SA and PNG

South Africa and Papua New Guinea are filling so much of my brain these days that there's little room left for anything else. (Let me quickly add that the relative size of the flag pictures has nothing to do with relative obsession on my part - I just couldn't figure out how to download images of equal size.) We are in the final countdown, or panicked frenzy, if you prefer accuracy over cliche, of sending the last of the boys off to these ridiculously faraway countries (one to each). It is enormously complicated. Anxiety reigns. Tears ensue. I am of course talking about me, and not the boys. But sometimes, good advice is given. Discovering his mother in a widening puddle of tears, one boy remarked, "You should take a break. Go write a book." He was absolutely right. And any day now, I will do exactly that.

Stiff upper-lipped, Joan.