done in the remote villages where USAID has installed low voltage electricity (the infrastructure, things like water and electricity especially, had been completely destroyed most places because of the war) so that minorities could return to their homes where, just a few years ago, they had been forced out. We work with other organizations so that where we put in electricity, some other group is repairing homes (a room or two so that families have someplace to live while they rebuild the rest of the house on their own).

While I was there, there was also a Cross border meeting in Belgrade (Serbia/Fed. Rep. of Yugoslavia) to discuss the issue of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Kosovo still in Serbia. Of course there are still many muslims (by far the most displaced) who fled Serbia and Croatia, and Croats who fled Serbia and Bosnia. But it is quite amazing how many from all sides have gone back home, despite their fears and the economic uncertainty when they get back home to destroyed houses (or even whole villages) and a situation where they are in a minority and not always welcome. Sometimes it is a few minority houses in a mixed hamlet, other times it is a minority hamlet surrounded by other (hostile) hamlets. But there are fewer incidents than when I left — fewer grenades thrown through open windows, for example, to discourage returnees from staying.

Anyhow, I was much encouraged to see so many buildings repaired, the streets cleared of debris, the river running through Sarajevo mostly clean, etc. It was also heartening to discover that the kind of work I was doing when there (civil society building, e.g., bringing together municipal authorities and mixed ethnic communities to work together) has proliferated and seems to be going on everywhere by many different groups.

Susan Fertig Dykes

From: Mila Pangilinan

[mpangilinan@brentschoolbaguio.com]

Subject: MR. DON NYE

We are saddened to notify you that MR. DONALD NYE - Alumni Affairs Officer, Chairman of The Management Committee- Board of Trustees, BRENT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL BAGUIO peacefully passed into the loving arms of the Lord this morning, Thursday the 20th of February at 4:30 a.m.

Memorial Service will be held at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, 22 Feb 2003. Vigil for two days will be held at the St.Nicholas Chapel of Brent International School Baguio before his body is taken down to Manila for cremation FROM: BRENT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL BAGUIO FAMILY

_____________________

BRENT MINI REUNIONS & EVENTS

Since the last Newsletter, many small gatherings of Brentonians have taken place and some are shared with you in synopsis fashion. Eddy Pay ('63) & Paul Christensen ('60) visited with Diana Lewis (’63) late last year followed up by Roy, Cindy and Maggie with a trip to Tucson … Eddy later took a trip across the ocean to Paul Christensen’s (’60) home in France and by all reports had a wonderful time  … Marcia Mau ('65) met up with Sue Landgraf in New York (picture in this issue) and urged her to make plans for the Reunion 2004 … Jim Hilgendorf (’64) visited Washington DC and made time for dinner with Roy & Cindy. Jim’s picture in this issue surrounded by beauties was taken in Rio (how does he do that? gotta go there one of these days) … Gordon Mau (’63) visited with Frank Stoddard (Saigon expatriate) in Sierra Vista, AZ to share some tall stories … Sharon Fagan ('61), Lillian Christie ('61) and Carol Breen-McFarland (’61) met for a farewell gathering for Carol’s move to Colorado. Sharon took some time out from her busy schedule to help Carol with her move. Ann Thomas Catala ('62) has a new grandson, born this July...