Arrived in Zambia this afternoon. Not much to tell you about today, other than it is still the rainy season here, so arrival was in the middle of a pretty good thunderstorm.
This area is also very green, and beautiful. The area we are currently in has several western style shopping malls. The one closest to the airport amused me. There was a Woolworths, a Subway, and a grocery store, among other clothing and shoe stores. Just like home, right? And then we arrived at the Holiday Inn…..
Had dinner at an Italian restaurant, but have been told that we will experience Zambian food later in the week.
As it’s the weekend, tomorrow morning, we are leaving Lusaka, and will spend the weekend in Livingstone, some 500km from here. Livingstone is on the Zambia / Zimbabwe border, and is the home of Victoria Falls. I’m told this is larger than Niagara Falls in the US. It’ll take us most of the day Saturday to get there, and Sunday will be a fun day. Looking forward to a day without meetings.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Why is it important to put fuel in the taxi?
Hello everyone! This is my last night in Nairobi, and then off to Zambia for 9 days before the trip home! And just when I thought you’d have to listen to more boring stuff about peaceful demonstrations and security briefings, we managed to have a little adventure!
On the way back from our meetings today, our taxi dies in the middle of a four-lane road in rush hour traffic. Rush hour traffic is very slow, just like the US, but made far more entertaining by the people, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles weaving in-between the cars. Add to that a bit of rapid lane changing by most of the drivers, and you’ve got quite a show! All that said, they do follow the lines in the road and the traffic signals much better than what I observed in my previous trip to Africa. People still squeeze by each other very closely. You’d swear you were going to hit the car, pedestrian, bike, etc. you are driving by, but somehow you always squeak by. I did learn the difference yesterday between a close call and a near accident. We frequently have close calls – that’s coming to within 3 inches of whatever is nearest you. A near accident is when you come within less than one inch. We had a near accident yesterday. No seatbelts in the back of the taxi cab, but my knees and shoulders stopped me against the seat just fine. All’s good, but it was a good lesson. I have decided I am never going to drive in Nairobi. Add all that I said above to the fact they drive on the left side of the road, and I’d have guaranteed accident!
OK. Back to the taxi. So the taxi dies in the middle of the four-lane road. The driver spends about 5 minutes cranking the engine to try to restart it. Then he thinks to put on his flashers. Several close calls here as traffic tries to maneuver around us. He then gets out, puts the hood up, and begins to pull off pieces of the car. It is quickly obvious that he and I probably have about the same level of mechanical skill. We can both pull the pieces off and put them back where we found them. Actually, I may have more. As I looked over his shoulder, I observed that the gas needle was pointing squarely at the large “E” on the fuel gauge. He gets back in the car saying over and over “Serious. Oh! This is serious!” We are thinking this is not good. We suggest that it is because he is out of gas. He assures us that the line isn’t really on “E”. It just looks like it.
After about 5 more minutes of cranking the engine, getting out, pulling pieces off, putting them back on, yelling in Swahili on his cell phone, and repeating “Oh, this is serious”, we are approached by a Nairobi police officer. The officer did not think we should be sitting in the middle of a four-lane road in the middle of rush hour with the hood up. Or at least that was my interpretation of the Swahili with the hand gestures. A moment or so later, the driver begins to push us. Unfortunately, that is directly into the next lane of traffic. More honking and close calls. The officer wants us to jump the hard curb, and put the car on the sidewalk, but the driver can’t get enough speed to do it. We finally get to the next intersection (the entrance to the University), jump the curb, get the car on the sidewalk (displacing the pedestrians), and stopped. About 15 minutes later, we finally get the call that the new taxi is here, but unfortunately, can’t get to where we are because of traffic and one way streets, so we grab our things and walk down the main highway to find the new taxi. Imagine the stares!
It then took forever to get to the hotel as we were then stopped by the Parliament building. There was a motorcade leaving as the traffic was stopped out front. The driver told us that was the President of Kenya and Kofi Anan leaving after the completion of the peace talks. I don’t know if it was really them, but there were several cars, all with flags on them.
Good news today about the peace talks. An agreement was signed, so everyone here is very happy about peace being restored. No demonstrations today, and everyone we talked to seems very happy about the way things have turned out.
Except for our entertaining drive home, it was a very quiet day. A few parting thoughts about Nairobi. I think this would be a very interesting city to return to when the political climate settles a bit. The city is incredibly green with beautiful flowers, lots of parks, and the main city is very modern. When you drive a bit outside the main city, you do see slum areas, people living in metal shacks, trash on the roadside, etc. We did see some of this today as the taxi drive to the office involved an off road trip down a barely two lane dirt road. The driver wanted to avoid the traffic jams.
That’s about it for today. Hope to be able to log on from Zambia, but uncertain if the hotel will have internet access. I’ll post again when I can get on line.
On the way back from our meetings today, our taxi dies in the middle of a four-lane road in rush hour traffic. Rush hour traffic is very slow, just like the US, but made far more entertaining by the people, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles weaving in-between the cars. Add to that a bit of rapid lane changing by most of the drivers, and you’ve got quite a show! All that said, they do follow the lines in the road and the traffic signals much better than what I observed in my previous trip to Africa. People still squeeze by each other very closely. You’d swear you were going to hit the car, pedestrian, bike, etc. you are driving by, but somehow you always squeak by. I did learn the difference yesterday between a close call and a near accident. We frequently have close calls – that’s coming to within 3 inches of whatever is nearest you. A near accident is when you come within less than one inch. We had a near accident yesterday. No seatbelts in the back of the taxi cab, but my knees and shoulders stopped me against the seat just fine. All’s good, but it was a good lesson. I have decided I am never going to drive in Nairobi. Add all that I said above to the fact they drive on the left side of the road, and I’d have guaranteed accident!
