As we await the long anticipated judicial events to begin, the Board of the UCCR feels that you, our readers, would benefit if we use the EBS message forum to reveal the varying perspective and reflection of individual board members from time to time. We hope that you will appreciate the diversity of views expressed.

 We entered another holiday season with the (U.S.) Thanksgiving Day holiday, and even though life has become much more difficult for most of us (I am a 68-year-old great grandmother who has had to go back to work full time), we still have much to be thankful for.

 There was a story in the Tico Times (the English-language weekly paper here in Costa Rica) about a 15-year-old girl who, 2 years ago, became suddenly ill with a fever.  Consequently, she broke out with a severe rash covering much of her body, rapidly developing into large fluid-filled cysts.  The cysts then ruptured and bled, the skin turning black from the often fatal and rare staph infection.

 Her fingers and toes had to be amputated, and her Achilles tendons removed.  Skin was grafted to the bottoms of her feet by bending her legs backward and fastening them to her buttocks for two months.  Her arms have healed somewhat due to expensive trial patches given to her, but when the patches ran out, her family could not afford to continue the $2,000 treatments.  Thankfully, the manufacturer in the USA donated more patches to use on her legs.

 I cannot even begin to imagine the pain she has endured, and it makes me grateful just to have the luxury of being able to get out of bed each morning, stand in the nice hot shower, make my own breakfast, and drive my car.  This unfortunate girl is making purses and crafts to sell as she lays in bed.  Her dream is to someday finish school.

 We are all anxious for the return of our funds, but meanwhile, let's not forget to stop and count our blessings, as we enter this fourth holiday season since the raid and the onset of our current hardships.  With the trial coming up soon, hopefully this will be our last holiday season in limbo.

 To all of our friends and family...

 Thank you.