The rain came down in buckets last night for about 3-4 hours. Sounded like a brigade of fire hoses directed on our little house. In a month or so the rainy season will be over and we can return to a more pleasant life; however, we must not loose sight of the dependent need of water by the local farmers.

Recently finished reading The Poisonwood Bible and ran across a pertinent observation therein:

"In the world, the carrying capacity for humans is limited. History holds all things in the balance, including large hopes and short lives. When Albert Schweitzer walked into the jungle, bless his heart, he carried antibacterials and a potent, although new conviction that no one should die young. He meant to save every child, thinking Africa would then learn how to have fewer children. But when families have spent a million years making nine in the hope of saving one, they cannot stop making nine. Culture is a slingshot moved by the force of its past. When the strap lets go, what flies forward will not be family planning, it will be the small, hard head of a child. Overpopulation has deforested three-quarters of Africa, yielding drought, famine, and the probable extinction of all animals most beloved by children and zoos. The competition for resources intensifies, and burgeoning tribes itch to kill each other. For very life saved by vaccination or food relief, one is lost to starvation or war. Poor Africa. No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and foreign goodwill." So very true!

We were advised that our daughter is coming to visit us in March. That will give us an opportunity or excuse to finally get away and to areas of the country that we have not yet been exposed. Her visit comes at the tail end of our close-of-service conference scheduled to be held at a nice resort along the lake, so it will be a convenient launching point to continue northward.

We are still pondering about where we will locate after our return, and are trying to leave all doors open, including overseas opportunities. At the moment, we are focusing on the northeast as that is where our children have recently settled. So we continue to send out resumes' already in an effort to "test the waters".