Hello from Lesotho! The rains have started in the mountains. Almost every afternoon clouds roll up from the KwaZulu Natal lowveld and ,around dinnertime, we get a good thrashing thunderstorm. Tonight, we turned off SAFM radio when the rain on the tin roof made conversation impossible. Then we noticed our cat cowering under the couch (a used car bench seat) and decided with a nod or two that we'd broken our in-house decibel level record of last February. Will this year's wet season break the record set last year? Lynn has a rain gauge, so we'll report when the rainy season expires, usually around May. The good news: it was sunny almost all day long. Today I had to deliver laying chicken nesting boxes for our two new graduates who've started a cabinet shop. The destination school was about an hour and a half out of our camp town. What a perfect trip! Suddenly, it's summer in Qacha's Nek district: green, green mountains and valleys with lots of new lambs and kid goats sprinting around the countryside. Wildflowers are out, a little tentatively still, but good variety. I saw and photographed a new yellow iris, my third type. Also, there were stands of diminutive aloe in full bloom with tubular orange blossoms. Always plenty to distract the driver on Qacha's "cliffy" back roads.

The Peace Corps, still, catches me emotionally when I least expect it. Thursday, I accompanied my above mentioned new cabinetmakers to MatatielIe, South Afdca, to visit hardware vendors and to see a production cabinet shop owned and operated by Collin Whittle, a business acquaintance and friend. Coincidentally, I've been reading about apartheid in a set of used World Book encyclopedias recently arrived here at the Farmer Training Centre. Our students come to us from seriously impoverished families, a fact I'm reminded of each time I see their taped together shoes. As an American, I guess I never considered at length how little exposure these young adults have to the creature comforts we're so used to. In one four hour period these two twenty year old boys, for the first time in their lives, met South African white businessmen (who often shook their hands; merchants are always looking for new customers, right?), visited a woodworking shop with pneumatic tools (unimagined) and fabulous floor machinery (saws, planers, jointers, belt sanders), wandered gape jawed through a first-world supermarket with racks of barbecuing chickens and frozen orange juice (and ice cream bars. Yes, we tried those!). Finally, we toured the residential neighborhoods and I'm afraid this is where your hard-bitten reporter had a tear in his eye. At a primary school we saw black and white students, completely integrated, chasing each other around the playground during recess. And the teacher was East Indian! Readers, this is not liberal Capetown. Matatielle is an out of the way community far from the power centers of South Africa - six years after the Mandela elections. It's not perfect, but even here, many people are involved in a more inclusive future than anyone dreamed of just a blink of the eye ago. Back in Lesotho, Lynn asked the boys how they like Matatielle. Haholo!!, they answered (a lot!!) They're hard at work on their first cabinet orders, with their new Irish Aid tools.

Traveler's note. We are recently returned from an extensive trip into Kruger National Park, the famous, huge (200 miles long) game reserve. The quality of the experience was superb. The campgrounds are immaculate with bathroom facilities that shame the American national parks AND swimming pools in many locations. We also stayed in rondaval lodgings with spectacular views over the African bush. These were well maintained and complete with kitchens and fridges and thatched roofs ($50 a night). We wallowed in our safari adventure. Everyday brought new sightings. The animals are of course thrilling but also the birdlife and biodiversity in general delighted us daily. In the evening we took ranger-led night drives in open land rovers. In the morning we explored the area around our rest camp and then hung out at the pool and camp in the afternoon. No Crowds and the dollar is at record strength against the South African Rand. We felt no safety concerns whatsoever on our trip (use common sense) There are some South African school holidays when Kruger can reportedly be busy (check on these) but in a lifetime of budget global junkets this experience ranked right at the top for value fun and intellectual interest. A highlight? On our last day we drove to the very top of the park where the borders of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique intersect (!). The Limpopo River oozes along here and we first encountered it at the end of a lengthy dirt road, winding through a canopied forest. There were no other people around as I turned off the car motor and we listened to bird calls. We glassed elephant tracks along the Mozambique side of the river. It was then, we noticed that all the drift wood littering the Limpopo shore was in fact, crocodiles. There are still wild places in Africa to discover. And to enjoy a small shiver up your spine.

All best wishes,

Eric & Lynn