OK. Back to the taxi. So the taxi dies in the middle of the four-lane road. The driver spends about 5 minutes cranking the engine to try to restart it. Then he thinks to put on his flashers. Several close calls here as traffic tries to maneuver around us. He then gets out, puts the hood up, and begins to pull off pieces of the car. It is quickly obvious that he and I probably have about the same level of mechanical skill. We can both pull the pieces off and put them back where we found them. Actually, I may have more. As I looked over his shoulder, I observed that the gas needle was pointing squarely at the large “E” on the fuel gauge. He gets back in the car saying over and over “Serious. Oh! This is serious!” We are thinking this is not good. We suggest that it is because he is out of gas. He assures us that the line isn’t really on “E”. It just looks like it.
After about 5 more minutes of cranking the engine, getting out, pulling pieces off, putting them back on, yelling in Swahili on his cell phone, and repeating “Oh, this is serious”, we are approached by a Nairobi police officer. The officer did not think we should be sitting in the middle of a four-lane road in the middle of rush hour with the hood up. Or at least that was my interpretation of the Swahili with the hand gestures. A moment or so later, the driver begins to push us. Unfortunately, that is directly into the next lane of traffic. More honking and close calls. The officer wants us to jump the hard curb, and put the car on the sidewalk, but the driver can’t get enough speed to do it. We finally get to the next intersection (the entrance to the University), jump the curb, get the car on the sidewalk (displacing the pedestrians), and stopped. About 15 minutes later, we finally get the call that the new taxi is here, but unfortunately, can’t get to where we are because of traffic and one way streets, so we grab our things and walk down the main highway to find the new taxi. Imagine the stares!
It then took forever to get to the hotel as we were then stopped by the Parliament building. There was a motorcade leaving as the traffic was stopped out front. The driver told us that was the President of Kenya and Kofi Anan leaving after the completion of the peace talks. I don’t know if it was really them, but there were several cars, all with flags on them.
Good news today about the peace talks. An agreement was signed, so everyone here is very happy about peace being restored. No demonstrations today, and everyone we talked to seems very happy about the way things have turned out.
Except for our entertaining drive home, it was a very quiet day. A few parting thoughts about Nairobi. I think this would be a very interesting city to return to when the political climate settles a bit. The city is incredibly green with beautiful flowers, lots of parks, and the main city is very modern. When you drive a bit outside the main city, you do see slum areas, people living in metal shacks, trash on the roadside, etc. We did see some of this today as the taxi drive to the office involved an off road trip down a barely two lane dirt road. The driver wanted to avoid the traffic jams.
That’s about it for today. Hope to be able to log on from Zambia, but uncertain if the hotel will have internet access. I’ll post again when I can get on line.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Changes in Nairobi
Good evening from Nairobi. Today’s comments will be much shorter as I’m a little tired tonight. The way mattresses are made here must be a bit different. I lay down on the bed last night, and thought I had missed and hit the concrete floor. I didn’t know they could make mattresses out of boards! I’ve slept more comfortably without a bed before!
Anyway, we went to our meetings this morning, and were notified that we would need to go back to the hotel and check out. The hotel is in an area of town that is hard to get out of in a hurry if we needed to. There have been some additional political issues here in the last few days. For those of you watching the news Kofi Anan has been in town negotiating with the two parties claiming victory in the last election. Apparently, he called them off late yesterday. In addition to that, today is election day in Nairobi for the position of Mayor. My understanding is this is also a bit of a hot race. And finally, the opposition party from the elections in December called for peaceful demonstrations here tomorrow (Thursday).
Bottom line is the hotel was located in a wedge of what appeared to be one-way streets across from three banks and a mall. If people chose to congregate in the mall or in front of the banks and cause problems tomorrow, we would not be able to leave the hotel until everything ended. So, back to the hotel for us, a quick collection of our things, check out, and back to our meetings. Other hotel arrangements were made at a hotel closer to the airport along the main highway. Part of that strategy is we could make a quick dash to the airport if we were told to depart the country.
So now that I’ve got everyone all excited, let me share that the elections today seemed to go OK (at least haven’t heard anything yet), and the opposition leader cancelled the demonstrations for tomorrow. It appears we are back to business as usual in the morning. And the good news is I now have a bed that is at least as soft as lying on a mat and sleeping bag on the grass (HUGE improvement over last night), and an air-conditioned room. Amazing how a little “peaceful demonstration” threat can turn out to be a huge blessing! Don’t worry. We will still be very watchful tomorrow. No large crowds, and we are not going anywhere near the main part of town. Just to the office and back to the hotel. If the security group feels there is any risk to us, or the employees here, we will be told to stay home, and we will simply work from the hotel all day tomorrow.
Now for a little about Nairobi… It’s an interesting mix of old and new. There are many modern buildings, but also some very run down areas. From my hotel room, I can see downtown Nairobi. It looks fairly large with many multi-story buildings (guessing 20 or less floors). From one side of the hotel, you can look out across a very flat, brown landscape (picture west Texas). From the other side, you see into town, and the view very green, with lots of flowering plants. The people here are friendly, so it’s hard to fathom how they can be fighting with each other so much due to the elections. We’re told that most of the fighting has been in the western part of the country, but that there is also danger in the city, although the danger is to those of certain ethnic groups in the country, not other foreigners.
As you drive around, you do see people from all over. There are restaurants and other businesses representing Asia, Europe, and other areas of Africa. For lunch, we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant for example. That is interesting food. We were served on a single large plate covered with a type of pancake made from rice, covered in various sauces and meats. You pull off pieces of the “pancake” and then pick up the sauce and meats / vegetables with the pancake. No silverware is provided or needed. Not often you eat a meal with your coworkers from a single plate, all with your fingers. It was good food – you all will have to try it.
That’s it for today. One more day in Nairobi, and then it’s off to Lusaka, Zambia!
