Rosie Milnes 'Olivia & Sophia'
author of Olivia & Sophie , Rosie Milne, examined what expat life like 0 years ago.
My novel Olivia & Sophia explores the lives of two predecessors of modern trailing spouses. Olivia and Sophia traveled both from England to the East to Southeast Asia during the early 19th century, and if they have to do this to have been the moon like traveling today. Each of them was a brave and admirable woman; they were the first and second wives of Sir Stamford Raffles, respectively. He is now remembered as the founder of Singapore, but in his time he was the governor of Java, and later, from Bencoolen (Bengkulu) in Sumatra. Wherever Raffles in the East went, marked his present wife together.
Writing about Olivia and Sophia now has to be me grateful an expat woman, and still not 0 years.
For a start, it was out of the horrors of the journey that could take anything from six to ten months. That was before sailboats had stabilizers, and the passengers were often prostrate with seasickness for a large part of the trip. Ask the lingering odor of vomit in damp clothes
Except for the very rich, cabins were unhappy, little dirty holes !; dark, airless, and sometimes by otherwise divided than wrapped canvas, making privacy impossible. To the supply of fresh meat to ensure milk and eggs, animals and poultry had to be carried on the deck, the general din adding and stink. And then there were the risks of shipwreck and pirates. The nervous flyer would certainly admit that 15 hours cramped in economy from Heathrow to Soekarno-Hatta need better than what earlier endure expats.
What about travel within Asia? Bali residents are accustomed, probably for the weekend to Lombok or Gili Islands Hopping. If you live in Jakarta, you probably think nothing of house guests take Borobudur. But 0 years ago, Europeans were mostly in their colonies like rabbits in limited cases. Domestic trips were often walking through the jungle blockages.
Olivia Mariamne Devenish, Raffles 'first wife
Raffles' second wife, Lady Sophia
Sophia, the first white woman to explore the interior of Sumatra, slogged mountains up and down in wide skirts waterfalls -. no hiking boots or breathable fabrics for their
How would wash it and go have managed to the bathroom? What rations? She found herself living on rice and burgundy. And there were no tickets, so the adventurous constantly in danger, were lost.
There is simply not we take ease of travel for granted today, but also facilitate communication. Back then took letters home about ten months until her way to England wend and answers to other ten took months to reach the East. Imagine a woman here receives the message, her adult daughter had died months after the event. That happened to Olivia - when she married Raffles she had a daughter from a previous relationship. Imagine a woman who received a letter from her mother questioning in a child's health after this child's death. Four out of five children Sophia died in Asia, and my novel imagines that they just received a letter like that. How lucky we are to have, Skype, email, Facebook and the rest.
And how happy we are when we have five children survive all five of them in all likelihood to adulthood. During that time tore through fevers infant body like Tiger by chickens. How do women cope with the death of their children? For their part Sophia based on religion: a committed Christian, she looked at deaths of children as a lesson in faith of their merciful Creator. Could you think so? I could not - had to do even though I, I could as I imagine his Sophia
It was not just children who like flies dropped .. Europeans out here 0 years ago simply did not know how to deal with the climate or tropical diseases. People fell ill in the morning and were dead in the evening. So many people connected to Olivia and Sophia died, I found myself cut many deaths, to prevent it, that a funeral is on each side. But my poor subjects had to endure these frequent bereavements. How brave they were, and how lucky we are not to have to bury a friend, a child or spouse every other week.
Not to mention that modern Western medicine are not actively harm, as opposed to the favored treatment in Oliva and Sophia Day: .. mercury
This included drinking salts from mercury, which made the breath stinks, causes constipation, and people like dogs drooling
liver problems were particularly common outside, probably because of the parasites, and because they all drank like fish among Europeans here as the water was so bad. Olivia, who liked her cherry liqueur, died of a liver disease, after suffering years of treatment with mercury.
And what pregnancy? To introduce ladies to deal with the tropical heat, in your skirts and woolen underwear while you were the size of a house. And, yes, women thought out here, it was healthy wool to wear on the skin! In addition, there was no air conditioning, no deodorant, and no running water -. Nothing to be done with the heat more bearable life
And finally the birth. Sophia had no painkillers for their first four children births, though perhaps she had for the last ether. Their first child was born on a ship: imagine the difficulties in dealing with diapers! Her second child was born in the countryside, but also arrived while she was traveling with her husband, without a nurse on hand, no friends to whom she could call for help, and support only a botanist. Not that they complained; Women were expected to be steadfast, and she was.
So the next time you are tempted to complain about your lot in life, just be thankful you are expat today, and 0 years ago no longer.
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