Dear Mom,

… Thanks for your most recent letter, I will take care of the Masses you mention.

The three of us got into Addis last night. We came straight through, leaving our place at five thirty yesterday morning. We went to one of the best eating places in town and had a good steak dinner. As you know, we cook for ourselves, so it was a real treat.

Bill Headley, whom you may remember was a classmate of mine, is our new provincial. He took over in August and is now visiting some of the places around the world where the American Holy Ghost Fathers work. His plane out of Nairobi has been held up but he should arrive here by one or two this afternoon. We were not able to get permission for him to go down to our place, but we will spend the next three days with him here, talking over our work among the Borara and discussing our plans for the future.

One of the things we’ll be talking about will be the two new men we expect to be getting during next year. One is a Dutchman who has been working in Tanzania (Morogoro Diocese) for some years. That area is pretty well built up with a Tanzanian bishop and a good number of African priests. He is looking for something a little more challenging, so will give it a try with us. The other is an Irishman who has been working in the city of Nairobi for some time. He writes that when he came to Africa, he didn’t expect to meet pretty much the same situation as he left in his home country; that is a regular parish situation. So he too is looking for something a little different. The coming of the Dutchman is sure for some time in the Spring, whereas the Irishman is still at the stage where he is looking into various possibilities, we being only one of these. At any rate things are much more settled and we are even thinking of opening a new place about sixty miles to the east of us in an area called Aarero.

Thank you very much for your most recent package, Mom. The two pairs of pants and the two shirts will really help out. Riding the bike in the bush all the time really tears up clothing. I try to be careful but even with mending and patching, clothes don’t last. It is good that you always write on the outside what the package contains – Vince just got three packages, which he himself sent when he was home; everything he had not written down on the outside was stolen. Nothing has ever been taken from one of your boxes…

Love,

Ned