The Dryer Eats My Socks

Last day in Goma

2010-09-25T00:19:00.001-07:00

In the last two days, we’ve visited three schools, a nutrition clinic, and a safe child center. In all three, we’ve met some amazing staff and volunteers that are really working to try to improve living situations for children here.

First, we stopped at a school in Goma. This school works to provide primary education and vocational training for orphans and vulnerable children. The children here have suffered much, and all have stories to tell. Many have lost parents to either conflict or to AIDS. Others are former child soldiers, who had been kidnapped from their families, and forced to serve in the conflict in DRC. In these cases, the children escaped, but their families wouldn’t take them back, as they were afraid the child had become dangerous, and might kill the family. Others have parents who are now living with AIDS, and are no longer able to support them.

The school works to find foster families in the local community to take these children in at night so that they won’t have to live on the streets. “Foster family” here is not the same as in the US. These families are simply giving the kids a place to sleep, and maybe a meal, but not much else. Often the foster families are barely surviving, and have many children of their own.

The school is a happy place with multiple school rooms, a mechanic training school, a sewing center, and a clinic. There’s also a large building that is used as a community center, and events are put on each weekend so that the children have a place to come to simply be kids. The primary school is really for any child that has not had a chance to learn. Many of these kids have been on the move due to conflict, and have never had a chance to go to school. The primary classroom has kids ranging from probably 6 to about 14, all learning the basics. In the vocational centers, you find older children who need to learn a trade to get work. They also teach some reading, writing and math skills in the vocational center, as these children are too old to sit with the primary children.

This school received bad news this week. Their primary source of funding (a grant through one of the large world aid organizations) has been cut. They will need to find a new donor to continue paying their teachers and maintaining their school. The school administrator was showing us around between phone calls to people trying to secure new funding. We asked how much a teacher makes, and were told that each teacher makes $200 per month, and than includes salary, medical care, and transportation. We counted 6 teachers at the school, although their may be one or two more, as not all the vocational classrooms were operating that day. We figure at the high end, this school is probably operating on about $100K annually, and that is most likely extremely high. It’s probably closer to $60K. Amazing work and huge support to over 500 children for what is really a fairly small amount of money. We hope they find new funding to continue this work.

Yesterday, we were able to travel north of the city of Goma to several communities about 70 to 100km from town. The countryside here is beautiful! As noted in an earlier post, there are many National Parks near here, although today, they have been significantly damaged by the conflict that the country has seen for the last 10 to 20 years.

Just north of the city, things are growing, and people have planted, but this is a recent lava flow, so it’s a little harder to plant here. Eight years ago, the volcano erupted, and sent hot lava down through the city of Goma, and all the way to the shores of Lake Kivu. In fact, the school I talked about above, is actually built on what 8 years ago was a huge pool of hot lava.

After you move north of the volcano, the soil changes, and the landscape is covered with thick vegetation. The country here is very hilly, but people are doing terraced farming right up the side of the hill. You see maize, lentils, cabbage, and coffee beans growing everywhere, plus all the fruit trees – mostly bananas and plantains. The soil here is wonderful for growing. If people could just stay in one place long enough to both plant and harvest, the north-eastern part of DRC could probably feed the entire country, and possibly most of Africa. We’re told before the conflict, there was substantial farming and exporting of goods from here.

Today, conflict has forced people to move from their homes and seek refuge in other areas of the country. Then over time, they move back, only to find that someone else has laid claim to their property, most likely someone seeking refuge from another area marked by conflict. Children are uprooted as well. This is incredibly hard for them, as they are not afforded the opportunity to go to school or to receive medical care. Many of them are malnourished, and all suffer from mental trauma from the constant moving, the conflict, the looting, and other awful things that have happened to either them or their mothers.

