Update from Rebecca's Mom (Aileen)

I'm happy to report that we just finished speaking with Rebecca. Cell phone coverage in her town has been worse than ever for the last 2 - 3 weeks, so she hasn't even been able to contact the other volunteers. She decided to visit Emily and Aaron but when she got there she discovered that they had gone to visit Melissa (Alyssa?), so Rebecca went on to that town and is visiting with all three this weekend. I believe they are all well.

The good news is that there are plans to build a new cell phone tower just 5 KM from her home, so there is reason to hope that communications will improve.

For those followers of Rebecca’s adventures who may not have heard, she hasn’t had computer or internet access since early December. She expects to get back to a computer in April in N’djamena. But e-mail is probably the least effective way to contact her.

She and James had a good visit a week or two ago. Also, she says that Chewy hasn't absolutely decided to come home yet, so the Sept. 2005 group may still be at 13.

She is feeling more integrated into her community, and is very busy with school and English Club. (The club members wrote skits, and they need to rehearse every day after school.) Otherwise, it is getting hot so the pool that they will have at training in April is most appealing.

She is looking forward to a mail run on Wednesday. She says that the next mail won't be until after the April trip to N'djamena. Since we just posted her last Blog update (see below), she’s not planning to add another until April. Hopefully she will be able to post some pictures of her home, town, school, family, etc. at that time. She tried to mail us a memory card from her camera so we could see and post pictures, but the envelope was slit and the memory card removed. (Too bad…)

Oh, and as to the problems that we read about in the news:

*** The Central African Republic refugee situation has been going on since before she arrived in Chad. All of the refugees are south of Moundou, and the PCVs are not permitted in that area.

*** She and the other volunteers are very sheltered from the problems near the Sudanese border and Darfur.

All in all, she sounds busy and happy.

Aileen