Dear Mom,

I have set up housekeeping in a Borana village and have been there two months now. At first I was in a tent but found it cramped and very hot during the day. The women built a house for me, a regular Borana grass hut, and have been quite comfortable since. Being of thick grass it’s quite cool during the day and gives me room to have a table and receive visitors. I’ll get a picture and send it on.

I’ve started an hour or two of reading and writing for the head boys in the evening, trying to gear the whole thing to their situation, a real nomadic school if you will. We’ve moved once in the last two months – the little school moves right with the people. The people of course use camels for moving, but I cheated and sent word to Iede to come with the land rover and move me. In the next place (where we are now), the women, again, built me a house. We are also working on an animal husbandry course for the adults, a series of books from West Africa, which have been translated into Amharic and now we are translating them into Borana.

I haven’t had the motorcycle since coming back. So far we can’t get it working properly. Iede is taking it with him tomorrow to try getting it fixed in Addis.

Thank you for the packages – the pants, shirts and socks are perfect. The sweater is very nice too. The shoes came just in time; my others had worn out.

It is peaceful here now and we hope that it will grow more and more so. Dadim (where our mission is) is still a trouble area for the intertribal Guji Borana war, so the Borana will not be moving back here for some time. Our work will have to be where they are. The village I am in is now forty kilometers from the mission…

Love,

Ned