Hi folks

Our January Newsletter will be very short and sweet. If you have been
following the action over the last few newsletters, you will be aware that
Digby spent 4 weeks in Samoa in October as part of an Aus-Aid project,
teaching Integrated Pest Management to agricultural extension workers.
While he was there, he was invited to apply for the position of
Horticultural Adviser with the United Nations Project on Fruit Tree
Production - Stage 3. Well, he came home and thought about it and decided that he would be interested in getting more involved, so he applied for the position. He flies out on the 13th of January to commence his contract, which is for 3 sessions - a 6 month session from January to
July, followed by a break and then a 5 month session from October to
February, and then a one month session in April 2001.

So we have had our lives turned upside down. We plan to be away from the farm until April 2001, and maybe longer if we choose to travel after the contract finishes. As it is we have purchased round the world tickets
rather than straight Cairns/Apia return so that we go home after each
session 'the long way' - via Hawaii, Vancouver, Toronto, London,
Frankfurt, then Cairns. And then we buy another one in October and choose a different route home at the end of the session.

I am planning to take 12 months leave from the TAFE college where I work
and intend to spend the time travelling, and dropping back into Apia every
few weeks to see how Digby is going. I intend to spend a lot of time
checking out the islands and the fruit of Samoa and American Samoa, and
then perhaps Fiji and Tonga, before going onto Hawaii for a month, where I will meet up with Digby when his first session is over.

So I intend to continue with the Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm Newsletter,
but it will have a different focus, more a 'letter from Samoa' with an
emphasis on what we learn about tropical fruit in the Pacific and our
observations.

If you do not wish to follow our ramblings through the South Pacific then
you will need to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter by following
the instructions at the bottom of the page.

By the way, Cape Trib finished with a rainfall total for 1999 of 6.2
metres, which is double the average and the wettest year that the weather station at Pilgrim Sands has ever recorded.

thankyou for your interest and support over 1999

Alison and Digby