of people who are coming in might be CIA plant. Do not say anything negative to anyone. Analysts Reports. Pigs: more piglets dies. Three more. Remainder moved up to central area to feed them and try to save them. Larry just reveled that another pig died. Marshall Ferris thinks cows are poor quality, won’t give much milk. Kitchen was refused butter because they asked for it on off-hours. Messenger was told the anteater had to be fed. Tretine Octerday [Traytease Arterberry?] to box. Gina Bowser to box. Shonda Gaylor to box. Mark Rhodes 2 days in the box. Kay Rosas pleaded for mercy. Jim gives her a chance to see Big Foot. Other choice was test administered by Jack Beam. Joe Johnson, taken just to save him. Somebody hunting you in the states. You were in drugs. Spoke of “slave camp.” The boa put around Kaye’s neck. Melanie Breidenbach reported washing own clothes in the laundry when laundry is closed to others. Karen Lend on floor for trying to smuggle out a request for a tape recorder. Several others were on the floor for discipline. But I was getting sleepy and at times the microphone was off. I was sitting in the back and couldn’t see well, so I didn’t note names. The meeting ended about 1:30. Jim announcing that we would sleep two hours later in the morning, but work through lunch. I went to bed at 2:00
8 March – Wednesday 1978 High school classes were cancelled and students sent to work projects. No lunch was served. In the morning I made considerable progress on my journal. Washed my hair. My foot was much better though I still have some raw skin between the toes. The aide at the pavilion was not giving treatment as the nurses were about to start a meeting but she did put some cassava powder between my toes. I worked most of the afternoon on a memo to Jim, a recommendation for saving time and thus helping to increase production by better management of the People’s Rallies. I plan to submit it for discussion to several others before passing it on to Jim. I intended to go to the water brigade, but the call was early and I was not through with my memo. I decided to finish it. Went down for dinner at 6:00. Took my laundry in. Took a copy of my memo to Tish. Also showed the original to Mike who asked me a few questions as to who would be able to handle the chairmanship. The boat bringing our crates (a private carrier) also brought some new arrivals to Jonestown, among them Jane Mutschmann, but I didn’t see her yet. During dinner Jim was on the loud speaker and very angry. At the watering he had initiated a water fight for the children. This had been criticized as wasting water by some of the adults, who had even snatched buckets away from children. Jim said they had forgotten their childhood, that children needed some fun. He had economized more over his whole life than they had ever thought of. The loud speaker system is not working in the cottage area. I thought we were to have an entertainment program for new people. Because of this and because a letter writing project was announced for 8:00, I cancelled my adult class again. Some of them had already assembled and were disappointed. As it turned out, the event taking place on the podium was a try-out for those who wish to present musical, dance and related items at a show the Temple will be giving in Georgetown in a couple of weeks. The letter writing group was meeting at the same time and we heard the entertainment people trying to persuade those wishing C-3-A-3 (40) [269 and 270 were in reversed order] to perform, not to be reluctant to appear before the others. Jim got on the microphone and called such people down for giving trouble. I had missed a letter writing session the other night when I was writing resumes and Dick had me write all the letters I had not done plus the new ones. I wrote to the Internal Revenue Service, with a copy to the President, protesting their harassment, then a letter to the Ukiah Daily Journal, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the San Francisco Examiner, taking exception to the article each had carried on the Jim Jones–Tim Stoen child custody case, mainly based on information from Tim Stoen. I wrote the letters by hand in the school tent. Dick kept going to the microphone and rousing the people on his list to come and write their letters. I had given a copy of my memo on saving time at rallies to Dick and got his opinion. He was supportive, merely remarked it would be difficult to implement. Meanwhile there was much movement among leadership people, including Jim himself, and the Radio Hut and the tent area. I heard Jim say he had a crisis on his hands. He also, as on the other nights was calling for the doctor and several nurses for consultation on the radio. I finished with my letters and went home at 11:30 and to bed.
9 March – Thursday 1978 Went to breakfast. It was announced that high school classes were cancelled Thursday and Friday. The crates brought on the boat were being delivered by our workers to the rice tent and unpacked in a steady stream. Tom told me many of our books and school supplies are included. Traffic through the unpacking area is banned, making the short cut I usually take unfeasible. Paula Adams had a statement from Crocker National Bank that my account was still open and asked me to close it. I think the following month’s statement will show that it has been closed with the $60 check I gave Lor, but I agreed to write a letter to the bank. When I returned to the cottage, Terri Buford spoke to me about a request from Bechtel Thrift and Trust office to indicate how I wanted to be paid for the county portion of my Thrift funds. I have some $388.00 coming. Phyllis Chaikin has to design a curriculum for training nurses aides at Port Kaituma and asked me for help. It was not merely a request to type it, she wanted me to help her to write it. I worked with her for an hour and a half. We did not finish. I had Harriet Tropp and Phyllis Chaikin read my proposal on conducting the rallies. Harriet’s attitude was affirmative. Phyllis agreed with me that much of the material in the agricultural reports was not understandable to the uninitiated. Went to lunch. I saw Tish in the Agricultural office. She had extremely negative reports on my rally proposal. She thought it showed a complete lack of empathy with people who had had less education than I, little appreciation of what Jim has done to bring our members’ abilities to the point where they are now and lastly, an indefensible questioning of the office. She thought I should examine my motives. My explanations she regarded as defensive. I think that by discussing my adult class, I absolved myself somewhat from the charge of elitism. I told her my biggest problem was the abysmal state of preparation of my basic Language Arts group. We parted amicably, I deciding not to submit the document to Jim, at least in its present form. I was grateful to her in that she had saved me from giving something to Jim which might offend him, though he has said we can write him anything privately. Saw Jane Mutschmann briefly. She is happy to be here. I got out my typewriter and completed the necessary business documents. I took them up to the Radio Room just by 4:00, the hour specified by Paula, only to find she was next door. The call for the water brigade went out at 4:00. I read Cities Without Crisis for a half hour, then went down to the field to water. Most of the afternoon I was standing next to Tom Grubbs and later Debby Jensen. He made an inquiry about Bechtel which led to a discussion of intelligence work and finally to my telling him of my coding experience. With Debby we talked of old radio programs, especially comedians we had enjoyed. This arose out a comment hearing the news versus reading it. Tom says he has a hearing deficiency. Tom, I learned, has a deep appreciation of reading, likes poetry, including Shakespeare. He gets no time for reading now. Some people left the line, perhaps through a misunderstanding, but the majority stayed, afraid of incurring Jim’s wrath, until Jim Simpson called off the work at 7:15. A change in schedule has been announced. Many of my adult students and I myself had looked forward to having my class tonight and rehearsing our skit, but we were told socialism classes would be held tonight rather than Friday. Then we would have the Rally on Friday, because of the dentist’s coming on Saturday. During dinner we were informed of another change. We were to come as quickly as possible to the pavilion to see films. I took my food, a cheese sandwich with lettuce, the first time I have eaten it here. Clayton Heims, Minster of Information, was visiting. He introduced two films on Guyana, the first “This is Guyana,” showing the historical backgrounds, scenic spots, the chief agricultural and mining products, the different races in the city and scenic spots. “Ours to Build,” concentrated more on development activities. The films were over at 9:30. I returned to the cottage and read Cities Without Crisis for a while but tired with the long physical exertion, went to sleep before all the residents were home.
