March 21st, 2001

Hello from Lesotho! It's been fun enjoying a long lingering summer in the southern hemisphere knowing many of you readers are shivering through a long winter! Sadly our smugness is about to end. The days are quickly starting to shorten. Our daily walk or run which gets launched at 6:00 am now has to be postponed until 6:30. And it's pretty dark at 6:30 pm. No real surprise here for your correspondent; today is the equinox... Reports are still coming into Qacha's Nek that much of the Lesotho lowlands are very dry. Partial crqp failures are evident. Up here in the highlands we continue to have a good mix of weather. Less rain than last year but adequate for the maize (corn) crop. Right now we have sweet corn, tomatoes, zukes, herbs, green peppers (!) cucumbers and carrots spilling out of Lynn's garden. And two kinds of lettuce, so daily salads and stir frys are on our table. Lynn will plant our cold frame with winter lettuce in May ... it's been a good summer

Our Farmer Training Centre hosted an AIDS conference two weeks ago. Lynn and I watched carefully to see how this event would come off. The participants were young farmers from our district along with six of our own FTC students, around 25 in all. The Ministry of Agriculture supplied the facilitator and several assistants from Maseru. Wow! For SIX days these people did peer training with the participants (ages 18 to 24) so that they can go back to their communities and preach the AIDS awareness gospel. Most of these young adults have never had frank sexual discussions or detailed understandings about gender anatomy or most certainly the horrific truth about HIV infections. The sessions went from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm most days. We couldn't believe the energy in our conference hall. There were debates for hours about relationships, human sexuality, relating to people who are HIV positive, etc. And for respite they did what Africans everywhere do so beautifully: they sang. The prime minister's wife visited and addressed the participants and our students with her serious message: AIDS is killing us and if you personally are not careful, you will die. Our FTC condom dispenser has never been so patronized as the converted loaded up! This was for Lynn and I, one of the first hopeful signs in this drawn-out human catastrophe. Africans taking responsibility for their health and safety was wonderful to behold. And as Peace Corps workers, to be the only whites present for something so powerful, yet intimate, was, of course, very special for us. The facilitator, 'M'e Molly, revealed that this was her 23rd AIDS seminar with many more to come!

Our new students have been with us for several months now, and we are so pleased to see their accomplishments. Recall that most of these young adults come from deeply impoverished backgrounds. To see them learning computer skills, using the machinery in our terrific woodshop, maintaining with pride our campus grounds, working in their gardens or bringing in the milk and eggs from the lower farm, we are regularly delighted. They've even organized a choral group and we hear the music several evenings a week as they practice. They are a solid group and we wish them a bright future!

All best wishes from Qacha's Nek (and an early Spring up North!)

Eric and Lynn