For almost thirty years, a group of us who were at Kagnew have been exchanging regular mail letters on a regular basis. John Rasmuson reports that we began writing these letters in 1972, while Joe DeViglia, Charlie Krumbein, Mike Graves, and (sometimes) Bruce Dahlgren were still in Ethiopia. As time went on, we sent printed letters to a central compiler, a slave who photocopied them all and sent a bundle of copies to each of us. For a long time, that happened fairly regularly four times a year.

We talk about our lives and families of today and our experiences of yesterday. We talk about whatever interests us that particular day.

In January, we begin to do this on line at http:\\www.worksandwords.com\kagnew. I'm hosting it and doing the legwork of posting the letters and keeping up the superstructure. Go out and take a look around. Read the letters from the first release.

Maybe you would like to join us. The only requirement is that you spent time at Kagnew and want to share your ideas with others like you. All you have to do is sign up on the Signup page and send your letter to me by email as outlined on the site. We'd love to have anyone who was at Kagnew. If you do it now, you can get in on the Spring edition of the letters, which are do around Apr 1. Or just stop in once in a while to see what is happening with some of your former colleagues.

On another note, my book Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth is grinding its way to completion. I actually did the Introduction the a couple weeks ago (a very positive milestone) and I'm slaving over the index right now. I still hope for a spring release.

Any questions? Email me.

Take care,
Mike Metras ('67-'68, '69-'70)
Mike@WorksAndWords.com
www.WorksAndWords.com

I saw your note and recognized Ras's name. Hope he is well. He, Woody Forns, wives, myself, Walt Sunderhaus went on a m/c trip one weekend. Axum, countryside, etc. Fabulous scenery.

Please pass this on to him if possible.