Address for Sadie

Hi, It's Sadie's dad again. We talked with Sadie on Christmas Eve. She was in the camp town of Quthing in a house that has electricity and a cell signal. We haven't talked with her in about two weeks. She was assigned a post about 25 to 30 miles (an hours drive on dirt roads) southwest of Quthing. She will be the first Peace Corps volunteer for this community and will be teaching math and sciences to 8th, 9th and 10th graders - mainly girls. She is adjusting well and sounded good on the phone. She just got a cat to keep in her dwelling to help control mice. It is a little kitten that she named Ralphie in honor of the little boy who wanted the BB gun in A Christmas Story - one of our family favorite movies during the holidays.

She doesn't have regular access to the internet and when she does the cost is prohibitive for a lot of blogging and posting, so it might be spotty as to what goes up on this blog. We do have an address for her if you would like to write. Here it is:

Sadie Nelson, PCV
U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 495
Alwyn'skop 720
Quthing 700
Lesotho
South Africa

I'm sure she will appreciate any letters.
Rusty

Group Photo

Sadie sent this picture to us today via email. Looks like a good group. Rusty

Taking off

I'm standing in as blog poster until Sadie can get online. She made it to Lesotho safe and sound. She said in our 3 minute phone call that she won't have phone or internet access for eight weeks. The flight over was almost 16 hours  I have a couple of pics the morning she left with myself and Arletta. She was all excited to get her adventure started and taking these pictures reminded her of our tradition of taking pictures on the first day of school. I know her mother and I were a lot sadder than we look in the pictures. Rusty

The beginning of a great adventure

I have been talking about starting a blog for all friends and family interested in following my adventures and trials over the next two years with the Peace Corps.

Voila!

A little background for those who didn’t know before; I began my application process with the Peace Corps in early January and it was late July before I finally found out my placement. Since then I have been preparing to spend the next twenty-seven months teaching science courses in the south-African country of Lesotho. The first three months in country will be spent in language and culture training. After passing a language proficiency test (let’s hope I do!), I will be placed in a small village and assigned to a school and class/es.

There is much I will not know until I arrive, such as whether or not I will have electricity or running water in my living quarters-most likely I wont! Therefore, there is no telling how often I will be able to update the blog.

I leave in 8 days!