Anyway, we went to our meetings this morning, and were notified that we would need to go back to the hotel and check out. The hotel is in an area of town that is hard to get out of in a hurry if we needed to. There have been some additional political issues here in the last few days. For those of you watching the news Kofi Anan has been in town negotiating with the two parties claiming victory in the last election. Apparently, he called them off late yesterday. In addition to that, today is election day in Nairobi for the position of Mayor. My understanding is this is also a bit of a hot race. And finally, the opposition party from the elections in December called for peaceful demonstrations here tomorrow (Thursday).
Bottom line is the hotel was located in a wedge of what appeared to be one-way streets across from three banks and a mall. If people chose to congregate in the mall or in front of the banks and cause problems tomorrow, we would not be able to leave the hotel until everything ended. So, back to the hotel for us, a quick collection of our things, check out, and back to our meetings. Other hotel arrangements were made at a hotel closer to the airport along the main highway. Part of that strategy is we could make a quick dash to the airport if we were told to depart the country.
So now that I’ve got everyone all excited, let me share that the elections today seemed to go OK (at least haven’t heard anything yet), and the opposition leader cancelled the demonstrations for tomorrow. It appears we are back to business as usual in the morning. And the good news is I now have a bed that is at least as soft as lying on a mat and sleeping bag on the grass (HUGE improvement over last night), and an air-conditioned room. Amazing how a little “peaceful demonstration” threat can turn out to be a huge blessing! Don’t worry. We will still be very watchful tomorrow. No large crowds, and we are not going anywhere near the main part of town. Just to the office and back to the hotel. If the security group feels there is any risk to us, or the employees here, we will be told to stay home, and we will simply work from the hotel all day tomorrow.
Now for a little about Nairobi… It’s an interesting mix of old and new. There are many modern buildings, but also some very run down areas. From my hotel room, I can see downtown Nairobi. It looks fairly large with many multi-story buildings (guessing 20 or less floors). From one side of the hotel, you can look out across a very flat, brown landscape (picture west Texas). From the other side, you see into town, and the view very green, with lots of flowering plants. The people here are friendly, so it’s hard to fathom how they can be fighting with each other so much due to the elections. We’re told that most of the fighting has been in the western part of the country, but that there is also danger in the city, although the danger is to those of certain ethnic groups in the country, not other foreigners.
As you drive around, you do see people from all over. There are restaurants and other businesses representing Asia, Europe, and other areas of Africa. For lunch, we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant for example. That is interesting food. We were served on a single large plate covered with a type of pancake made from rice, covered in various sauces and meats. You pull off pieces of the “pancake” and then pick up the sauce and meats / vegetables with the pancake. No silverware is provided or needed. Not often you eat a meal with your coworkers from a single plate, all with your fingers. It was good food – you all will have to try it.
That’s it for today. One more day in Nairobi, and then it’s off to Lusaka, Zambia!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
From Dubai to Nairobi
I forgot to tell you yesterday about our accommodations here in Dubai. We are staying at a hotel in the “old city”. The rooms are not in the fancy hotels, but this “room” is actually larger than our first apartment, and has a dining room, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and two bathrooms (950 sq ft total). I actually took pictures because I have a hard time believing this is a common “room”.
While we’re still on the subject of Dubai, some of you asked about the Hotel Burj Al Arab. We did see it. This is a giant hotel (3rd tallest hotel in Dubai) that is shaped like a giant sail. We took pictures of it from the road that is the stem of the palm tree island. We also saw the giant mall that has the ski slope in it. Yes, you can even ski in Dubai. We also learned today that all the building in Dubai actually does NOT come from oil. They have built it on a free market economy with zero taxation. Seven Emirates started the hub with just basic port facilities. Over time, they began to import labor, and work to attract business. Labor is brought from countries like Sri Lanka, Bangledesh, India, etc. The workers live in housing paid for by the companies that hired them. They work and send money home to their families. Now, Dubai is attracting big business, particularly to stage goods made in India and China and then ship them to Europe and Africa. The new airport I talked about yesterday is actually co-located with the port, making it the only place in the world where the hubs for shipping by air, land, and sea are in the same place. That’s amazing!
One more thing about our visit in Dubai. During one of our meetings yesterday, we were talking to a gentleman from Afghanistan. The team was asking about how he would travel back, and he proceeded to describe trying to get a transit visa through Iran to drive back to his town in Afghanistan. Going through Iran is very important, because to enter directly to certain areas of Afghanistan and driving is very dangerous. As he described this, at one point he told us that if you are stopped, the Taliban soldier takes your cell phone and calls someone at random in the address book. When the person answers, the Taliban will ask the person on the other end what you do for a living. If you work for a company or have a “threatening” profession, you may be killed. Of course, the organization we work for is one of those on the “threatening” list. Unfortunately, he had not been able to get the appropriate visas to transit Iran, so he is working to make sure he can fly another way to avoid driving. He described this in a completely “matter-of-fact” way. To me, that was almost as disturbing as the concept itself. I can’t even imagine living in a situation like that.
So, today we left Dubai, and arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. As you may imagine, this is quite a change. We didn’t have much time during daylight hours today. First impressions are it is very flat, and also very green, with many bushes and flowers alongside the roadways. I think we are a bit outside the main city, but this is still a fairly well developed area. I could see the main city in the distance, and there are many tall buildings. I’m told it is fairly modern. Perhaps I’ll be able to see some of it before we leave.
The hotel we are in is very nice. As you’ve probably guessed, it’s not a 950sq ft “room”, but it does have it’s own bathroom with at least some hot water, a bed, and a beautiful breeze. The grounds are wonderful as well, many trees, green grass, lots of shade. I have a nice courtyard right outside my window. Unfortunately, no A/C, and I have to close the window at night for safety and to prevent mosquitoes from entering the room, but it’s not too hot, and the ceiling fan helps.
Thanks to everyone for your comments. If you can’t post to the blog, you can always e-mail me as well. Talk to everyone tomorrow!
