Back in Business!

Greetings from Mokhotlong!

This is Kevin Rector, the newest TTLF Fellow in town, and here's the scoop: This blog is back in business!

As most of you probably know, my brother Reid and his wife Bridget started and authored the blog through much of last year, during their own TTLF fellowships. Now that I'm here -- I arrived two days ago -- I'm hoping to revive it, so you should all start checking in again!

I'm going to try to provide what Reid and Bridget did so well: a blend of personal anecdotes about rural Lesotho, news from the hustle and bustle of the safe home and updates on TTL's institutional progress.

I'll also try to continue some of their best ideas for posts, like staff profiles, updates on babies and video and photos.

My background is in journalism, so I'm hoping my itch to write will keep me posting quite often.

Now, in case you've been wondering since Reid wrote his last post almost six months ago:

The potholes on the ride out here from Maseru, Lesotho's capital, are still plentiful. The views of the mountains are still gorgeous. The people are still friendly, and the children are still adorable.

The safe house is still busy. I think there are seven little ones here now, and I got the pleasure of playing with them for the first time yesterday. I'm still trying to conquer the steep curve of learning everyone's names and how to spell them. But, I held one of the little guys -- walking around and showing him various things in the play room -- until he fell asleep sucking his thumb in my arms.

After months of preparing to come here and working through a long list of logistics, it was a really simple but no less awesome experience to have, one that reminded me again of the true mission and heart of TTL.

Hopefully I can post some pictures of the babies soon. They are certainly TTL's stars!

Tomorrow I will get to work, along with Kirsten, the other fellow, and I'll try to write soon about some projects we are working on. The potential for continuing progress here is palpable, and I'm going to do my best to convey that on a regular basis.

I hope you'll join me here, and point others to this blog as well. The more people who are part of the discussion, the better.

All best from Mokhotlong,

Kevin