Sunday we hoped to get to Church over on the mainland. You take a 20-30 minute ferry across the Bay to Almirante. LDS.org listed a branch there (none on Bocas), but we got no response on several phone calls. So after a nce day of home cooked food (baked chicken, carrots, rice, and Betty Crcker chocolate cake with cherry frosting...ummm), we had a 2 hour discussion of Luke followed by the Sacrament, concluding at 11PM. The latest Sacrament meeting on record.

Peter and I chartered a boat last Saturday for a day of snorkeling and spear fishing. My new Asso hydraulic spear gun works great ! By that I mean I did not skewer my foot. Sadly no fish bigger than about 10 inches, and I can't bring myself to spear a reef fish since I'm not starving. Also the water vis is not good due to all the rain water runoff...high turbidity. The current was very strong...got a good work out and a one-sided sunburn. Nevertheless a beautiful day.

Have had a lot of time to read, play games, sleep, watch BBC Office episodes. Check out 1434 by Gavin Menzies ( actually read 1421 first). And I have learned never to believe Kathy in Monopoly when she whines about being property-rich and cash-poor.

I managed to get a good reef bite 2 days ago out kayak surfing, but no worries.

In light of our collective ownership of aproximately 400 sandfly bites and an additional assortment of stinging, biting, gouging, necrotizing and generally annoying bug bites, I spent the morning reviewing proper diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of Leishmaniasis and Malaria. Airfare to Bocas for 3...$3800. Internet access to Wikpedia...$1 a minute. Off woods DEET...priceless.

We took a panga into town again yesteday for some additional shopping...watermelon, Coka Dieta, whole red snapper, frozen chicken, Duncan Hines brownie mix, Di Giorno pizza (Supreme),
bread, peanut butter and jam, salsa, limes...you know, the basics. Then ate dinner on a sidewalk cafe. It was another of those wierd trans-cultural paradoxes. We spoke Spanglish to a Sicilian (Italian ristorante) on a Bocas beach in Panama. See the Christmas tree above.

Anyway, we are getting along fine. Wish the weather would clear a bit more, but at least it is WARM!. We are blessed to be here. We see the squalor around us and are immediately jolted back into greater humility and gratitude.

Keith