Dear Mom,

Am down here in Yabello. Vince and I came down yesterday. He had come up to Addis to do some final shopping for the school opening (cups, spoons, bowls, etc) and I am now two-thirds through the first semester of language school. We’ll start again on Tuesday and finally end on Dec 21st. Then there will be a month break before starting the second semester in late January. At that time Vince will start the study of Borona, the tribal language at the same school. He has decided to go right into the tribal language and do the national language later on; whereas I’m doing the national language first.

Things are going well here in Yabello. We are moving into the house and in the process of opening the school with forty Borona children. I brought the bike down in the back of the Kambi and on Monday will ride it to Addis, about 400 miles, but the road is good all the way.

I have my camera with me and will get some pictures today and tomorrow. Film for it seems easy to get so far.

Language school is going real well. After the first six weeks, I came out with a ninety-six percent overall average. At the end of the second six weeks my overall average was ninety-seven percent.

Down south here, they are still in the midst of the rainy season, getting at least a little bit of rain every day. In Addis, we are well into the dry season, the weather being quite warm every day. The evenings are always cool though – Addis is about seven thousand feet.

Thanks for Dad’s watch and rosary.

Love,

Ned