With love, in the Valentine month!

February has been a difficult month for Hondurans.  Last weekend, as you probably know, the world's most fatal prison fire in the last 100 years happened in Comayagua, killing over 350 inmates.  There is a lot of information online right now about the fire, but it is still unclear about the origin of the fire.  The reason the fire was so deadly was that the prison was severely overcrowded and outdated (built in the 1940s), plus the guards didn't seem to understand that there was a fire at first, and thinking it was a riot they refused to let the firefighters in for about a half an hour.  Also, there was some problem with the keys and a lot of cells didn't get opened in time.  Unfortunately, this is spreading more bad publicity about Honduras, as the state of crime and criminal justice is coming to light internationally.  Many of the prisoners had not yet been tried (some for such simple "crimes" as killing an attacking dog) and had been housed there for months or even years.  As to the state of crime, Honduras' dismal record as the most murderous nation in the world is in the spotlight.  There are so many good things about Honduras, and Hondurans were hoping to benefit from this year as a big year in the Mayan calendar in order to gain more tourism.  Looks like that might not happen.  Two of David's sisters have souvenir shops in a tourist town near the captial city and their biggest profit is with foreigners.  (In fact, when the locals come around they have to be on  guard for shoplifting, plus they rarely buy anything, what with the economy as it is.)

Then this weekend, there was a fire in a public market in the capital city, which spread from one stall to the next, and into two adjacent markets, burning down most of the three markets.  Many of the city's lower-class try to make a living selling fruit, hair clips, or something in those markets.  Others who are a little better off had invested all they had in buying merchandise (clothing, shoes, kitchenware, etc.) to retail in those markets.  It's quite a shame, but I think no lives were lost.

To top it off, this afternoon we had a fire in our neighborhood.  Some kids were walking through our neighborhood on their way elsewhere and were tossing firecrackers as they went.  Well, it's the dry season and the vacant lot was overgown with weeds, so it went up pretty fast.  At first the neighbors stood around watching it while they telephoned David on their cell phones.  Once he got there and got them organized, they got it put out fairly quickly, even before the fire truck showed up (of course, they didn't even manage to call the fire department while they waited...he had to do that too!).  It's a good thing it didn't happen yesterday while he was still in Guatemala!

David spent the past several days in Guatemala City at a second conference about greenhouse farming.  The specialists at the conference were Canadian and gave their talks in English.  There was translation available for those who needed it, but fortunately David has kept up his English and was able to understand without translation and also ask the questions he needed answered for his real-life practice in the now three greenhouses he is farming.

In other news:
The rest of us are busy preparing for the annual Open House at school, which will be held this week.  Also, Nancy is busy preparing for World Day of Prayer, Corita is preparing for Joel's 10th birthday party, Raquel and Joel are preparing for their yellow-belt test in karate class, and all of us are anticipating a new member of the family:  Nathan and Andrea in Alamogordo, New Mexico are expecting a baby boy!!  Our little guy should be born in May!  We'll keep you posted.