On March 10, 2005 we were off to Botswana, more precisely Gaborone. Of course, Masunga, Julia's home village, would be the next stop. In Masunga, we had a wonderful time with our grandchildren Nyaladzi and Chedu and greatly enjoyed the quiet relaxing moments we had with Julia's mother.

Then the stress kicked in, soon after we returned to Gaborone. We had to change our well laid-out plans made in Washington, to balance between time spent with family, friends, Gaborone Runners Club and the Kalahari Hash House Harriers. Our plans were overtaken by events, including a surprise party organized by Negroes and Dorcas Kgosietsile. There we met some of the friends we had so much wished to see during our short visit, but would have easily missed because of the busy schedule.

In Gaborone, we stayed with our old friends Ross and Puseletso Kidd at their farm house (about 10km from Gaborone) for three days. Thereafter, we cruised to our favourite holiday resort, Khutse, in the Central Kalahari.To our pleasure, Ross and Puseletso joined us to Khutse. It turned out to be a most relaxing outing.Julia later enjoyed the hospitality of the Kidds when she attended Rati (Ross and Puseletos' daoughter) and Mogotsi's wedding in May.

End of May brought Axel (92) and May-Karin, Per's father and niece to Washington D.C. for his 60th birthday celebration. We converged with Anna, Eric and Asali (from New Jersey) in Cape May to honour a wish for a quiet celebration.

A month later we were in Sweden to celebrate midsummer in Falun, together with about 30 friends and acquaintances from the Swedish-Botswana connections -- people who had worked and/or lived in Botswana during the 70ies, 80ies and 90ies. To seal the bond, some of us (so far about 18-20) resolved to travel to Botswana in September 2006 to celebrate Botswana's 40th Independence Anniversary.

During the vist to Sweden, Per also found time for a trip to Gotland with his granddaughters Josefin and Julia.

We also worked and continued with some of our hobbies. Per continued with his IMF spouse group activities, Nordic Dancers, the gym, home tutoring of students in Maths, volunteering at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center and teaching computer courses at the Hollin Hall Senior Center. In August, he got a fulltime job with Training Futures as computer instructor, after a stint of teaching computer skills to the World Bank spouse group for 10 months. Julia assumed mission leadership for Kosovo, in addition to her Tanzania assignment. She also joined the IMF Toastmaster group, which she enjoys enormously. This is in addition to joining Per in the International Photography Society.

Other activities included hosting visitors who stayed with us, most for a few days, including Srinivasans (India), Bengt and Anne-Maj (Sweden), Bo Johanneson (Sweden) Raps Marumo (Botswana), Thato Ratsebe (Botswana), Maleta Mogwe (Botswana)/Leroy Wilson (USA), and Pelani Siwawa-Ndai (Botswana). We also kept the tradition of meeting with our neighbours over dinners and Per built a snowman with James and Anna across the road. Now that Per has a fulltime job, there may be no room for snowmen, even though he keeps promising our granddaughter Asali (2) one this winter.

And we, once again, joined the anti-war demonstrations in Washington D.C.

Let there be Peace and Happiness in 2006 and beyond!