10 March – Friday 1978 Told Dick Tropp of Tish’s comments on my memo. He was vehement in his feelings that she was motivated by her own involvement in the agricultural reports, did not agree that I was insensitive to people with less education than I, nor that I criticized the office. The school supplies and books coming in, in the crates are being unpacked and distributed to storage facilities in the school tents and the book depository, the latter being used for teacher resource matter. When I got home I saw Harriett Tropp and told her also of Tish’s opinion on my memo. She was even more intense in her attitude than Dick, thought I should turn it in to Jim. Worked on my journal a short while at lunch and had hoped to catch Dale Parks and Don Fields in order to write their resumes but I didn’t see either of them. Instead I saw Bob Davis who started to give me is. He has a degree in music from a state college in Washington State. We had to stop before we were finished when Jim began to give the news. Took a shower and the medical aide treated my foot which is almost completely cured. I lay down for an hour and dozed. Dick had told me the usual high school teachers meeting would be held but the teachers were in the pavilion. I went to the Book Depositor who told me the teachers were cataloging books and school materials, that he was coordinator and Dick had not consulted him. I helped catalog from about 3:00 to 6:00, as I didn’t feel like going on the water brigade, which was early. Boxes of books and materials were being brought in and we were going to have a serious problem of storage. As soon as we get the books cataloged, I shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a book to read. I was really having difficulty locating one to read after I finish Cities Without Crisis. Dinner was not being served until the water brigade was dismissed, so I went home and got my socks on (to protect against insects) and my pillow. Then I was late and barely made it to the rally, held tonight because the dentist is coming tomorrow and found a seat. We had fish chowder over rice, cutlass beans and oranges. Rally Lists of those seeing the dentist Sunday. Four appointments an hour. --The Misfits. Praise: Bob Rankin – others for working overtime. Scott Thomas, Tommy Bogue, Darrel Kerel [Darrell Keller?] working good in bananas crew. Many on learning crew doing well. Many on difference crews. --Patty Cartmell: Life in Cottage 28. Agricultural Reports. Nursery and citrus. Good portion of papaya transplants died. Chaikin’s negligence. Only labor lost. Think they might have died anyway because the weather was hot and dry. Any chance of saving them? Chaikin doesn’t know. One of the workers says Chaikin changes his mind frequently. Jim says Chaikin has the obligation to consult his books. Protest because he said we lost only labor, lack of consideration for women and blacks. Jim objects to contempt for labor, analyst should have mentioned this. Discussion of value of labor. Jan says he is too sure of himself. Jim: papayas may be more valuable than we think, a very serious loss. You have to have knowledge and override wrong assumption of one person. Decision called for. Chaikin going to give more consideration to others’ opinions, have to be more cautious that job is done properly. Going to grow more papaya. Jan suggests shade papayas we now have and mulch others. Report on coffee trees: experiment on different ways of planting in dry weather. Insecticide and chemical controls. Ernestine Blair, Becky Flowers lost empty insecticide container. Didn’t report it immediately. Davis says group should look at similar package so as to recognize it. He wants exploration of using natural pesticides. Marcie and Jim emphasize all children should be shown packages and warned of poisons. Person’s name to whom the poisons are issued should be on the package. Tropp suggested that Becky for a penalty, she prepare material to teach all classes about poisons. Jim agreed. Jan Wilsey, cutlass beans, kidney beans. Jan wants pineapple suckers procured by Patty and Rheaviana and by Georgetown. Rice being harvested. Started planting it. Eddoes are holding up through drought. Crew is . Mulching them. Tropp asked if she wasn’t late in looking for mulch. Jan said she had just read about it. Jim: If we really believed our life depends on this farm with Carter calling for special attention to Rhodesia situation, at any moment could have nuclear war. We should have been thinking ahead. Someone suggested we have a mechanical harvester which may work on beans. It’s at the piggery. Tish wants to know why analysts. Jim: Doctrine of three worlds. Soviet Union and US the first world. China broke with Soviet Union. Little Albania made choice. All must make choice, overcome fear. No one may take choice of death from you. Albania thought USSR compromising too much with the US. Latter was wise because US and British preparing to bomb them. USSR prevented Czechoslovakia from going completely capitalist. Difference between USA (CIA) and USSR (KGB). Czechoslovakia has one of most liberal socialist governments. China became terribly apprehensive, because Soviet Union on her borders. Mongolia at issue. Afraid USSR main menace, accused them of state capitalism, no one can dissent against Communist Government. You can’t do it under capitalism. Look at what they do to us, though we are mildly socialist. All other groups have been destroyed. 3rd word is under developed world. In no instance has China helped a 3rd world country. Soviet Union helped Allende’s followers, as did Warsaw Pact nations. China has good communal sharing but practice reverse racism. It’s foreign policy sinks. China said Russia more dangerous than USA. US is a paper tiger. USSR more powerful, when Albania broke with them, China said USSR spends more than USA for military purposes. Figures erroneous 50 billion to 103 billion, half soviet troops doing civilian work, USSR offered years ago not to bomb civilian installations if US would do the same. Law passed to ban protest meetings where government has any military or federal installation. US will not sign a genocide treaty. Almost all have signed it but US and China. China claims USSR is expensive. Not true, though Turkey and other right wing countries are all around Soviet Union. USSR has never been a killer nation. Albania finally broke away from China. US had even installed a puppet, Sadat, in Egypt. China has been on the side of reactionaries in Angola, Somalia, Chile. China invariably on wrong side, Soviet Union on side of liberation. China has never done anything for Third World. They destroyed Guyanese economy. USSR is my friend. Tim Stoen and Neva Sly. Latest infamy: Tim has become a fascist and enjoying it. Jim: I will not cut myself off from international socialism. Capitalism is outdated and will fade away. Hitler got his backing from US capitalists. Hope nuclear war can be avoided. Believe China has helped make it. One day China will come out of this nationalist era. US is a pig. Have shot down our loved ones. I didn’t come this far to go back with my tail between my legs. Glad we’re not contributing to their military plots. I do like having my dignity. They’re very nervous about us, the first to do it. Going to brag about being in the Soviet Magazine. Long Live the Soviet Union. Will support the Guyanese policy of non-alignment. US has designs on their territory. It is in best interests of Guyana to be non-aligned. No iota of sense for a nation struggling for survival to support Belize. No blood on the hands of the Guyanese people. Have shown guts. Soviet Union’s bravery in Angola and Ethiopia, support for working men, alive. Falsity of doctrine of 3rd World. Jim: You wouldn’t fight a revolution in the US if you won’t work there. Soviet Union now firmly enmeshed in Brazil. Palestine Liberation Organization permitted to have headquarters in Brazil. [name in upper left corner page: WmWebster] People came to microphone to ask questions. 