While we’re still on the subject of Dubai, some of you asked about the Hotel Burj Al Arab. We did see it. This is a giant hotel (3rd tallest hotel in Dubai) that is shaped like a giant sail. We took pictures of it from the road that is the stem of the palm tree island. We also saw the giant mall that has the ski slope in it. Yes, you can even ski in Dubai. We also learned today that all the building in Dubai actually does NOT come from oil. They have built it on a free market economy with zero taxation. Seven Emirates started the hub with just basic port facilities. Over time, they began to import labor, and work to attract business. Labor is brought from countries like Sri Lanka, Bangledesh, India, etc. The workers live in housing paid for by the companies that hired them. They work and send money home to their families. Now, Dubai is attracting big business, particularly to stage goods made in India and China and then ship them to Europe and Africa. The new airport I talked about yesterday is actually co-located with the port, making it the only place in the world where the hubs for shipping by air, land, and sea are in the same place. That’s amazing!
One more thing about our visit in Dubai. During one of our meetings yesterday, we were talking to a gentleman from Afghanistan. The team was asking about how he would travel back, and he proceeded to describe trying to get a transit visa through Iran to drive back to his town in Afghanistan. Going through Iran is very important, because to enter directly to certain areas of Afghanistan and driving is very dangerous. As he described this, at one point he told us that if you are stopped, the Taliban soldier takes your cell phone and calls someone at random in the address book. When the person answers, the Taliban will ask the person on the other end what you do for a living. If you work for a company or have a “threatening” profession, you may be killed. Of course, the organization we work for is one of those on the “threatening” list. Unfortunately, he had not been able to get the appropriate visas to transit Iran, so he is working to make sure he can fly another way to avoid driving. He described this in a completely “matter-of-fact” way. To me, that was almost as disturbing as the concept itself. I can’t even imagine living in a situation like that.
So, today we left Dubai, and arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. As you may imagine, this is quite a change. We didn’t have much time during daylight hours today. First impressions are it is very flat, and also very green, with many bushes and flowers alongside the roadways. I think we are a bit outside the main city, but this is still a fairly well developed area. I could see the main city in the distance, and there are many tall buildings. I’m told it is fairly modern. Perhaps I’ll be able to see some of it before we leave.
The hotel we are in is very nice. As you’ve probably guessed, it’s not a 950sq ft “room”, but it does have it’s own bathroom with at least some hot water, a bed, and a beautiful breeze. The grounds are wonderful as well, many trees, green grass, lots of shade. I have a nice courtyard right outside my window. Unfortunately, no A/C, and I have to close the window at night for safety and to prevent mosquitoes from entering the room, but it’s not too hot, and the ceiling fan helps.
Thanks to everyone for your comments. If you can’t post to the blog, you can always e-mail me as well. Talk to everyone tomorrow!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Our Day in Dubai
Arrived in Dubai this morning just after 6am. Dubai is 12 hours ahead of Seattle time, and 3 hours later than Amsterdam, so I think my body clock is a bit confused now. It could also be that when you log onto the google blogger in Dubai, all the characters come up in Arabic. After clicking everything on the screen, I finally found the right button to get logged in to do this. Someone will have to tell me how to make this thing come up in English right away. I was able to figure out the Dutch words in Amsterdam, but Arabic was a bit beyond me. And wait until the next stop where everything will likely be in Swahili!
Dubai is amazing. The first thing that grabs you is the sheer size of the airport. As soon as you depart the airport, the next thing is the amount of construction going on here. One of our group had read that 40% of the world’s cranes for use in building skyscrapers were located here. Now that we’ve had a chance to drive around a bit, I believe it. I’ve never seen so many buildings under construction at one time!
We asked about the level of construction, and our taxi driver told us that 5 years ago there were no tall towers. Today, I stopped counting at 50 skyscrapers. One of the buildings is already 175 stories tall (we’re told it’s the tallest building in the world), and there is a crane at the top of it because they are going to add to the tower. As I looked up at the crane, I think it’s already as high in the air as we were when we jumped out of the airplanes at Army airborne school!
We also asked about the people here. We’re told that only 20 to 25% of the population is from UAE. The other 80% are foreign nationals. We met probably 40 people today, and not one of them was actually from here.
It’s odd going from a city where the new buildings were built in the 1800’s, to a city where nearly everything is less than 3 years old. It does appear that they have a plan, as there is a highway system and a light rail system under construction. I just can’t figure out who all is going to live and work in all these buildings! On top of building in the desert, they are building islands off the coast. Some of you have probably seen the show about the palm tree island being built (I think it was on the Discovery Channel). We had a chance to drive onto the island today and took some pictures of the buildings. They are all huge! The taxi driver told us that the rent is about $1,000,000 per year!
With all this money, it is interesting that Dubai is also trying to work with a variety of humanitarian agencies. Our meetings today were in an area called “Humanitarian City.” This is an area provided by the government of Dubai where several non-profit agencies have offices. The area is very nice, but it’s hard to reconcile all the building of huge opulent buildings, and the creation of a small humanitarian city.
Last thing about Dubai for today. We were asking about all the construction around the Humanitarian City area. Turns out, it is now in the middle of what they called, “the new city center”. The city has apparently decided to move the city center, so that is driving significant construction. They are also working on a new airport that is supposed to be five times more capacity than the current airport. The current airport looks brand new, and most of the buildings in the “old city” were built in the last 5 years. Can you imagine if we just decided that Seattle needed a new city center, so we just started building about 50 skyscrapers, highway systems, and light rail all at once? I guess being in the desert helps (the mountains would probably be a limiting factor in starting a new Seattle), but I don’t think we’d even be able to coordinate the permitting processes let alone the dollars to start billions in new construction simultaneously.
This is definitely an amazing place….
