Mari et-al., I am going to be out of the country from March 27, through April 24th. I am a Amateur Radio Operator (Ham Radio) & a group of about 20 Hams are going to a small island not far from Fiji, in the South Pacific Ocean. There we will be setting up several radio stations & attempting to contact other hams from all over the world. This tiny (2 square miles) island, named Banaba, is quite rare & far off the beaten path. Several people from Germany, Italy, Scotland, France, the Netherlands, Macedonia and five from the US are going. Most will be flying to Fiji, then a local flight to Tarawa Island, and finally a 38 hour boat trip across the open ocean to our final destination, Banaba Island. This is something that I have dreamed about, for 25 or more years, and finally, it is about to happen !! It is a Ham Radio thing, and hard to explain to "non-ham" types :^) If you are interested, our web page which gives some background, history, etc. is at.... http://www.dx-pedition.de/banaba2004/index.html Along the left side of the page, click on "team", which lists all operators. Scroll down to "KR4OJ" (me) and you will be rewarded with a pic of yours truly, suitable fro framing, or what ever you might deem appropriate. :^) News of our progress and a few pictures will be posed here from time to time. So, obviously, I will be mostly out of touch with tn-gen, web pages, and the world of genealogy, for a month. Keep me in mind and I'll be back soon. Take care, Jess Lewis

Wow! Jess, what a wonderful opportunity! Enjoy yourself, take lots of pictures and have fun! Web page is very interesting. Sincerely, Saundra Anderson > >