1:50: Back to agricultural reports. Piggery. Progress report. Changes made. Morell [Bogue] told of plans for a teaching class. Tish said Wanda complained of Morell not getting in touch with her. By Sunday they have to meet with the analysts. Jack Beam said the piggery and chickery a filthy nasty mess. First priority cleaning up. Piglets brought up here and doing alright. Jack says cleaning up comes first, then educating themselves. Get Morell to do the procedures. Geig say cows losing weight because of being brought in [daily] too soon. He asked and received permission to leave them out until 7:00. Chickery. Rob Gieg. Lost 115 out of 613 chicks. Disease which Jim said CIA may have caused. Ari disease. Keaton complains because eggs delivered rotten. Some eggs not picked up for two days. Perry continually failed to get the eggs for various reasons. Eggs broken. Kitchen says egg cartons treated roughly. Jim says will be on learning crew if this continues. Jim says wake up all the children and tell them the one who punched holes in the baskets will have something dreadful happen not through this group unless he makes it right. Maury Janaro. Small animals. Working with piglets. Doing fine. Another litter of pigs in next few days. May lose some. They have hypoglycemia. Given them sugar shots. Deer died, probably because of trauma. Tish says deer was left alone for several hours, that they were told not to leave it alone for more than an hour. Edie Kutulas questioned their schedule. Chris Talley brought in from caring for piglets to answer to charge she had bad attitude on cleaning monkey cages. The to answer charge the deer was left alone for several hours. Fawn was off the bottle, drinking out of a bowl. Jim thinks the milk soured. They are inconsiderate of people living with them with music on. Chris admits she has taken advantage of having help, sleeps more than she should. Supervisor of Dorm 5 to be voted on who will supervise them. They are under the dorm. Eliza Jones elected. Both get warning. Ron Sines. Bees. No response from anyone seeing bees. Report that someone who made $1000 profit a year per hive. Smokehouse. Needs electrical wiring. Chris Lund says it’s a long way from a power pole. Question: whether kerosene lamps will do on nights light needed. Yes. Getting rice mill. Use discontinued so may be able to procure one. Need corn mill too. Orchard irrigation system. Warnings and assignments to discipline. This is only a partial list. Those whom I know or those whose cases are particularly interesting. Jim Morell [Bogue] had two. Took little interest in piglets, tried to take easy way out about a fire, grass burning. Jim says work extra three hours a day as needed at piggery. Mark Sly bad attitude. Two warnings in a month. on learning crew. [Written in side margin: Brian Boutte comes to __ __ __ __unreadable] - Chief enemy of class. Michael Simon in learning crew. Barbara Kemp on learning crew. Eating seed. Alleane Tucker, eating raw sweet potatoes, is on weight watchers. Juanita Green can’t get along with anybody. Jim says anyone can see you have an attitude. She cries [names at upper left corner: Greg Frost, Lester] she gets upset, fusses. Jim: a person who says people pick on her all the time is guilty every time. Jim says she’ll be very sick this week. “People who don’t respond to logic, respond to judgment.” Tratrice X [Traytease Arterberry?] talks too much. Go to junior learning crew. David Goodman, outrageous behavior. Box. James Johnson. Bad attitude on water brigade. One more day on learning crew. Kay Rosas join David in the box. “It won’t cure you [Kay] but it will cure David.” Tom Partack. Depressed. Nostalgic for San Francisco. Companions said he questioned him about Lester [Matheson] and Greg [Frost]. Jim says they are in a grave on the hill. [Actually returned to States after walking out of Jonestown earlier] Jim asks him if he wants to be dead. “Sometimes,” he says. “Tonight?” “No, not tonight.” Jim ordered strict security on him. Jim Morell has idea for building a house, only expense would be for nails. Manufacture shingles (shakes) with a mill. Suggestion: we get used oil from gas stations to use for preserving wood. Jim asks that Georgetown look for some barrels needed to put it in. Meeting dismissed at 2:10, with singing of “He’s All I Need.” Jim warned that the cat which has been sighted recently near our compound has been seen next to Dorm 5, where the young animals are. Everyone who preserves the right attitude, will come to no harm. I was in bed around 3:00. 288 C-3-A-3 (59)
11 March – Sunday 1978 Helen Love wanted some help with a piece of writing Jim had asked all of us to do on the Third World and differences between Soviet Russia and China. We went to the rice tent where I gave her and the other rice workers an explanation of the topic as I knew it. I worked on my journal. Did some laundry. Read. Finished Cities Without Crisis by Mike Davidow. Went on the water brigade from 5:00 to 7:15. Jim was with us for a while. I had some frustrating conditions. At first I was standing between Juanita Green, who complains a great deal and Lu Ester Lewis, who is critical. However the latter did tell me I was “strong.” Then I was moved to another row until we finished that section. The junior high school students were sent to another field and Jim told the seniors to water the kidney beans “back of dorm 5.” No leader was assigned and our group became completely befuddled trying to find the right place, going forward and backward several times. When we did find it, I had to go to the end of the row, near the wall among a number of children, some of whom were disorderly. Particularly, Shay Jones, formerly Tad Klingman, was a nuisance, doing what he felt like doing. We worked until 7:15. I was told the dentist did not come because of a death in his family. Two family members did arrive by air however– Clara Johnson and Kay Nelson. I ate dinner. I was confused as to what the evening’s activities were to be: whether an entertainment program or socialism classes. I learned that we were to have both. The entertainment program lasted about an hour, the master of ceremonies, Greg Watkins, calling himself Mr. Tumbles from the jungle, because of a connotation the Guyanese put on Mr. Motion, his former title. Several musical numbers were presented. Then we had socialism classes for over an hour. I taught the first part of the period, reviewing the material on Karl Marx. Don Jackson dealt with the Third World Doctrine, as required by Jim and went over news events and we did not have time for agricultural topics. I started a new book from the arrivals: Is Anyone There? by Isaac Azimov. Read for about an hour. The guards had lights turned off at 12:00. 12 March – Sunday 1978 A rumor is circulating that the cat got one of our dogs last night. I was able to get resumes from Don Fields, the pharmacist and Dale Parks, who is a respiratory therapist. On returning to the cottage, wrote yesterday’s journal entry and read Azimov. I was to meet Edie Kutulas at Dorm 5 at 12:30. We planned to go to Camp 1. I learned that working hours had been extended an hour, so she wouldn’t be off until 1:00. I thought she was in the fields. While waiting, I talked to X Watkins. She seemed to like Jonestown and seemed much more positive than when I knew her in San Francisco. Tommy Beikman came by to see his mother, Edie [Kutulas]. He had lived first with Beikman’s when I came to the Valley. The Kutulas’ had adopted him later, and Tommy was so bitter at what he regarded as betrayal by Danny (with Phyllis Houston) that he resumed the Beikman name. I found that Edie had been working with the small animals under Dorm 5 all the time. She couldn’t leave until someone relieved her. I crawled under the dorm and looked at the animals (it was hard to C-3-A-3 (63) avoid bumping one’s head). The ten living piglets are being cared for here. A hot lamp and injections of sugar water are being used to keep them alive. Edie said these piglets are the offspring of sows who were malnourished, not the hogs that I accompanied from Georgetown. There are also some rabbits, white ones, which we are breeding for food. Edie and I decided not to go to Camp1 today because of the time and because we were told we should have an escort as well as concern about the prowling cat. I proposed to find out whether some members of my adult class might like to go on a trip some Sunday afternoon. I could perhaps make arrangements with the security patrol to go with us. I saw Bob Davis near the cottages and he gave me the rest of his resume. He said he was going to spend his afternoon off starting to build his house. He’s going to put it in line with our row of cottages. He planned to spend the afternoon at Camp 1 taking down some poles which had been erected at Camp 1. I asked him whether I could go with him and walk back alone, and he agreed. While we were going up the