He represents United States in Africa’s Lesotho
By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Resistance to modern technology can only go so far, and when your son is the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho and anthrax is keeping your letters stateside, well, it’s time to give in and buy an e-mail appliance.
At least that was the breaking point for Bob and Elsie Loftis of Everett.
Their son, Robert Geers Loftis, was sworn in Sept. 12 as "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Kingdom of Lesotho," according to White House press releases.
Lesotho, pronounced le-SO-toe, is a country of about
2.2 million in southeastern Africa, slightly smaller than Maryland and completely surrounded by South Africa.
It’s also really far away from Everett.
"He wants us to come see him, but it’s a 20-hour (plane) ride," Bob Loftis said. "That’s a long haul, and I’m not sure I have the get-up-and-go to do that. But we are keeping our passports current."
Bob and Elsie Loftis had planned to attend their son’s swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C.
They were about to leave Everett Sept. 11 for a quick breakfast at McDonald’s, a hair appointment for Elsie and then the drive to the airport for their 2 p.m. flight, when they got a call from one of their daughters telling them to turn on the television.
Looking at pictures of New York’s World Trade Center collapsing, Bob called his son, who was staying at a D.C. hotel, to let him know their flight would probably be delayed.
"He said, ‘Yeah, I don’t think you’re gonna get out, because I can look out my window and see the Pentagon burning,’ " Bob recalled.
Robert Loftis was sworn in the next day anyway, at a much smaller ceremony, and he flew with his wife and two children to Lesotho once the airports opened up again, his father said.
Not soon afterward, Bob Loftis found himself making a trip to Radio Shack in a desperate pursuit of some sort of connection with his son.
Robert Loftis has worked for the State Department for more than two decades in places such as Switzerland and Mozambique, so his parents were used to only seeing him and his family during visits between overseas assignments. But they’ve kept up a steady letter-writing relationship.
"I used to sit down and write him every other week, because I don’t have a computer. Everyone else has a computer but us," Bob Loftis said, adding that he never wanted to get one.
But when anthrax was discovered in diplomatic pouches in Europe and South America and no mail was going in or out of U.S. embassies worldwide, Loftis said he finally "got the e-mail machine out of desperation, because you’ve got to be in touch with him."
Terrorism isn’t the only thing fueling Loftis’ desire to be in close contact with his son. The threat of AIDS is even more on his mind. Nearly a quarter of Lesotho’s adults have the HIV/AIDS virus, according to a 1999 estimate in the CIA’s World Factbook.
So he sends short e-mails to his son about every other day.
"I love that little machine now," he said. "Elsie doesn’t as much, but I’m the one who does the writing anyway."
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 425-339-3439
or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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