Tomorrow morning, back to the airport and off to Nairobi, Kenya. Talk to everyone then!
Dubai is amazing. The first thing that grabs you is the sheer size of the airport. As soon as you depart the airport, the next thing is the amount of construction going on here. One of our group had read that 40% of the world’s cranes for use in building skyscrapers were located here. Now that we’ve had a chance to drive around a bit, I believe it. I’ve never seen so many buildings under construction at one time!
We asked about the level of construction, and our taxi driver told us that 5 years ago there were no tall towers. Today, I stopped counting at 50 skyscrapers. One of the buildings is already 175 stories tall (we’re told it’s the tallest building in the world), and there is a crane at the top of it because they are going to add to the tower. As I looked up at the crane, I think it’s already as high in the air as we were when we jumped out of the airplanes at Army airborne school!
We also asked about the people here. We’re told that only 20 to 25% of the population is from UAE. The other 80% are foreign nationals. We met probably 40 people today, and not one of them was actually from here.
It’s odd going from a city where the new buildings were built in the 1800’s, to a city where nearly everything is less than 3 years old. It does appear that they have a plan, as there is a highway system and a light rail system under construction. I just can’t figure out who all is going to live and work in all these buildings! On top of building in the desert, they are building islands off the coast. Some of you have probably seen the show about the palm tree island being built (I think it was on the Discovery Channel). We had a chance to drive onto the island today and took some pictures of the buildings. They are all huge! The taxi driver told us that the rent is about $1,000,000 per year!
With all this money, it is interesting that Dubai is also trying to work with a variety of humanitarian agencies. Our meetings today were in an area called “Humanitarian City.” This is an area provided by the government of Dubai where several non-profit agencies have offices. The area is very nice, but it’s hard to reconcile all the building of huge opulent buildings, and the creation of a small humanitarian city.
Last thing about Dubai for today. We were asking about all the construction around the Humanitarian City area. Turns out, it is now in the middle of what they called, “the new city center”. The city has apparently decided to move the city center, so that is driving significant construction. They are also working on a new airport that is supposed to be five times more capacity than the current airport. The current airport looks brand new, and most of the buildings in the “old city” were built in the last 5 years. Can you imagine if we just decided that Seattle needed a new city center, so we just started building about 50 skyscrapers, highway systems, and light rail all at once? I guess being in the desert helps (the mountains would probably be a limiting factor in starting a new Seattle), but I don’t think we’d even be able to coordinate the permitting processes let alone the dollars to start billions in new construction simultaneously.
This is definitely an amazing place….
Tomorrow morning, back to the airport and off to Nairobi, Kenya. Talk to everyone then!
The Anne Frank House
We started off this morning by taking the tram to the Anne Frank House. This is the house where her family and another spent most of World War II in hiding. For those of you who’ve read her diary, the place where they were hiding is actually bigger than I pictured it, but it is still very small. Hard to believe 8 people could fit in this area. When you tour the house, you start on the bottom floors, which was Mr. Frank’s jam factory. Now think about this, most of the houses in Amsterdam are either three or six meters across in the front (about 9 to 18 feet). This house is 18 feet wide, but is probably twice as deep. The stairs between floors is incredibly steep and narrow. Now imagine that this building was used as a manufacturing facility. In fact, some of the buildings in Amsterdam today are used as warehouses. It’s amazing when you think of our big manufacturing facilities.
Anyway, back to the Anne Frank house. After you go through the manufacturing area, offices and storerooms, you eventually get to the landing with the moveable bookcase. This bookcase concealed the entrance to the secret annex. You climb a very narrow, steep set of stairs (picture stairs in old houses in the Midwest going up to the attic), and then you enter the annex area. This consists of five small rooms. While I envisioned it even smaller, I can’t imagine living with eight people for several years in a space that small! The last part of the exhibit shows where each of them went after they were found. As everyone knows, only Otto Frank survived Auschwitz.
After touring the house, it’s hard to know what else to write about it, other than to describe it like I did above. I have a hard time getting my head around it. The house was built in 1635, and the rear annex (where they lived) was rebuilt in 1739. It served many purposes (including as a horse stable), and then in 1940, purchased by Frank Otto. Living in a 400 year old home, being confined to 500 sq ft with 8 people for a period of 2 years, knowing if you were found, you would most likely be killed. It’s simply something that many of us from the United States can’t fathom, from the age of the home, to having our freedom removed, to facing death if you’re found.
Later in the day we went to the Rijksmuseum. This is another art museum, including many famous Rembrandt paintings. I think I talked enough about art yesterday, so I’ll only include the uninformed opinion that Rembrandt is a much better painter than Van Gogh. I make this statement simply because Rembrandt uses more colors and seems to do a better job of coloring within the lines. In all seriousness, even I was able to get that he was famous for his ability to use a technique to make light appear to come from the painting, and in some cases was actually able to even understand what story he was trying to share!
Now that I’ve offended all the art people reading this, I’ll quickly run through the rest of our day. We still had time before we had to head to the airport, so we tried to find old churches. For church services in the morning, we went to the English Reformed Church. The building was actually in a small courtyard off the streets. You entered the courtyard through an arched doorway off a small square. This entered into an open courtyard, with a beautiful small church in the middle. The church was built and held it’s first service in 1607. The building was beautiful inside as well. Sorry, no pictures as they were not allowed to be taken inside the building. Here’s the website with more info about the church http://home.tiscali.nl/~t451501/ercadam/content/building.htm. You can download a pdf file with detailed info if you’re interested.
I guess no trip to Amsterdam is complete without at least one story of going completely the wrong direction. We were looking for other old churches that we could go inside, as several people had told us they were all open for viewing. On our map was one called “The Old Church.” We found one that we thought was it, but it wasn’t open, so we started down the street looking down side streets for others. We finally saw one and sure enough, it was the Old Church. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in due to an organ concert in progress, so you’ll have to enjoy it with me on the internet at the following link http://www.oudekerk.nl/. It was built in the 1300’s, and was currently under renovation.