road, we heard Jim on the public address system. He mentioned that complaints about anything should be brought to him and not aired before new arrivals. He referred to someone who had not been completely candid about his or her plans and tried to give false impression of what they had done in the States. Bob thought he was referring to one of the new arrivals, though I had heard their names often, I did not really know them. He said Kay Nelson was a real estate broker who had handled much of the property sold through the church. I think she was a Temple secretary in Los Angeles. Clara Johnson was director of the choir in Los Angeles. She was one previously mentioned by Jim as having become interested in someone outside the Temple, who desired her children to come home. All of them are happy here and Jim refused to send them. Camp 1 is west of the compound, further along from the area where we have been watering. It was only a short walk. It’s a quite delightful spot in the bush with small stream containing fish. I drank some of the water. Bob told me a characteristic of the bush is that different kinds of trees grow all together. A platform had been erected there by Tom Kice to start a house and Bob said he might finish it. The poles Bob is interested in were put in place by Amerindians and he’s going to make his house in the same way they planned theirs. He is going in with another couple whom he did not name and hopes to find a companion for himself. He said he was a person who had always sought a companion. I walked back to the compound so that I would not hold up Bob’s project. The other people in the cottage had their half day off. Ann had brought her child, Isaac and then went to take a shower leaving him unsupervised. Another child came in and they were playing so roughly I was afraid one of them would be hurt. I tried to make the other little boy go home but he would not obey until I hailed a passing security guard. Inez came in, wanting to take a nap, but Ann when she returned put some rock and roll music on her tape recorder. I told her she should not leave her child unsupervised, but she responded only by complaining about the other child. I read Azimov. Went to dinner with Inez about 4:00 o’clock. We had fried fish, rice and boiled dry beans (of which they gave me too much) and cutlass beans. Returned to the cottage, was reading Azimov again and intending to go after my cupcake, which was the confection being given out today, when Jim called for all to go to the pavilion to deal with a disciplinary manner. I had a good seat up front. Harold Cordell started with a statement unrelated as far as I could see, to what followed, that he had been a first class ass-hole until he had arrived in Jonestown but had got himself straightened out. Jim then put an elderly woman who may be Clara Johnson’s mother, on the floor for complaining about conditions to a new arrival. She had said she had no place to put her clothes and had been unable to get a footlocker, a situation which Jim said could have been easily solved. Then Clara was brought up. She was quoted as saying she wouldn’t have come if she had known she couldn’t go back. Jim said this wasn’t true. Ron Crawford and Harry Williams had both gone back but had not acquitted themselves well. It had proved dangerous to go back. The enemy “knows everyone’s weak spots and how to get to you.” He didn’t think Tim Stoen meant to be as vicious as he had become, but the enemy threatened him and now he seems to enjoy his role. Jim went into more detail than he ever has before of the interlocking of all elements of the conspiracy. All those who left the Temple had cooperating with the machinations of the CIA and Interpol, led by Harry Cohn and Mazor, a Nazi agent. We have proof of those who are involved. X[Christine] Cobb, whom Jim had to get out quickly to save her from the plots of her son, had brought a picture of the child of Mickey Touchette and Jim Cobb, thinking the Touchettes and Cobbs would be interested in seeing it. All of those concerned expressed no interest. Jim said he hated his daughter Suzanne. He used to wonder why she would do what she did, but now he simply hated her. Suzanne had walked into the Temple attempting to set up a church and take over our assets. Patty Cartmell stated like sentiments concerning Mike [Cartmell] and Mark Sly stated that Neva Sly was not a Sly. Chris said she had left important documents in her home. Jim said a trusted Temple worker could take care of them. To the assembly he stated: no piece of property, no matter how valuable, is worth going back for. Its just dead. “No one is going back until we get all our people here.” Jim seemed to imply that Vera Young had turned traitor. The cupcakes had been passed to everybody in the meeting. A child sitting next to me had a troublesome case of athlete’s foot and kept taking his shoes off and scratching his feet which made me nervous. I finally sent him to join his mother, though I don’t know whether he did or not. Wesley Breidenbach’s appointment as a tractor driver was discussed and confirmed. The question of women as tractor drivers was bought up. Steve thought women weren’t strong enough to help move logs which they sometimes had to do but Jim seemed to favor giving them a chance at the job. Jim complained because no one on the Radio Room staff took proper responsibility. The people involved are Don Casanova, Terry Buford and Mike Prokes. Tommy Beikman testified on the miracle which saved his life and his sight. He said this was the only place where his life had been worth anything. Robert Christian made a recommendation for two farm managers, one mature and the other young, namely James Edwards and Steve. Mike Touchette suggested there should be two seniors and two young people. Seventy or so people are arriving in Georgetown on Monday. Jim wants them on the boat for Jonestown on Wednesday night. Work it out with immigration, so that it’s done to avoid anyone’s getting into trouble. The meeting ended at 9:30. I read Azimov. Went to bed at 11:00. I was awakened four times by people talking when they came in. I had to go to the bathroom twice.
13 March – Monday 1978 Returning home, got a start on yesterday’s journal entry. Had understood high school classes would be in session. I intended to use some more filmstrips on word study if I could get the viewer. I learned from Tom that high school classes were not meeting. High school teachers meeting was called for 1:00. Tom unhappy with Dick [Tropp] because of lack of coordination between them. High school teachers met 12:00 in pavilion. Not all were present. Dick started with proposal that we cancel reviews and tests which were planned for last week of school and work on reorganization immediately and open new system next week. After some discussion, this was agreed on. Administration of high school was discussed and Dick took it on. Both he and Tom emphasized how much they had to do. Dick said it was essential to keep records on progress and students. Bea Orsot to work half time in Education Office; Inez Wagner going to help with teacher research materials. Volunteers to do high school records called for. I reluctantly agreed with understanding that administrator would tell me what is needed and that I am not required to put pressure on teachers to get their records. We broke for lunch. A new time for people to get their prescriptions had been set and I went in after eating, did not have to wait long. Teachers resumed their meeting. Dick outlined plans for implementing new apprenticeship system. Students will have the regular work crew assignments in the morning. In the afternoon students will work an hour and a half on apprenticeship assignment. At 3:00 to 6:00, classes will be held in language arts, math and socialism. We will interview students this week from 12:00 to 3:00. Dick listed the areas in which training will be given. We will have to steer students into those for which we have greatest need. We agreed on this plan. We will take 20 students a day; teachers as a group will interview them individually. When I returned to the cottage, I was met by Vernetta Christian, who needed to type steering committee minutes. Her typewriter was broken. I allowed her to use mine in my cottage. I did yesterday’s journal entry. Went through my box of educational supplies, which arrived on the boat. At dinner I skipped the rice and ate the vegetables and pudding. After not meeting with my adult class for a week, I went to the load speaker system and broadcast a call for 7:30. Eventually about x people arrived. Jim read news for some time. I explained the skit to those who had not attended before and read it. Many of those having speaking parts were not present I explained my plan to have instruction in beginning reading for adults, hopefully one day a week. I spent the rest of the period reading poetry to the class from two of the books that had arrived: A.E. Houseman and Robert Frost. We ran late, until 9:00 o’clock. Read Azimov until I went to bed at 11:00. 