Carmensita

Ching found this photo: it looks like Carmensita is dressed in her baptismal outfit. Perhaps this was taken in 1980, or a bit earlier? I remember her as a little girl, during Kurt and Jama's second round of SATA duty in Kathmandu. She was highly active: the afternoon we were having Jama's apritada for lunch, the chowkidar reported to Jama that Carmensita was climbing up on the steep brick roof of their Patan house (rented from Parisia Rana Nath - more on her later on). And when I visited the Kuenzles at their beautiful home in Sirnach (canton of Thurgau) in 2002, Carmensita had bloomed into a confident lovely lady, maintained her sparkling eyes as she had as a small girl, and speaking the vernacular Swiss dialect!

That same visit, it was getting close to Christmastime. I mentioned to Jama that David and I enjoyed panettone, that yeast bread from Milan which is oftentimes served for Christmas meals. It was on a Sunday that I was leaving: we could not find it at the supermarket the previous day. Kurt was gone a good part of that morning, and came back with a giant box of panettone! We do remember Kurt, Jama and Carmensita each time we come across panettone. And Christmas.