It certainly has been awhile since we've had the opportunity to communicate outside of Thaba-Tseka. We spent the last 3-4 weeks in a small city of maybe 5-10 000 people. We rent a house from one of the teachers at the school. It's a small tin-roof hut with electric lighting! We have joined the 20th century. It's is quite nice; we get by quite fine. We are now cooking for ourselves which can be a challenge as our foods are not really available there. We make our own pasta sauce because we can't buy any. We are doing well. We finally got to work with the children. This year, they had an extended Easter break because it coincided with the Census so they needed to allow enough time for everybody to go home to be counted. During that time, we just eased into Lesotho life by making friends with the fatcake vendors and the merchants in town. We are quite the spectacle as we are the new mahoa (foreigners) in town. They are used to the US Peace Corps but are intrigued by the new Canadians. The children we have met are extraordinary. They are beautiful and very friendly. Also curious. They want to know so much about Canada and all want to move there. We'd take them, but that is called kidnapping. The children that are sponsored/to-be-sponsored by Help Lesotho are the children that show the most potential despite their living conditions. They are incredible and I really hope that they can escape the sad life that many people here fall into. Most people seem out of work; although many try their best to make ends meet by selling fruits or whatever they can. It is inspiring seeing the people try so hard. Although, there is always some who just want the quick handout from the whites. I've been working a lot with the grade 7 boys. Their math is atrocious. It was humourous because the first two days we worked with them they kept saying "speak English!" which I thought was them teasing those who couldn't reply to us in English. Eventually, I asked them what they meant, and they were asking me to speak English because they couldn't understand our accents. We were invited to a party at our neighbours house this past weekend where we got to enjoy the many tastes of Lesotho. We imbibed in joalla, the tradition brew made of sogrum. Nasty! Our reactions to it garnered many laughs. Actually, a lot of laughs are directed to us all the time especially when we "speak" Sosotho. So far we've only be privy to one animal sacrifice, but there will certainly be more to come. Most people in town do not have electricity, but some do. Strangely enough, WWE wrestling is very popular with those who have access to tv. Now we are in the capital city, Maseru. We were facing deportation if we didn't clear up a passport issue, but we are safe to stay for 3 more months. It is a a very modern city (rebuilt after the post-election riots in 1999). Very cool place. Tomorrow, we will make our way to Makhlekefane (good luck finding that on a map) which is even more isolated that Thaba-Tseka (which supposedly had internet, yet every modem in town was broken). After 4 weeks in Mahklekefane, we will return to Maseru to bring my mother with us to Thaba-Tseka. Believe it or not, it snowed last night in Thaba-Tseka. We freeze on the best of nights there. To those who didn't listen when we said it gets cold here it does. Unfortunately, we are having problems uploading photos to our webpage so you will probably have to wait until september before we can get that sorted out. So the picture you see, isn't one of ours. I hope that all is well in Canada and whereever else you are. We miss you very much but we are enjoying our adventure immensely. So many interesting people out there to meet. Sala hantle (take care) joel & michaela