14 March – Tuesday 1978 Returned to the cottage and made yesterday’s journal entry. Washed my hair. Went to lunch at 11:00. The high school teachers started at 12:30 interviewing high school students. After a brief discussion as to the procedure, I mentioned the omission of clerical work from a list of needed jobs, as we certainly will need to train young people to take minutes and keep records. Dick’s reply: Who’s going to teach them? Dick had Keith Wade and me get background information from the students. Teachers helping with the interviews were: Marie Lawrence, Jack Barron, James Turner, Shirley Robinson, Jann, besides Dick, who conducted the interviews. We talked to about 20 students. A list of the categories from which they could choose were listed on the chalk board with the number of students each could take. The largest number will have to go to agronomy and livestock areas. Livestock is a popular area but not many chose the agronomy area. Woodworking and machine shop are also much desired. Attention was paid to the student’s past work record, age, past conduct, school record, and so on. First, second and third choices were taken. The students were also told the decision would not be irrevocable. Two students interviewed whom I had known previously are Clarence Klingman, who wanted to work in the tool shed, but was told he did not have a perfect record as far as stealing was concerned. Janet Lenin (Tupper) who said she wanted to work in livestock because of her love for animals. Her reliability is not beyond reproach. She may get her second choice, the warehouse. After the interviewing, I had expected to have to type up the notes but Dick told me Inez Wagner had consented to do some secretarial work for the high school. We did not finish until after 3:00. At the cottage I took my pillow apart and put half the stuffing in another case (Bates had made two, one inside the other). I want a small pillow to take to meetings. I can sleep on both. I went to the water brigade at 5:00. Watering lasted only a brief time, however. We had dinner about 6:00. I returned to the cottage, got my notebook and water and a robe for Inez (she gets cold late in the evening, in the pavilion). I forgot my pillow however. I was fortunate enough to get a seat with a back, though it was high and became uncomfortable. [notes at top of page: Sue Jerram (Sue Noxon) Haldeman; Transactional immunity] Jim denounces stealing from comrades. Anyone found out of the rallies will be assumed to be stealing. Announcements. Jimmy Jones. Agricultural Reports: Diana sang “1981.” Jim asked what song meant, called on various people to tell. Then he questioned on doctrine of Three Worlds. Jim: Elaine Brown helped the US government against Huey Newton. Though he’s still alive, his movement is dead, but she’s being charged with murder. Back to agriculture report. Garden: Shirley Smith replanting was not done soon enough after picking vegetables. Cucumbers had some disease. New planting didn’t come up. [Joe] Simpson is bull-headed. Marie says should have been brought to higher attention. No vegetables for 30 to 60 days. Except that some other areas are available, such as cassava leaves. Criticism, especially from farm manager, Edwards, that others should have done something. Matter went to counseling and all were told to take part in the planning. Edwards asked who’s been reviewing this program? Tish: Simpson has not had the seed, in spite of radio requests. Jim insists on pinning down proof of blame. Debby and Paula on the Georgetown end, Carolyn and State side territory, Marie on commercial both states and Georgetown. Bananas: Anthony X (a child). Jim said what would our kids have been doing if in the states! I think we ought to say “Halleluiah” for the opportunities we’re giving our children. Bananas are beginning to suffer from the drought. We’re using a tank, waiting for the larger one which is being repaired. Pauline Groot suggests using soapy water from the laundry on plants. Experts think it good for growth but problem is getting it to them. Chaikin says materials will accumulate and maybe toxic. Jim says run tests. Moton says he will do. Chaikin, Mike Touchette and X will get together and investigate. One of the wells has what looks like an oil slick. Boys have been swimming in it against orders. Jim very firm: no swimming there. Tests being made to see what substance is. Herbal Gardens: Discussion on Irish vine, bora bora [bean], blood root, papayas for intestinal worms. Moton says papaya needs manure to ripen. Pineapple perhaps for throat problems. Peanuts, sorrel and brick. Jack Barron. Land has to be cleared for firing up bricks. Peanuts–waiting for enough seed. Jim says bricks can be used for revenue. Discussion on how close peanuts should be planted. Jim: should have a committee of people who have raised peanuts. Jim received approval from the government to marry our own people. Marriage is not simple here. Minimum has to be authorized. $80,000 for 250 ton vessel. We’re within $5,000 of each other. Can ship all over the Caribbean. Jim has pictures of cats found in this vicinity passed around. Tractor report: Phillip Blakey. Senior Gardens: no problem. Disinfectant work at the piggery: Yes. Jim: danger of enemies ticking over our properties. Have to check into quick sale, gave instructions. Discussion on saving Cleve’s machinery, near Kaituma. Priority on machine shop or toddler building. Jim okays spending money to build structure to house it. Call Trinidad and Granada. Erosion problems. Piggery sanitation problem– yes. Fine at piggery. Check on Robusta seed. Johnny said didn’t know. Tish took no responsibility. Jim said greatest lack we have is taking responsibility. Did teachers in socialism class do recap of Senate Bill 1437? Yes, Chaikin says. Did Wanda give Guy Mitchell procedures. No. Jim wants it done next week. Egg problem. Improved. Leon Perry. Chris Talley didn’t turn in work schedule to analyst. Guy says pigs being used as excuse. Enough people in there. Thurman Guy. Conflict with Dorothy Buckley. Treasonous statements. Said on his own. Advances to her. Lee Ingram says often girls’ own fault. Jim says he’s at fault as a one-night stand is a commodity. He says Walter Williams said she was easy (he was one who was saved by Jim when boom hit him). Walter says she pursued him. Jim says girls should wake up and learn. Boys brag about a free piece. Jim: real aim is flaunting our I asked Marcie whether she approved of young women’s curling young men’s hair? One doesn’t see men curling women’s hair. Jim expressed disapproval. Millie Cunningham gives people on diets what they shouldn’t have. Wants to be good guy. Jim says necessary to remove her, won’t follow instructions. She denies it. Gave her a warning. Next time it’s learning crew. Some people difficult but be difficult back. Margarite Romano. Learning crew for the week. Clarence Klingman problem every day. Just got off learning crew. Takes others’ clothes. Learning crew. Kaye Rosas. Jim: you just look dumb. You’ve been up here so many times. Whines, cries, to the box again. Won’t get you out early. Steve brings in the green boa. She makes all kinds of protestations of better behavior. Jim says snake is going in the box with her. Unless she is very quiet, he will get you. After she is taken out, Jim tells assembly snake won’t be in box but she will think he is. Shawanda Gaylor, grandmother interferes. Talks with her. 39 days. To box with whatever else is in box. Mark Rhodes, 72 days. Hit, beat kicked. To the box with Shawanda, Rosas and that snake. Marcie started to make an announcement about an investigation of the digestive upsets experienced Sunday, but Jim stopped her, saying they were caused by mental suggestion. The meeting was dismissed about 1:00. It was some time before the lights went out in our cottage. I may have gotten to sleep about 2:00.
