I got my Winter 2000 issue of the Farm Net News from Karen Flaherty yesterday, "whirling rainbow news and connecting all generations of the Farm Family". Sylvia retired from doing it after 15 years. So this will give me something to comment on in these Farm topics for a bit. Karen lives in Tallahassee FL with her mom these days and is still pretty active with Plenty, the Farm's relief organization. She had to struggle with her first issue, with her aging computer crashing (the "worst crash ever"), her internet provider shifting addresses on her, and her travels to Domnica and other places. Space cadet turned MD Jack Wolf sent in an entertaining letter about his reefer experiences ("I do know that if I continued taking joint breaks every two hours I'd still be wandering around the motor pool looking for my 1/2 socket instead of being able to help bring sanity and comfort to my fellow human beings."). He's supporting a Burmese family this month at his North Carolina home. Karen writes a Domnica report. She met up with Casta Calderon and Chuck Haren, who flew to Miami from Austin. They flew to the northeast coast of Dominica, home to the last durviving traces of the Carib race, where they met with the members of the Karifuna Tribal Council, a young group of community activists who Chuck had helped to get a grant from New England Biolabs. Karen met with womens groups from all over the island in another meeting. They're setting up a computer lab at the Waikada community center with donated computers. "I satyed at the Bionics Women's Cooperative and Guesthouse, which as room enough for a dozen people with a small kitchen and bathroom. Resting in the hammock out the back porch, I thought about the people I'd met, and while gazing at gorgeous views down the mountains to the ocean, coconut palms swaying as seabreeze brings the afteroon rain, I could hear a mucical mosaic of drums, reggae radio, children singing and strains of Cher's latest song" ".. if you beleive in love .. in love " .. It was a wonderful blend of the sounds and spirit that emanate from Dominica, and reinforced the sense of being in a special place at a time with great potential for preservation, before globalization gobbles it up." - Karen Karens kids, Ellie and Satya, are both in Hawaii. Ellie is going to the Community College taking Environmental Science and Satya's in Paia watching dolphins swim.