This is our December trip to the internet. We have been pretty busy lately. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Now to the news: When we arrived home from our trip to Tegucigalpa and Ceibita, we were robbed in the monastery (Nov. 7). Prairie is writing something about that, so I won't repeat it. It was not a lot of fun.

We stayed at Gloria's house in town about a week while we assessed the situation. The morning after the robbery we went back to the monastery to put a new padlock closure on the door and to clean up a little. We hired a car for that. Since we had the car, we packed up the encyclopedias and the new medicines to take into town the same day.

The librarian had received only the first volume of the encyclopedia before that. She was just delighted to get the complete set. I suspect that the librarian job is a political appointment. She was so delighted to hear that my mother is a retired teacher and librarian, she hung on every word of her "tips." The tips were that reference books NEVER leave the library, no matter how trustworthy the library client is (this means even the mayor). We are now in the long break from school. The school year starts in the middle of February, so that's when the encyclopedias will get the most use.

The public access computers are still not functioning. Some time "next year" we expect them to be available again. In the meantime, the CDs and DVDs that go with the encyclopedia are being kept at our place. The thieves were not interested in educational material.

The medical team that came to Ceibita had given us some useful medicines for Centro de Salud (especially high blood pressure medicines). It was good to get those things delivered.

So, we reported the robbery and gradually realized that we are the ones to investigate. Well, gossip is a wonderful thing. We have, in fact, identified all three young men. We have sent them and their parents written and verbal invitations to a meeting of reconciliation on Friday, Dec. 14, 10 a.m., our time. Please pray at that hour for our little peacemaking efforts. The meeting will be in the open air (no traps) in the street next to the machanic's shop in Limon. The mechanic is enthused about the idea. Mateo and his boys will be there. That is pretty cool. I didn't invite them, but I had them deliver some of the invitations. They are apparently our volunteer bodyguards. Juana Nidia and Warnita are our real body guards. We did invite them. They will hold the whole operation in prayer. Right now, I could go for a really boring week. I don't see one this week.

It looks to me as though these young men have three options: change their lives a lot (which are going down the toilet pretty fast), spend some years in prison, or keep on with their current behavior until a neighbor kills them. Not pretty, not pretty at all.

So, that's the short version. The longer version is that we are very conscious that our first responsability is to pray. Even with the extra trips (to Limon, to LaFortuna) to investigate, set up meetings, etc., we have kept our spiritual practices firmly in place. We have had to be pretty darn flexible in terms of times (and even sometimes days of the week), but you have never seen us more committed to spiritual practice.

There is no one trained in conflict resolution here. Most of our friends just support the "throw them in jail" path. Jails here are very dangerous places. They are not places that you want your neighbor to have to enter. And we are called to love our neighbor. Well, we will do what we can. Good grief!

be well,

beth