15 March Wednesday 1978 Made journal entry. Had lunch. Tom had told me we were to work straight through without a meal, but this proved erroneous. Forgot to get my medication. From 12:00 to 3:00, the high school teachers interviewed another group of students. Today Jann and Shirley sat at the table but took little part. Barbara was present but did not sit at the table and said nothing during the interviews. The questioning was largely conducted by Dick and Lawrence. These students were mostly from the upper grades of high school. Many had attended Opportunity High. Some were 18 or over. In these cases Guyana law does not require them to be in school, even if they have not finished high school. We will not require attendance, but several wanted the project training. One student, X, supposedly interested in training in refrigeration, was not prepared to cope with anything but the superficial aspects and made Dick and Marie indignant. She had a history of consuming much time in guidance and then to following through. Shirley, joined by Jann and then Barbara stated that Dick and Marie had backed her into a corner. The young woman was told to come back later with a decision. After the students were dismissed, the matter was argued. I had sympathized with Marie, as I could see the young woman had purposelessly taken much of her time. I also felt it contrary to good practice to show differences of opinion in the presence of students. I typed a few resumes this afternoon. Spent much time trying to change my typewriter ribbon. Even the instruction book was little help, but I finally succeeded. Went to dinner. Met with my class at 7:30. Jim read an article on Larry Flynt, so we didn’t get started until 8:00. Several of the people assigned to speaking parts didn’t come (there were several conflicting events taking place) but we went through the “Water Brigade” skit once. Since it is so difficult to teach in the evening hours because of the variability of attendance and the noise we have to cope with, I proposed arranging a daytime class as well as the night one. Several students indicated they could attend. I could combine either the evening or day class with beginning reading instruction. Read Azimov. Bed at 11:00. 16 March –Thursday 1978 After breakfast I worked on my journal, then typed the water brigade script again, making some changes and clearly indicating the lines of each person is to speak so as to give copies to the persons taking speaking parts. Had lunch. Helped interview students again. Others participating beside Dick were Marie, Jann, Mike Lund, Jack Barron, Don Bowers, some of these for part of the time only. The group of students was more varied, some barely out of 8th grade, others mature with careers in mind. A few soon to be 18 and not required to be in school. We are gradually getting more varied requests for project assignments, such as several in different branches of medicine, dentistry, sewing. Several of the students are in my English class and I took a more active role in the questioning. Willie Malone was in today’s group. His behavior has not been the best. Shirley absented herself. 313 Jann differed with Dick over attitude in one instance. She felt he is too lenient. He on the other hand is afraid of discouraging the black child who is apt to have a poor self image. We finished about 3:30. After taking my shower I had little time until the bell for the water brigade came. I try to go every other day. Today Kirtas Smith took names, at Jim’s request. Socialism teachers left the line at 6:30, got their dinner plates and discussed tonight’s socialism class. We had heavy requirements today to give instruction on the Third World Doctrine, so all members can turn in paper on it to Jim, cover news items of the week, discuss agricultural topics brought up at the rallies and discuss the assignment in The Introduction to Socialism. Most of the time was spent on the Third World Doctrine, which many of the teachers find frustrating, Debby Jensen in particular. I went home for my books. I walked back with Inez. She also is leaving the cottage, will be occupying a loft with some other people which will be closer to the central areas. I think the tape recorder the younger people constantly play in our cottage bothers her. She seemed dubious about staying in the school research job. I gathered she doesn’t like working with Bea Orsot. She said she could still “help me out with school records.” I let Don [Jackson] take the lead in the class. He started with news items. I then talked and questioned on the agricultural topics. Then Don went on with a discussion of the Third World. At one point Jim came by. He told us that some of the people arriving tomorrow on the boat had been quite undisciplined; I gathered they spent money wildly across the country as they traveled towards the embarkation point. Jim emphasized the importance of our giving them a positive image of Jonestown and letting them know the legal difficulties they would have faced if they had stayed in the States. The class lasted an hour and a half. I read Azimov for an hour or so until I went to bed at 11:00.
17 March – Friday 1978 I had very little time left before going back to lunch. I read Azimov a while. A little rain fell while I was at lunch and later we had considerably more. The teachers interviewed students again in the pavilion. This was the last batch, a mixed group, except for a few stragglers, whom we’ll have to look up. Marie, Jack, Don and Jann participated. Among today’s students were three in my class: Billy Jones, Jair Baker and Loretha Buckley. I took a bigger role in talking to the students. Billy Jones makes a very unprepossessing appearance, looks very unsure of himself. I have heard he has a form of epilepsy. Also I think through the years he has become accustomed to moving around where and when he wishes. Dick mentioned to him that he was out of class more than he was in, which he denied. He showed little interest in the projects offered but did decide upon X . Jim has improved recently on his general attitude but Jann took the opportunity to disparage his writing ability. He argued about this judgment. I tried to strike middle ground, saying he had imagination but needed to pay attention to spelling, sentence structure and grammar. Concerning Loretha, Dick warned us to go easy. She has been through high school as far as the records are concerned. She is 20 but she wants to take high school classes. Today’s group was varied in age, class level and ability and interests. Dick has been tentatively assigning students to particular projects and has managed to get a fairly good distribution, but some fields are overcrowded. We didn’t finish until nearly 4:00. Dick said he doubted whether we could start high school on Monday. The supervisors of the different areas must be consulted and students assigned to them cleared. Then we will have to tell their present work supervisors that they will be losing the labor of the student workers two hours a day, in most cases. Just before I left, Dick told me my schedule for the new session that I will teach. My Remedial Group will meet at 4:00 (first period) and Dick has assigned me another class, an advanced Group at 4:50 (second period). I was bothered but also somewhat dismayed as my load will be heavy. I mentioned to him my suggestion to schedule a group of adults in the daytime and hoped I would not have any conflict with Barbara who teaches general education to adults and had also spoken of her intention to expand the number. Work is being done on the showers and the shower faucets were closed off today. Everyone had to use the wash bowls and it was very crowded, but I got washed. I wrote in my journal for an hour or two before dinner. The water brigade was not necessary. I went early to the pavilion after dinner and got a good seat with a back. However, I was very uncomfortable as I forgot to put on the right shoes for rainy weather. My feet were dirty and itched, as my athlete’s foot is not completely cured yet. Read Azimov till the service started. Rally Learning Crew: teaches you how to work. Penny has been crazy all her life. We saved her for a job we needed her for. Brian Davis: report on conversations with Jeff Carey. Jeff had said to him, “If I wanted to get away, I could knock the security guard in the head and before they found him, I would be across the border.” He had referred to Brian’s having a record of resistance to authority and the remark was regarded as that of the provocateur, suggesting to Brian that he might want to leave. Many others gave examples of the same pattern. Jeff selects someone whose loyalty is weak and makes suggestions which encourage the person’s weakness. Jeff admitted he did this. Said he didn’t know his motive. He denied he was an agent. Agreed that he is a masochist. He was questioned about a note he wrote to Jim, stating that he had sexual feelings towards Jim, but Jim showed this was untrue. He is a homosexual but the statement was manipulative rather than sincere. Jeff’s relations to Les Matheson were gone into in some detail. He had a harmful effect in Les’s case. Jim said he didn’t believe Jeff liked him but admitted he was projecting on Jim his own estimate of himself. Actually Jim has done much for him. When asked what he thought should be done with him, Jeff said, “Shoot me.” This too was regarded as a provocative and manipulative [thing]. Jim finally asked Grubbs if he “could deprogram this man.” Tom said he was positive he could. Jeff was sent off to the box. Decision: Grubbs to deprogram him. Maurice Anderson on learning crew requests transfer from work crew (cassava) he is with. Rory Bargeman and Keith Wright who have had a bad influence on him: Jim says he was a model person and something went wrong. Family arrived about 9:30. Learning crew vacated seats. War whoops and songs. Program. 11:30 Jim: on the situation. Got away just in time. Panthers have been destroyed. They would have done the same to us. We are all that is left. The dangers we faced while leaders of Guyana were out of this country at Panama Canal Conference, we were invaded. This is no protest movement in America. Gossip doesn’t help. We believe in group criticism, traitors in all our families. Names traitors. The absolute zero of personality that is a true socialist. We kept socialism alive in Guyana. Blood shed, but not ours. Soviet Union stood by us. President Carter freed our social security checks. No one leaves until all are here. If you want to go home, you can swim. We won’t pay your fucking way home. You can relax tomorrow, but don’t fuck off the next day. We’re selling off our properties in a package deal. Scientology is selling everything. Soviet Union is our spiritual mother, has been behind every liberation movement. The conspirators never would tell what I really was, a Marxist-Leninist. Most of government decisions made in town forums on Tuesday and Saturday nights. Miners subpoenaed in the US, sent back to work. “They” hoped to have me dead. The San Francisco police killed Chris Lewis, at Tim Stoen’s request. Injected cancer cells into Mother [Marcie]. We have medical evidence. The cancer was suddenly gone. Jim explained marriage and other relationships in our community. You can be divorced if you didn’t like what you got. You’ll find in time of revolution it doesn’t make much difference. Senate Bill 1437 passed the Senate. Today the Soviet and Cuban allies control the horn of Africa, Ethiopia pushed back Somalia. We ask everyone to work. You won’t see Jeff Carey for a little while. We have a place of isolation and transformation. Don’t start any shit. Jim speaks of clean air, clean water, food without additives. No police, no muggers, no drugs to ruin your children. Everyone of you has been put in the computer to see if you ever violated any law: taxes, welfare, and so on. So they can prosecute you . Assigned to learning crew: Jamal Baisey. Joe Johnson. Hostile, causes trouble at work, is lazy. Jim had to save him from all kinds of things, including drugs. They were after him. Joe Johnson threatened to hit Ronnie. Tom Fitch gave an ultimatum. Going to come here, we had to yield when you were making good money. He says he didn’t have say. Radio reports said he was insistent, he had to be handled tenderly. Jerome Simon smoking on the wharf. Came in here with gonorrhea. Says he got it from a girl in the temple. Pauline, your mother, had a massive stroke. Doctors said no way she could live. She was saved when she was on slab in the morgue. Comment made by Pat Patterson on rice diet. “I’m stuck here,” was the emphasis. Worker says they wasted rice in Georgetown. The following item is not complete. The three men playing around with other women in San Francisco, on the bus trip and on the boat were as stated. Sharon Kislingbury was linked to Ellihue, whose wife is Carol. Not clear who were the girlfriends or wives of the other two. Also not sure of the final disposition of all the liaisons and/or marriages. Jerry Ray ?, Elihue Dennis, Terry Willhite. With three girls. One was Sharon Kislingbury. One had a baby here, Ruby Wright. Jackie Rochelle. Elihue and Sharon carrying on a relationship in the states. Elihue laid out with Wanda Johnson, an arch enemy. He said he reported it every time. Jerry Ray said he was really depressed. Sharon gave up Elihue and thinks on account of the children, Carol has more claim to him. The meeting ended at 2:10. I read Azimov until 3:00 when the lights were turned off.
