Dear Mom,

…. We’ve been getting what seem to be the small rains and as a result the grass and trees have become green. Many of the nomads are living close by now. This area is part of their wet season grazing land. There are seven or eight encampments – about three hundred or four hundred people all together.

The main difference in the landscape from Maasailand is the camels. The Borona don’t ride the camels but use them for carrying loads, to and from the market. From what I gather they don’t eat camel meat but only drink the milk. Many of the more wealthy people have mules and horses which they travel on and traditionally used to ride to war. These wars especially with the neighboring tribe to the north, the Guji, are still going on.

Eef Nass, one of the Dutchmen, has gone home. He left three weeks ago after a check up in Addis – seems there is some sort of a cavity in his lung. In Addis they think it may be cancer, so he went home to be fully checked out. Perhaps Iede will get a letter from him this week.

Our gardening is producing – tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers and some others. One cow has been killed so far; we have fresh meat all the time now. Haven’t started any goats, have killed a few that I bought. We are thinking of raising some chickens if we can get some high breds from Addis.

Hope all is going well. Do you still have plans to come out?

Love,

Ned