Recent daytime temperatures here in Berkeley Springs have been rather mild, especially during the day, then somewhat cooler after the sun goes down, but not very cold either. We've been using neither heat nor air conditioning, sometimes just an open window or an electric fan and a blanket on the bed at night.

Here was the forecast for Friday, September 12, really quite comfortable, as have been subsequent days:

Tonight
Low: 54 °F
Clear
Saturday
High: 85 °F
Sun

Teisha, whom I have known since she was a child, celebrated her 50th birthday in Puerto Rico not so long ago. She lives in northern Virginia and just visited me here in Berkeley Springs a few days ago, planning to come back again from time to time. She is related to my granddaughter Natasha, so I have known her family for some years.

Yahoo News

Charlie Kirk’s Wife and Children Were Present at Utah Valley University During Fatal Shooting: Report

The children are quite young but the loss of their father will have a major impact on their lives. It's hard to argue against the death penalty in this case.

Daily Beast, “We have radical left lunatics out there,” Trump told reporters Thursday before he headed to New York to watch a Yankees game. “And we just have to beat the hell out of them."

Not only did many leaders escape, but heavy civilian casualties evoked wide condemnation. Israelis have now become pariahs in many parts of the world, often paradoxically being considered the Nazis

of our time.

LA Times, Israel ramps up strikes on Gaza City; at least 32 dead, hospital says

The dead include 12 children. Donald Trump could stop all this right now if he wanted to.

BBC: Gaza 'soon without fuel, medicine and food' - Israel authorities

Trump's push for peace prize won't sway us, says Nobel committee

Barak Obama once won it, so now Donald Trump also wants the Nobel and is campaigning openly for it, which may

not work in his favor, rather, quite the opposite.

Below is a book in Spanish about Equatorial Guinea, Africa's lone Spanish-speaking country, as was mentioned in an earlier posting. I've spoken in Spanish with people from there, but have never actually visited the country. Equatorial Guinea is located on the west side of Africa, while I've mainly traveled around the north and east sides of the continent.

Breve historia de Guinea Ecuatorial

Presentación del libro publicado por CADAL y Human Rights Foundation sobre el país con el dictador más longevo del mundo, a cargo de su autor, el historiador africanista Omer Freixa, y del activista guineoecuatoriano Tutu Alicante, con la moderación de la abogada venezolana Maru Navarro. La actividad se realizó en el Espacio Aguaribay en el marco de la conferencia en el Día en recuerdo de las víctimas del totalitarismo organizada por CADAL y la Fundación Konrad Adenauer.

When I joined the Peace Corps in Honduras in 2000 at age 62, I was then the oldest volunteer in the country. Most other volunteers were young college graduates with little life experience. I was the mother of 4 and had worked in rehabilitation and social work for many years, also in assisting a DC psychiatrist with his work and his writings. (I once was called to his residence to change a lightbulb, as neither he nor his wife felt capable of doing so.)

While most other health volunteers limited themselves to giving workshops or to observing at local health facilities, I myself was hands-on, helping deliver babies, suturing wounds, and giving shots, although we weren't supposed to render any actual care ourselves. In any case, most youthful

volunteers would have been unable to do so. Furthermore, the Peace Corps wanted to avoid incurring any liability, especially from locals who might imagine that a US agency would have very deep pockets. So I was taking a chance, hoping that my near-native Spanish fluency, along with my age and experience, would protect me, as, indeed, it actually did. Local folks came to regard me as one of them, a status that most younger volunteers were unable to achieve. I then went on to volunteer in Honduras annually at my own expense, most recently (at age 86) in 2024. Some of my experiences are recounted in my book Triumph & Hope, shown above. (The other memoir is about my time in Cuba, mostly during the Castro era.)

Here I was at a medical brigade in Honduras 2014.

Below, I'm holding another baby there.

In 2015, I even helped out in the operating room, handing surgeons their instruments. And since the volunteer doctors were English-speaking, I was helpful on that score.

Here I was on horseback.

Then I held a flashlight for a doctor suturing a wound.

I rode around in a buggy with a human driver propelling it like riding a bike.

Washing my clothes here

With brigade friends in 2023

In 2024, I greeted a wheelchair recipient.

Will I ever go back to Honduras? Yes, maybe, as I'd really like to go again, and also to take another wheelchair, among other gifts. Wheelchairs could be made there, but few Hondurans would buy locally made wheelchairs, having more faith in those coming from abroad.

If I did go again, I'd have to get a brand new passport, which may be somewhat complicated for me living out here in the hinterlands. What's more, my family is definitely against the idea, as it would be rather risky for me now at my age. Enough already, my dear family says! I've made human rights missions to some 40 countries around the world located on every continent, with countless missions to Honduras, most recently just last year. My family urges me to just stay home now, getting involved in projects right around here. Simply taking care of myself these days takes much more time as well.

I really love flowers; can you tell? Many grow wild along our rural roadways, some perhaps from seeds scattered years ago--so many different shapes and colors!