Wow! Got this big package today from Brett and YOU didn't! Inside, miraculously unbroken, was this neatly carved wooden mermaid, and a story of transformation and survival. Thanks, Brett, and happy birthday!

You know, it's really the little things that sneak up on you overseas, and nail you! The big things you're pretty well armored against. When the ants got into my stash of chocolate in rural Ethiopia, back in the 1960's, it was not a good day! But the loss of the Easter fruitcake from mother at the custom's house was expected, and actually hugely amusing, as we tried to explain exactly what it was; by the time it arrived it was rather green and hairy, and we decided that it was better to abandon it than attempt a ransom.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, back in Maine