I tried to take pictures, but don’t think they’ll be very good as you couldn’t stand far enough away from the church to get a good picture. The city of Amsterdam (in the 1600’s) began to build up around the church, so the nearby buildings are very close. Unfortunately, they are also now the edge of the red-light district. The front door to the church is directly across from, and less than 50 feet from the Prostitute Information Center, the sign for which is displayed prominently out front of the building. There are a variety of other creative venues all around the church, including multiple coffee houses. In Amsterdam, coffee houses do not sell coffee, but a wide variety of “soft” drugs. Amsterdam is unfortunately very permissive in what they allow, and you can smell and see it all (even if you don’t choose to) in that area of the city. We chose to depart the Old Church, but decided not to walk back the way we came in, resulting in all of us spending a lot of time looking at the sidewalk until we came back to the main street again. The area is not well marked, so there were families with children also walking in the area. It’s really kind of sad to have so large an area of a beautiful city with such activity prominently displayed.
OK. Enough for today. Back to the airport and the red-eye flight to Dubai. More to follow tomorrow!
Anyway, back to the Anne Frank house. After you go through the manufacturing area, offices and storerooms, you eventually get to the landing with the moveable bookcase. This bookcase concealed the entrance to the secret annex. You climb a very narrow, steep set of stairs (picture stairs in old houses in the Midwest going up to the attic), and then you enter the annex area. This consists of five small rooms. While I envisioned it even smaller, I can’t imagine living with eight people for several years in a space that small! The last part of the exhibit shows where each of them went after they were found. As everyone knows, only Otto Frank survived Auschwitz.
After touring the house, it’s hard to know what else to write about it, other than to describe it like I did above. I have a hard time getting my head around it. The house was built in 1635, and the rear annex (where they lived) was rebuilt in 1739. It served many purposes (including as a horse stable), and then in 1940, purchased by Frank Otto. Living in a 400 year old home, being confined to 500 sq ft with 8 people for a period of 2 years, knowing if you were found, you would most likely be killed. It’s simply something that many of us from the United States can’t fathom, from the age of the home, to having our freedom removed, to facing death if you’re found.
Later in the day we went to the Rijksmuseum. This is another art museum, including many famous Rembrandt paintings. I think I talked enough about art yesterday, so I’ll only include the uninformed opinion that Rembrandt is a much better painter than Van Gogh. I make this statement simply because Rembrandt uses more colors and seems to do a better job of coloring within the lines. In all seriousness, even I was able to get that he was famous for his ability to use a technique to make light appear to come from the painting, and in some cases was actually able to even understand what story he was trying to share!
Now that I’ve offended all the art people reading this, I’ll quickly run through the rest of our day. We still had time before we had to head to the airport, so we tried to find old churches. For church services in the morning, we went to the English Reformed Church. The building was actually in a small courtyard off the streets. You entered the courtyard through an arched doorway off a small square. This entered into an open courtyard, with a beautiful small church in the middle. The church was built and held it’s first service in 1607. The building was beautiful inside as well. Sorry, no pictures as they were not allowed to be taken inside the building. Here’s the website with more info about the church http://home.tiscali.nl/~t451501/ercadam/content/building.htm. You can download a pdf file with detailed info if you’re interested.
I guess no trip to Amsterdam is complete without at least one story of going completely the wrong direction. We were looking for other old churches that we could go inside, as several people had told us they were all open for viewing. On our map was one called “The Old Church.” We found one that we thought was it, but it wasn’t open, so we started down the street looking down side streets for others. We finally saw one and sure enough, it was the Old Church. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in due to an organ concert in progress, so you’ll have to enjoy it with me on the internet at the following link http://www.oudekerk.nl/. It was built in the 1300’s, and was currently under renovation.
I tried to take pictures, but don’t think they’ll be very good as you couldn’t stand far enough away from the church to get a good picture. The city of Amsterdam (in the 1600’s) began to build up around the church, so the nearby buildings are very close. Unfortunately, they are also now the edge of the red-light district. The front door to the church is directly across from, and less than 50 feet from the Prostitute Information Center, the sign for which is displayed prominently out front of the building. There are a variety of other creative venues all around the church, including multiple coffee houses. In Amsterdam, coffee houses do not sell coffee, but a wide variety of “soft” drugs. Amsterdam is unfortunately very permissive in what they allow, and you can smell and see it all (even if you don’t choose to) in that area of the city. We chose to depart the Old Church, but decided not to walk back the way we came in, resulting in all of us spending a lot of time looking at the sidewalk until we came back to the main street again. The area is not well marked, so there were families with children also walking in the area. It’s really kind of sad to have so large an area of a beautiful city with such activity prominently displayed.
OK. Enough for today. Back to the airport and the red-eye flight to Dubai. More to follow tomorrow!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Touring Amsterdam
Today we had a great day walking around Amsterdam. We figured out how to take the train system today, saving much money and time. Our first stop was the Rembrandt house. This was the house Rembrandt bought in 1639, but was later sold when he went bankrupt. He was already famous at this time, but did paint some of his paintings here. Unfortunately, we ended up not paying to go on the tour, but it was interesting to see the outside.
We then went to the Anne Frank house, but again, didn’t go in due to the huge line. We’ll be going back there tomorrow morning when it first opens, so more about that tomorrow.
