Hello Friends!

Hello from Lesotho! Living at Qacha's Nek at 7,000 we're blessed this early summer with plentiful rain. Our valley and surrounding mountains are green with grass. This morning we awakened at 5:00 A.M. (no daylight savings in Lesotho/South Africa) to clear, sunny skies. The morning is a good time to work on outdoor projects at the school weed the garden and do laundry. By mid-afternoon the first huge cumulous clouds are building, the thunder is rumbling in from RSA and our daily downpour is in the offing. Many of these storms are show stoppers. We've had lightening strikes blow out lights in our little house, so we now tend to light the kerosene lamp, turn off the juice and revel in these wondrous storms. Our personal and school gardens are thriving and a major problem here at our Farmer Training Center is how to keep an acre of lawn from overwhelming us. We have a gasoline weedwacker, but staked out cows and horses may be our best hope. Potato and corn fields are doing really well. At home, Lynn and I are eating fresh red leaf lettuce at every meal except breakfast. We also have loads of cilantro coming from the garden and fresh peas. We can get tomatoes and avocados and purple onion from RSA, so these heavenly salads are a source of major smiles. Our own tomatoes have set fruit carrots, squash, corn and potatoes look good. It's a wonderful climate for green thumbs!

This morning we hopped in our truck and drove two miles to the South Africa border. We crossed over with the usual courteous treatment from Lesotho and South Africa officials, parked our truck a little ways down the road and hiked off to photograph wildflowers. What a treat. Calla lilies grow wild here, plus a profusion of mystery flowers at which we can only marvel. One particular beauty looks like a cross between a Bird of Paradise and a penstemon. Iridescent green bee-eater birds were feeding in the red blossoms. We counted twenty varieties of flowers, some of which have clear links to North American species (asters, etc.), but many new to us and a pure pleasure to discover.

Sadly, the lower elevations of Lesotho are parched this year. The country's population centers are bone dry. (As I write this at 3:00 P.M., torrents (!) of rain are pelting the farm office's corrugated root Deafening. But always welcome.) During a recent visit to Mohale's Hoek FTC, we were shocked to see that the only water available for the whole farm and school was a small water tank on wheels that is refilled once-a-week We hear through the grapevine that Peace Corps is assisting in drilling a well at the FTC, so they won t be dependent on the town's exhausted system. This should be a huge blessing. We keep our fingers crossed. Maseru did have rain this past week, so there's hope the drought may subside, but it's getting very late for planting...

Good news. Lynn and I were in Maseru for a Thanksgiving feast at CD Carol Chappel's home. Great indulgent day of overeating and lounging on Carol's lawn with serial desserts and PCV friends. It was our first time into the capitol since September and the rebuilding projects give the city a much healthier feel. The new Lesotho Hat (which was burned to the ground) is nearing completion and is first-rate. The area around the OK Bazaar supermarket is nearly restored and new businesses are opening. It's quite a transformation and , coming from a small business background, always a compelling sight to see people risk capital with a capital "R" for risk. Downtown looks and feels pretty busy again.

We've got 90 broiler chickens set to finish for the local Christmas market here in Qacha's. Our 150 meter school garden water tap project is completed and students are watering their plots with hoses. This beats hauling water from a remote faucet in two leaky water cans. Our carpentry shop is hurrying to finish cabinet projects before the summer break starts next week And Lynn is wrapping up her English and small business classes for the term. Life has its ups and downs here, but for us, it's a beautiful time of year in the mountains and we're contented PCV's. We expect to spend New Year's Day 2000 right at home. Best wishes to all in the new century!

Eric Thomson and Lynn Forbes