I'm heading off for a month in Cuba in a couple of weeks, then I'll probably go to London for a few months at the end of the year. The last trip is up in the air, I'd rather not go but might have to.

But the only place I really want to go to now (but it's not the right time), is Honiara, Solomon Islands. My adopted "family" there live up the road through Chinatown and Chinatown has been razed to the ground by rioters over the past couple of days. Only 5 shops left standing and it was a fair size Chinatown considering the small size of Honiara. I saw a picture of a shop I once spent a week living in being torched. So sad. I'm worried for my friends (my "family"), who although are not targets of the rioting, work in the school in Chinatown, which is probably closed. No work, no pay (it's a very, very poor country) and as prices have skyrocketed, particularly food, since the arrival of the RAMSI troops, they'll be needing help.

Nadine Vancouver, BC