After more walking and looking at all the wonderful buildings, we finally got to the Van Gogh museum. This building houses more than 200 paintings, most by Van Gogh. For those of you who know something about art, there are also paintings done by Gauguin, Millet, Rembrandt, Monet and others. They also had a special exhibit of paintings by John Everett Millais. He’s the person who painted Ophelia, a work inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Now as most of you know, I don’t know much about paintings and artists. To be real honest, I didn’t get most of the van Gogh paintings. He was an evangelist, a teacher, an art dealer, and then decided at 27 he’d like to be an artist. He took up painting, and the museum proceeds to walk you through his 10-year art career, which ended tragically when he took his own life. The museum shares where he got his inspiration, and then shows how he progressed in his learning of various painting techniques. At the risk of sounding total uninformed (and probably ignorant), while it was an interesting journey to watch him learn to paint, I still wasn’t able to appreciate the greatness of his technique by the end of the exhibit. I did learn that he did several paintings heavily influenced by Japanese designs. I think these were his best and most interesting, but I’m not sure real art professionals would agree.
On the other hand, the Millais paintings were amazing. They were more like photographs done in oil. While I will probably never understand the nuance of color, style, technique of all this art stuff, I could certainly appreciate the technique and the beauty of the paintings. If you want to see more of what I’m talking about, check out the link to the museum at www.vangoghmuseum.nl.
We also had time to take a canal boat for about 1 hour all around the city. I was amazed at the number of house boats on the canals! The ride was wonderful and we were able to learn a bit about the city as we went. It was neat to be able to ride along and look at all the different buildings, many of which had dates showing they were built in the early 1600’s. You can also see over the years that many of them have started to settle, so some lean quite a bit. They lean both left and right, and from front to back. The style of the buildings throughout the city is just like the pictures you always see. I always wandered if those were just one small area, but in fact, the entire main city has similar architecture. Tomorrow, I hope to get a few more pictures of some of the buildings, and then when I can log onto the internet next, I’ll try to post some to this blog.
Tomorrow night, we are off to Dubai, UAE. That should be quite a culture difference! Our flight is overnight, and then straight to the meetings for the day. Hopefully, I’ll be able to log on and tell you about Dubai on Monday night. If not, then I’ll send you a note from Nairobi on Tuesday evening!
We then went to the Anne Frank house, but again, didn’t go in due to the huge line. We’ll be going back there tomorrow morning when it first opens, so more about that tomorrow.
After more walking and looking at all the wonderful buildings, we finally got to the Van Gogh museum. This building houses more than 200 paintings, most by Van Gogh. For those of you who know something about art, there are also paintings done by Gauguin, Millet, Rembrandt, Monet and others. They also had a special exhibit of paintings by John Everett Millais. He’s the person who painted Ophelia, a work inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Now as most of you know, I don’t know much about paintings and artists. To be real honest, I didn’t get most of the van Gogh paintings. He was an evangelist, a teacher, an art dealer, and then decided at 27 he’d like to be an artist. He took up painting, and the museum proceeds to walk you through his 10-year art career, which ended tragically when he took his own life. The museum shares where he got his inspiration, and then shows how he progressed in his learning of various painting techniques. At the risk of sounding total uninformed (and probably ignorant), while it was an interesting journey to watch him learn to paint, I still wasn’t able to appreciate the greatness of his technique by the end of the exhibit. I did learn that he did several paintings heavily influenced by Japanese designs. I think these were his best and most interesting, but I’m not sure real art professionals would agree.
On the other hand, the Millais paintings were amazing. They were more like photographs done in oil. While I will probably never understand the nuance of color, style, technique of all this art stuff, I could certainly appreciate the technique and the beauty of the paintings. If you want to see more of what I’m talking about, check out the link to the museum at www.vangoghmuseum.nl.
We also had time to take a canal boat for about 1 hour all around the city. I was amazed at the number of house boats on the canals! The ride was wonderful and we were able to learn a bit about the city as we went. It was neat to be able to ride along and look at all the different buildings, many of which had dates showing they were built in the early 1600’s. You can also see over the years that many of them have started to settle, so some lean quite a bit. They lean both left and right, and from front to back. The style of the buildings throughout the city is just like the pictures you always see. I always wandered if those were just one small area, but in fact, the entire main city has similar architecture. Tomorrow, I hope to get a few more pictures of some of the buildings, and then when I can log onto the internet next, I’ll try to post some to this blog.
Tomorrow night, we are off to Dubai, UAE. That should be quite a culture difference! Our flight is overnight, and then straight to the meetings for the day. Hopefully, I’ll be able to log on and tell you about Dubai on Monday night. If not, then I’ll send you a note from Nairobi on Tuesday evening!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Amsterdam – Days 1 and 2
We had a great flight in from Seattle, and immediately went into a long day of meetings for work. To be honest, I don’t remember a lot from yesterday. When we finally got to the hotel last night, we’d been up for about 36 hours, with only a short nap on the plane here. My only initial thoughts were “Wow, the weather is just like Seattle!” and “It’s really flat!” I’d say both of those probably don’t qualify as incredibly profound thoughts…. Other general thoughts – everyone here speaks English. Folks are very friendly and helpful. Public transportation is wonderful, and much cheaper than taxis (a 20 minute ride was about 40 Euro, or about $66 US. The lower value of the dollar right now makes this a very expensive place! And everyone here knows more about the US politics, and especially our upcoming election than I think many Americans know.
At the end of the day, we had dinner in a very nice place in downtown Amsterdam. We then had a nice walk to the bus station. One of our hosts was walking us to the station to make sure we didn’t get lost. The streets are very narrow, and can be confusing (imagine 36 hours no sleep, a dinner, and trying to read street signs in Dutch).
Today, we caught the train and traveled to Lelystad for a series of meetings with two of our partners. Lelystad is a small city on “reclaimed land”. This means that the entire area used to be under the sea, but sea walls were built and the land was drained. Our host said it took 10 years for the land to completely dry. The area is beautiful, but looks a lot like suburbs in the US. In fact, one of the areas we drove by was an outlet mall with many of the same stores you would see at a US outlet mall. Even the same concept, put it about 40 minutes drive away from a large city, preferably in a more rural area, and see if everyone will come. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, I think it is getting the same results. At mid-day on Friday, no one was coming. Maybe it’s busy on the weekends….
