It seems I've only written half a dozen letters to you this week already, but it is Friday, and a holiday, so I am at home writing letters again. I didn't give you all the details about my trip to the Post Office to pick up the box. The lady in front of me had a box, too...Well, let me back up even farther. If the package doesn't look valuable, or maybe isn't insured, you are just given it (after an interminable wait, of course), but sometimes somebody decides, for mysterious reasons, it has to go through customs, for which privilege you also get to pay. So I got sent (after a delay) over to the second line, where the lady in front of me was with her package, which had a purple skirt and shirt, in which was an envelope, in which was a nice watch, very pretty, which somebody had to go off and find the value of, and then they attacked your box, which they found only after a delay, and the guy sliced it open very nicely, and started groping around, and pulled out "The Road to Gandolfo", and shook his head, and then pulled out "The Mummy", and looked even more confused, and then just quit. He didn't even get to the Dave Barry colums or the 50¢ off Caress coupon. Boy, I could have smuggled in a small elephant. What a missed opportunity!

Anyway, he didn't even charge me duty on the slightly-read paperbacks or spare eyeglass parts. (Dr.G. told me if they tried to, just to tell them to mail the box back to the sender. He says that always works for him.) Then, I only had to stand in another line to pay 10¢ ransom, and we were free.

Something is wrong. I haven't gotten any mail since last Thursday. Friday was a holiday, and there is an air traffic controller's strike right now, but it seems mysterious that I haven't gotten anything for three days. Your letter of 4/9 came last Thursday. For some reason, the package got here a lot earlier.

The reason the stamps are dated 1989 and '90 is that it is cheaper just to use the same ones over and over, that some collectors will also buy, than to make some boring G.Washington or flag stamp that could be used forever. But I haven't asked anyone at the Post Office to explain it. I have a hard enough time trying to get stamps. I usually get given about twice what I want, and give up, and pay for them anyway, because I have had no difficulty using them up so far.

I'll probably just bring the earpieces back, unless I send a package of stuff to avoid overweight luggage. The second set of earpieces are about the right color, but they are a different style, so I will work on it again when I get back.

Things have been pretty routine lately. The head doctor came up on Sunday, and was talking about the weather, and then asked me what I thought of Los Angeles, and I said that I'd never lived in LA, and he said, "the news", and I said, "What news?", so he told me about the riots. And I have been keeping up with what they have in the daily paper better. Unless I go out of the way to buy it, I don't usually see it or hear the radio. But there is a copy at the library and I go by there each day, so I resolve to check it. It would be bad if California fell into the sea, and I didn't know it.

Went and visited a factory where they make chicken feed today, to see if we can draw blood from their workers. It was really a nice place. Went to the National Museum and saw the Zinjanthropus fossils discovered here at Olduvai Gorge. I think they are the oldest fossils at 1.7 million years, although there are 3 million year old footprints (also found by Mary Leakey nearby at Laetoli), which the Museum also had a cast of. I guess that's your lesson for the day. Hope your PT has you back in shape by now.

Letters finally started coming again, after two weeks without. Thanks for all the encouragement. Your suggestions about what to do during my jail term were very reassuring. I'm just afraid that they would not let me write letters there, except maybe once a year, and everyone would forget I existed. I haven't heard anything at all from the motorcyclist, so hopefully he made it home and everything was OK the next day. I don't have pain in my knee now, so I don't really see the need to give a surgeon the opportunity to screw things up. When I get to be as old as Grandma, I'll need to have something to complain about.

No matter how good the zoo is, it's not like seeing the animals running around free. Of course, this week I am reading "The Tree Where Man Was Born" by Peter Matthiessen, and he talks about baby wildebeests getting eaten and pregnant zebras being disemboweled by wild dogs, so I guess there are a few drawbacks. It really is a good book. The girl that needed the info about FW left today, early because of some vague family disaster. Anyway, she has your address and she might call later, and I will forward the stuff to her home. If she ever calls, her name is Dawn Something, and she is coming to FW to study bookkeeping or something like that (mission management, maybe), at SBTS, but she is OK.

We go to the chicken feed factory/poultry farm everyday to draw blood from the employees, and there are jokes about how the place is really a front for the Mafia or the Medellin cartel. They have all kinds of guards running around, and are exceptionally efficient for a Tanzanian operation. Charlie thinks there will be a "coop d'etat" when we discover what is really going on out there.

Here's a slightly moldy postcard I got downtown the other day, before I noticed the mold, and then I felt sorry for the guy, who only had moldy postcards to sell. Life's rough during the rainy season. See you soon.

Your letter of 30 April arrived today, a little after the later two. I'm glad you are making progress with your knee, as I wasn't able to appreciate how much it was bothering you immediately after surgery without this letter. Do you have homeowners insurance to pay for all the repairs or can you sue the neighbor? Your poor silks and polyesters. Everything I have here is cotton, but the spots of mud from the road, rust from the washer (maybe), and black stuff from I don't know where are staying put on them real well. With make-believe soap, no bleach, and cold water, I guess there's not a chance to salvage them. The question is do I bother to bring them home or do I just leave them, and fill up the suitcase with contraband? Likely contraband. We went shopping last weekend and I got two trays painted with Tingatinga art, napkin rings, candle holders, four embroidered handtowels, two monkeys (for you), a Masai necklace (supposed to be for you, but I may need to keep it), a sisal bag (the Kenya kind) and three clay sculptures. I may be able to find a few things to bring you for your shop, but it may be hard as I am trying to bring people presents, for a change. If I end up mailing stuff, you have to promise not to claim it for yourself.

I am trying to make hotel reservations to go to Zanzibar the 29th. I can't get through on the phone, and am waiting for the operator to get through, and call me back. The last time I tried this, they called back 12 hours later, and Bill told them they had the wrong number. I have heard that they have some stamps at the Post Office, that you would like, so I will have to go and check it out.