Dear Mom,

…. We are in Arusha for the quarterly meetings; they were finished on Thursday. Friday and yesterday we shopped and I am spending today at what is now the Holy Ghost Fathers Novitiate at USA River. That is the place twelve miles out of Arusha on the road to Moshi.

The Bishop is back from leave and was at the meetings. One of the things we hit him with was support for the missions. With inflation in every area, it is getting more and more difficult to stay solvent. He has agreed to work out a budget for each place and to make sure we are supported financially.

I have decided to try to open up a new area and to that purpose have gotten hold of a tent no longer being used by Ed Hearne who is working out of Oldonyo Sambu. It has a ground sheet sewn in it and a double roof to make it cooler. I spent one afternoon up at Oldonyo Sambu getting the hang of how the poles work. I will leave it set up in one place using it as a house and work out from there with the bike. The area is about sixteen miles from Kijungu to the south, in the place called Olkitikin. We already have one community out there.

We got a little rain during January but by and large the drought continues. Joe Herstein is running a famine free food program in Loliondo. It isn’t that bad in Kijungu yet but may reach that point if the long rains don’t come in March ….

Love,

Ned