Tonight we had dinner in a restaurant in Haarlem. This is not pronounced like Harlem in New York. Double emphasize the “a”, make the “r” really hard, and almost swallow the “m”. No I won’t demonstrate when I return, as I am not able to say it correctly, although I did practice. This restaurant was across from a beautiful church. The church campanile was playing as we arrived. I hadn’t heard campanile bells since I left KU! The restaurant building was over 200 years old. It used to be a place where they printed money for Holland, and has now been turned into a hotel and restaurant. Unfortunately, it was too dark for pictures. We arrived at dinner at about 6:30, but by the time the entire process finished it was after 10pm. Dinners are long affairs here, and people generally don’t go to dinner until later. The restaurants both nights didn’t really start to fill up until 9pm. For me, that’s more like bed time!
Saturday we will have time to visit some of the sites in Amsterdam. More to follow tomorrow!Carol
At the end of the day, we had dinner in a very nice place in downtown Amsterdam. We then had a nice walk to the bus station. One of our hosts was walking us to the station to make sure we didn’t get lost. The streets are very narrow, and can be confusing (imagine 36 hours no sleep, a dinner, and trying to read street signs in Dutch).
Today, we caught the train and traveled to Lelystad for a series of meetings with two of our partners. Lelystad is a small city on “reclaimed land”. This means that the entire area used to be under the sea, but sea walls were built and the land was drained. Our host said it took 10 years for the land to completely dry. The area is beautiful, but looks a lot like suburbs in the US. In fact, one of the areas we drove by was an outlet mall with many of the same stores you would see at a US outlet mall. Even the same concept, put it about 40 minutes drive away from a large city, preferably in a more rural area, and see if everyone will come. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, I think it is getting the same results. At mid-day on Friday, no one was coming. Maybe it’s busy on the weekends….
Tonight we had dinner in a restaurant in Haarlem. This is not pronounced like Harlem in New York. Double emphasize the “a”, make the “r” really hard, and almost swallow the “m”. No I won’t demonstrate when I return, as I am not able to say it correctly, although I did practice. This restaurant was across from a beautiful church. The church campanile was playing as we arrived. I hadn’t heard campanile bells since I left KU! The restaurant building was over 200 years old. It used to be a place where they printed money for Holland, and has now been turned into a hotel and restaurant. Unfortunately, it was too dark for pictures. We arrived at dinner at about 6:30, but by the time the entire process finished it was after 10pm. Dinners are long affairs here, and people generally don’t go to dinner until later. The restaurants both nights didn’t really start to fill up until 9pm. For me, that’s more like bed time!
Saturday we will have time to visit some of the sites in Amsterdam. More to follow tomorrow!Carol
The story behind the title
You are all probably wondering why I came up with such a strange title for this blog. Back in college, I seemed to consistently lose laundry in the dorm, socks being the main item lost. After a while it became quite the joke! My roommate that year and I also seemed to collect a lot of interesting stories and observations about our classes, teachers, and campus life in general. Some of those stories are still quite funny. Others weren’t funny at the time, nor are they today, but were great life experiences that I know helped shape me, and I’m certain did the same for her.
One day we were joking around and started talking about how we should one day all write a book about our experiences, not necessarily for publication, or for anyone else to read, but just because it would be fun. We eventually got around to talking about what we might title our books. Of course it was laundry day, and after losing a few more socks in the dryer, I half out of annoyance, and half joking said I was going to call mine “The Dryer Eats My Socks.” She decided she would write the sequel, “And the Washer Spits Them Out Again”, but then decided she couldn’t really write her life experiences and say it was a sequel to mine because that didn’t make sense, so she picked a different title, although I can no longer remember what it was.
Anyway, 20 years later, the title still sticks with me, and as I will probably never actually write a book, and you can’t really title a series of individual e-mails, I figured this blog thing was a close as I’d get.
So that’s the story! Probably not as exciting as you were hoping for, but isn’t it funny the memories that stick with you for so long? I’ve long since lost track of my roommate, can’t remember any of the Calculus, German, or “Fun with Ancient Rhetoric” class I took in college that year, and still don’t know where all those socks went. Al Gore hadn’t even invented the Internet yet! But from that silly series of events 20 years ago, you get the title of this blog, and I get a chance to share a little of my life with you.
Have a great day!
One day we were joking around and started talking about how we should one day all write a book about our experiences, not necessarily for publication, or for anyone else to read, but just because it would be fun. We eventually got around to talking about what we might title our books. Of course it was laundry day, and after losing a few more socks in the dryer, I half out of annoyance, and half joking said I was going to call mine “The Dryer Eats My Socks.” She decided she would write the sequel, “And the Washer Spits Them Out Again”, but then decided she couldn’t really write her life experiences and say it was a sequel to mine because that didn’t make sense, so she picked a different title, although I can no longer remember what it was.
Anyway, 20 years later, the title still sticks with me, and as I will probably never actually write a book, and you can’t really title a series of individual e-mails, I figured this blog thing was a close as I’d get.
So that’s the story! Probably not as exciting as you were hoping for, but isn’t it funny the memories that stick with you for so long? I’ve long since lost track of my roommate, can’t remember any of the Calculus, German, or “Fun with Ancient Rhetoric” class I took in college that year, and still don’t know where all those socks went. Al Gore hadn’t even invented the Internet yet! But from that silly series of events 20 years ago, you get the title of this blog, and I get a chance to share a little of my life with you.
Have a great day!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
I've Arrived!
Well sort of... I've been told that I need to fully join the 21st century, and use a blog to talk about my travels on this next trip. So for those of you who like blogs, I'm now using this. For those of you who don't, ask a kid. They'll give you instructions. Just remember though, if you're reading this, you were at least able to follow my e-mail directions well enough to get on here the first time. You may as well keep logging in.
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