Andrew (plus recently picked raspberries), Carolina and Maria, outside our house in Vaqueros. Jazmin, the dog, just visible behind Maria.

As we write this, we have two weeks to go before we travel to the UK, via Canada, for our two month leave and deputation. There still seems more to be done in that time than is physically possible, but then again, this seems to be the norm.

The children finish school on the 7^th of December, but classes continue for another week for those who need to re-take exams. They all seem to have done OK.

Tomas is recovering form having his bike stolen at knife point. Not a happy event. When he asked his friend who sold him the bike second-hand for its paperwork (receipt) in order to report the robbery at the local police station, he was told that this would be difficult, as the accountant who had the papers had just been murdered. The story took an even wilder twist when it transcended that the chief suspect in the murder case is the accountant’s son, who incidentally goes to the same school as the children, one year below Tomas.

Changing to a happier note, Cecilia has recently done extremely well in her gym class, and participated in a highly successful end-of-year show, held at the Club she attends.

Carolina (a.k.a Babu) is now enjoying guitar, and is also getting very excited about her upcoming participation in her end-of-year school show, which involves her dancing.

We enjoyed having Andrew’s parents around for a few days. The kids especially enjoyed hours of board games, especially the game of Battleship! Unfortunately we were unable to go anywhere for a break with them.

Andrew is working exclusively on finishing ‘the book’ that brings together the results of several years research on the situation of some 150 Indian communities in the north east of Salta. Though interesting and rewarding, the writing takes time, as it involves him editing work done by several authors.

Andrew managed to complete another over flight (7 hours), this time with six Indian leaders from the area near Embarcación. Their communities are increasingly affected by floods which appear to have been exacerbated by deforestation. The views from the air enabled the Indians to understand how their local situation is affected to what is going on at a regional context with the natural environment. For those interested, there is more on this subject posted on Andrew's Flight Corner

This picture , taken in Orán, shows Andrew with
ASOCIANA team member, Zacarias, and the six Indians who participated in the flights over the region of Embarcación.

There is now interest from a United Nations programme in supporting these communities in taking both practical and political action to try and resolve their situation. We are pleased to therefore see how Andrew’s personal interest in flying is becoming useful in the work with the Indians. This will be something to look forward to next year.

Our time in the UK will provide a welcome change to our daily routines here, but as ever, will involved a fair amount of travel. We have been blessed through the loan of a house (home) and car whilst we are in the UK. The address is 13 Orchard Close, St Albans Hertfordshire, AL1 1JP, Tel: 01727 765516. We will be there as from the 28^th December.

As mentioned above, we will be staying in Canada for a week prior to travelling to the UK. Here again, we have kindly been lent a flat by Maria’s brother-in-law’s sister. We are hoping to make a visit to Niagara Falls, and hopefully get some snow.

Due to work pressure we have now relented on the idea of driving to Buenos Aires, and will now depart by plane on the 16^th December, travelling on to Canada that same day.

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