18 March – Saturday 1978 There were showers off and on during the day. I mended a few things. Jann came by and talked for some time. She has been drafted by Phyllis Chaikin to write the Port Kaituma nursing training curriculum, which Phyllis had tried to get me to do. Jann is having a hard time with it. We talked of our teaching responsibilities and I told her of Dick’s plan for me in the next term and of Barbara’s mentioning the possibility of our teaching the adult class together. She warned me that team teaching with Barbara is a trial. I told Jann of my desire to do some creative writing and of what I had done (in general) on the Temple history. She advised me to make stronger efforts to discover what happened to the unfinished notes I had turned over to Tom Adams. Took a nap. Had a very satisfactory day, being by myself most of the time and able to catch up on my journal. Went to dinner. A film was shown in the pavilion and for the first time I was able to get a good seat and sit through the whole of it at a reasonable hour. It was “The Day of the Jackal,” directed by Fred Zimmerman. I didn’t learn who played the chief parts. It was about an attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle by a group of former French officers in Algeria who resented losing their privileges. It was very well done and gripped my attention throughout. I had the luck to sit next to Joyce Lund who had read the book and filled me in on details I would have otherwise missed. Although it was difficult to sympathize deeply with the de Gaulle (and thus the Establishment’s) side, it was a very instructive film, revealing what resources can be marshaled by the state in a security matter. I read Azimov for a time before going to bed. The temple entertainment acts went to Port Kaituma to give a performance tonight. Laura Johnston is in the Misfits and Versie went to sell sandwiches and drinks at the intermission. Diane and Inez have moved. Shirley Ann Edwards was entertaining a male friend in the cottage when the Temple worker came by to order “Lights Out” at 11:00. Ann turned them on again as soon as he had passed. I protested this. She and the friend continued to talk and play a tape recorder. I objected to this because they were interfering with my sleep. Ann finally went outside with her friend.
19 March – Sunday 1978 By all accounts the program at Point Kaituma last night was a huge success. I did some laundry in the toilet area. Some more rain fell today. Made out my activity schedule, which always takes me an hour and took it to Tish. Income tax forms are being prepared now. I told her I had not received my W-2 form and it turned out that she had and had the return prepared. She wants to do over some of the returns to take a bigger contribution for the Temple, as this will not be subject to audit. She also advised me to have my correspondents in the states use the Temple San Francisco Temple box number and ask them to have it brought with Temple mail to Guyana. I looked through my bottom crate in order to find some more panties. I also got out some socks. I typed resumes for a couple of hours. Went to dinner around 3:00. It was late in starting, perhaps because the dentist who had to be rescheduled, is here. He had four appointments an hour. For dinner we had liver over rice. I have checked with Rita concerning the rules governing the living quarters, specifically with regard to entertaining visitors, leaving the lights on after 11:00 and holding conversations and playing tapes when others are trying to sleep. Rita said she believed it was against the rules not to turn the lights off at 11:00 and she believed guests of the opposite sex are not allowed in the living quarters. Rita has moved next door where Paula Adams, Christine Lucientes and Daisy Stroud live. This is the cottage where people work all night on the typewriters. Rita’s letters on which she had been working had been in crates at the pavilion and had been broken into. She was moved in with the other workers on confidential materials. Some seniors are also living there temporarily. I also checked with Lee Ingram on practices disturbing my sleep. He too agreed that it was against the rules to entertain people of the opposite sex and said lights should go off at 11:00, but he thought the other matters should be regulated by considerateness of the comfort of others. [at top left corner of page were names: Dorothy Solomon & Tiny Solomon] I read Azimov. Rain fell off and on today. Talked with Dorothy Solomon, whose daughter, Tiny, gave birth to a boy last night. Dorothy said she had been having labor pains for a week and it was a good thing the baby did not come until he did. She needed a medicine which had not come in until yesterday with the dentist. With out it Tiny and the baby would have both died. Just when I was going up for my cookie, the rain started up. A program was being presented in the pavilion and I watched it for a while. I went to the bathroom and saw that a film was being shown and saw that a film was being shown in the dining tent. When I got back to the pavilion, the cookies were being passed out. Read Azimov for a while. Went to bed at 11:00. My foot is still giving me some trouble. I was awakened at 3:30 by loud conversation. I didn’t know who it was, but I objected to the noise at that hour of the night.
