Dear Mom,

… As you see I’m back in Ethiopia – to stay I hope. I was in Loliondo till a couple of weeks ago and then hearing that the situation was clarifying here in Ethiopia, I came back last week.

Shifta activity has just about halted down South and things in general are much more stable. In fact the main road seems now to be open most of the way to the border.

We are off tomorrow, that is Iede and I, Vince in still in language school for Amharic until the first week of June. We hope we are going down now to stay – but as you no doubt gather from the news broadcasts and newspapers, long range planning here is not yet possible.

The packages came, all four of them and have been in Awassa for some time. I’ll pick them up when we pass through tomorrow – thank you very much for sending them. The three of us, together with an American sister, a Canadian girl volunteer and an American brother, all of whom work in Sidamo, spent the last few days at one of the Rift Valley lakes about one hundred miles to the south of Addis Ababa. It is quite a large lake and the fishing is quite good – catfish and tilapia, which is similar to our perch. We roasted a couple of pig legs one evening on the beach and another evening marshmallows – did a lot of swimming and laying on the beach – will write soon…

Love,

Ned