20 March – Monday 1978 At that time I went for my medication. I had a two hour wait. I don’t know the reason except that Magnolia told me one nurse was out. I believe the medical staff was also having a meeting. I read Azimov while waiting. Was fortunate to get some lunch at 1:00 before serving was stopped. The showers near the cottages are still being worked on, so I could only get a bath from the basin. I went to the aide in the pavilion for treatment of my foot. More rain fell today. Sorted the material concerning the resumes I have been preparing. I listed all of them and typed two more. I worked about three hours and have only Joyce Parks left, though there are others still to be obtained from the community. Just before I left for dinner at 6:00, Jim announced over the public address system that an alert might have to be called. I changed clothes so as to be prepared for a long siege in the pavilion, wore pants and socks. I took my raincoat and watch, book and writing materials. Ate dinner. I was preparing to make an announcement preliminary to holding my class, when the alert was called at 7:00 o’clock. People hurried into the pavilion, benches were set up rapidly, the guards were equipped with weapons and a system of checking attendance was put into effect. Jim explained to us several recent events and conditions. Larry Schacht, our doctor, has not yet been certified to practice in Guyana until he serves a nine month internship in Georgetown. The American Medical Association has become interested in us because of our contacts made on the radio and is planning to send a delegation to us in a few days. We cannot risk their questioning Larry concerning his certification. It will be beneficial if Jim went to Georgetown with the entertainment troop and spoke. He cannot risk it as there are arrest orders against him in the child custody case. The decision of the judge in the case is expected soon. It would be advantageous if this decision, hopefully favorable to us, were made before April, the date of the Georgetown expedition. Our contacts in the Guyanese government, among whom are Foreign Minister Reid and Mingo, Secretary of the Interior, indicate that the Guyanese government including Prime Minister Burnham, wishes an outcome favorable to us and also are for forbidding Tim Stoen to set foot in the country. The Soviet Union also has indicated its interest in the welfare of our project in Guyana. Paula Adams has established a close contact with the American Embassy and they tend to support us. The Government predicts a favorable decision of the court case. On the other hand, a group of so-called black nationalists receiving support from the CIA, are opposed to us. The Guyanese government needs aid and for this reason is sometimes conciliatory to the _____ letters of several members of congress have written. ___ ___ Tim Stoen. We have learned that several officials are leaving shortly on a visit to the USSR and the coup may be ___ __ __ __ __ which would make them less dependent upon the US or international agencies under its control. In the midst of discussion of the situation? __ __ __ __ to follow, the matters were built up ___ ___ __ ___ ___ to Georgetown and then __ __ __ __ __ _ ___ _______ come to [mostly illegible & blank copying] unlikely Ben Barrett, husband of the former Cathy Stahl (both arrived in the recent group with their small daughter) was asked how he liked Jonestown. It was not clear whether he had been overheard making a negative remark but he was reminded that as he is older than his wife, he might face difficulty supporting his family and bringing up his child in the states. All new arrivals were asked to make a statement about their feelings, pro and con, regarding Jonestown. The most frequent complaint was about too much rice in the diet. Some had reservations about the toilet facilities. There were touching remarks about the beauty of the site, how much construction had been done. One man said it was marvelous to think of the water being piped everywhere “and even a cold water fountain in the midst of the jungle.” And the freedom of fear from muggings. For some reason when Pat Patterson spoke, his companion, Michaeleen Brady, who had presumably welcomed him, attacked him physically as well as verbally. I believe she had attacked him with cutters or some other implement in the field during the day and could have murdered him. The motive of course was jealousy. She had found he had had other relationships in the states or wished to leave her now. She had to be subdued and Jim had her taken into custody and assigned for treatment in the “box.” Relative to questioning concerning those who wished to return to the states, Jim asked Rev. Edward Moore (who sings in the programs) about giving a letter to Kay Nelson to deliver to his relatives on the supposition that she might be going back. Jim said it was insulting to anyone to expect they would be willing to break the rules. Furthermore, he had no reason to think Kay might be returning. Brother Moore was questioned intensively concerning his attachment to his relatives. Moore was very hard to pin down. After expiating[sic] on the damage wrecked on individuals or the cause by different members’ relatives, Jim asked all who wished their relatives dead (later he added “or here” but with emphasis of the former desire) to raise their hands. Most did, but some did not. Mostly those with religious background which had been transferred to Jim with fanatical faith in him as God. He dwelt on the inconsistency of claiming complete devotion to him and lack of trust in his orders. He insisted on a fervent retraction and plea for mercy, following the superstitious belief that the persons in question had displayed to Marxists in the audience he pointed out what could be learned from the incident. Radio communication with Georgetown had been kept up all night while the staff there conferred with various government representatives. A decision was announced that Jim would go to Georgetown relying on expectation that no undesirable consequences to the Temple’s position would be suffered. In other words, that no arrest orders would be served. Tim Stoen would not be permitted to land in Guyana and the judge could be expected to hand down a favorable decision in the custody case. The meeting ended at 5:00 am. Jim set the breakfast hours at 10:00 and 11:00, no lunch to be served. [This was to be placed, but no place to insert it could be found indicated. Presumably it goes after discussion with Rev Moore.] Edith Cordell has delivered a letter or parcel to Gladys Smith from David. Although Ujara Sly had given instructions to passengers not to deliver anything directly to residents of Jonestown, she had given it to Gladys. Jim said Edith should have known better than to give it and Gladys should have known better than to accept it, especially since David didn’t want to come to Jonestown.
21 March – Tuesday 1978 Had Breakfast. Did a little work on my journal. Had a shower. The high school teachers had a meeting in the pavilion at 1:00 to discuss the new term. Dick explained the class hours and gave room assignments. The students are to work on their projects from 1:30 to 3:30 after a half hour break, they would start classes at 4:00. There would be 3 class periods, ending at 6:30. The first two would be divided between math and language arts. In the third period socialism classes will meet. I am to teach remedial English in the first period and advanced English in the second, the former with the same students I had previously, plus a few additions and the advanced English with students of superior ability. We now have the Guyanese curricula for the “forms” equivalent to our 7th to 10th grades. Guyanese students do not have to attend school past the age of 16. We are to fit in to their curriculum as nearly as possible. Our school is now the Jonestown Community High School. In a few years we will probably take over the Port Kaituma school which has a very fine plant. Barbara Walker had approached me with the idea of cooperating or team teaching with her in the class for adults she has organized. She has a number of my former students who found my class over their head. Barb teaches “general ed”. Dick advised me against working with her and I agreed. I spoke to her and told her I found no conflict. I will be organizing a beginning reading program among adults. Dick had agreed to Jann and I switching classes every week and I am willing to do it, though I think Jann’s motives are somewhat selfish. After the meeting I got my athlete’s foot treated. Jann and I spent a couple of hours planning our joint class tomorrow. We will have the two groups meet together tomorrow only while we explain what we have in mind. I proposed finding out what the students want to learn and feel they need. I told Jann something of my inability to relate to large numbers of people and some of the early experiences which may have contributed to it. We agreed to read a few poems by black poets and she chose a play by Langston Hughes intending to read a few pages of it. At home I wrote in my journal for an hour. Tried to take a nap for an hour, but couldn’t sleep. My feet hurt. They give me trouble lately when we have had long meetings. Field work ended at 7:00 tonight. We had dinner Rally (Upper right hand – she is trying to figure out the last name of the vet. She writes: Fernandz, Fernandez or Fernandes.) Started at 8:00 Russ Moton chairing Agricultural Reports. Small animals: Chris Talley. Afraid she’ll lack vegetable food for the rabbits. Burlap bags, labels fell off. Can’t tell [rabbit] from pig food. Jim says should be labeled permanently in Georgetown. Jim: Officials meeting with Dr. Schacht, no arrest orders. the AMA is not coming. He read and article giving an explanation of Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorists afraid to die. Marcy: Ken Norton almost died today. He had cardiac arrest. Couldn’t have survived with Jim. Life saving equipment provided. Marcy had insisted on ______ _______ being built and taken to the fields each day. Breast exams tomorrow 8:00 to 8:30. Wanda: pigs. More piglets died. Found to be nutritional (vitamin) deficiency. In addition to blood sugar injections. It all stems back to nutrient deficiency of the sows. Jack says we have to face fact that we have some sows with nutritional deficiencies. Have to start with other sows and new boars. Marie says need water troughs as present ones can be contaminated. Christine suggests boat crew observe clipping pigs teeth in Georgetown and instruct workers here. Jan Wilsey–fields. First time harvested our own rice, first time planted our own rice. Jim said someone in each crew will be bearing arms for internal and external security. Wants to plant 10 more fields of pineapples with sucker. Wants Patty and Rheaviana to get suckers on river. Melanie says cutlass beans should be sprayed as planned. Ernestine Baker says seniors complain spraying kills other plants. Attention called to Russ: Who’s expert? You or the seniors? He says what will do in future. SAT[?] makes complaint about Laura’s crew. Her crew doesn’t work hard. She sets bad example. Jim says she fouled things up in Georgetown, affair with a man. They think all our women are easy prey. Jim collapses with fury. Steve attacked Laura. Demand for field crews to confess. Some started to do this. Jim returned |