We visited one area that is somewhat stable. The community has actually built two school, one from bricks and concrete, the other from old UN tarps that they’ve secured to a wooden frame. The children have made desks, and many have managed to find a composition book and a pen or pencil. There are no books, and the chalkboard looks like it was broken into pieces so that each classroom could have something to write on. We didn’t ask how many students in the two schools, but as a guess, I’d say there was 150 in each school. Their favorite subjects are French and Mathematics, although some of the children said they like English. I think that’s for our benefit, as they weren’t learning English.

From there we visited a nutrition center. Here mothers can bring children under the age of 5 to be seen and be helped with nutrition. Volunteers scour the community looking for children or mothers that are either acutely or severely malnourished. The acutely malnourished children are treated at the clinic with special food supplements that can be administered at home, and are re-checked every two weeks to ensure they are coming back to health. The severely malnourished children have to be sent to another clinic where they are treated as inpatients. At this clinic alone, they see 8 new cases of acute malnourishment per day, and 5 cases of severe malnourishment. This number should probably be higher, but it takes time for the volunteers to scour the countryside to find the children that need help. To be honest, this number is probably about all the clinic can handle at one time due to supply of antibiotics and therapeutic foods.

We then went to a place that has been set up to give children a place to go to simply be kids. The “child safe” location has about 500 kids coming each day, and was only established last week. Here they are running a small school for children who’s parents can’t afford the government run school fees (about $5 per child per semester). They also have a small vocational center with sewing, mechanics, hair cutting, and embroidery. The children come and in the morning, go to school to learn to read, write, and do basic figures. Then the older ones are able to do some work to learn a trade. In the afternoon, they simply play. The dance, sing songs, play soccer, and do other games.

While the learning is important, for these kids, the afternoon play time may actually be more important. These are kids who have seen terrible things. Some have been beaten, some are child soldiers, some have seen their families killed, many are living alone due to loss of parents, and all have been living in fear, sometimes for their entire lives. Learning to trust other kids and adults, and simply learning how to play and to relax and feel safe is as important for these kids as learning to read and write. The volunteers here are people in the community who want to see these kids thrive and grow and not repeat the terrible things that have been happening.

I could write and write about the things we’ve seen in the last two days. Instead, I’ll just share my biggest take-away. This is an area where people want to change. They want to support themselves. They want to make a life for themselves, and they have the courage to do it. Better yet, they have nearly everything they need to make this happen. They have good soil, access to water sources, wonderful people, and great ambition. They are only lacking two things. The first is infrastructure, but this could come with time and effort, and a little initi who have seen terrible things. Some have been beaten, some are child soldiers, some have seen their families killed, many are living alone due to loss of parents, and all have been living in fear, sometimes for their entire lives. Learning to trust other kids and adults, and simply learning how to play and to relax and feel safe is as important for these kids as learning to read and write. The volunteers here are people in the community who want to see these kids thrive and grow and not repeat the terrible things that have been happening.

I could write and write about the things we’ve seen in the last two days. Instead, I’ll just share my biggest take-away. This is an area where people want to change. They want to support themselves. They want to make a life for themselves, and they have the courage to do it. Better yet, they have nearly everything they need to make this happen. They have good soil, access to water sources, minerals, wonderful people, and great ambition. They are only lacking two things. The first is infrastructure, but this could come with time and effort, and a little initial assistance and training. The second is stability and peace. This one is obviously much harder. The people here will never succeed if conflict continually requires them to flee from their homes, and if fighting continues to have them live in fear. I hope that one day they will see peace in this area. The opportunity here is amazing!

We’ll be leaving here shortly for the long trip back. First, we will visit with our host in a park in Rwanda (just across the lake). Then we will go by taxi for 3 hours to the Kigali airport. Then off to Nairobi, Amsterdam, and finally home. This has been an amazing trip, and I thank you for letting me share it with you.

Arrival in Goma

2010-09-24T13:19:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Goma! We arrived here two days ago via the ECHO flight operated by the UN. Just as when we arrived, departing the Lubumbashi airport is an experience. The taxi dropped us off at the door, and there was a huge pushing mob out front, and one policeman at the door that was attempting to control the flow of people inside. He was stopping people randomly, and then pushing some out of the way. We finally all made it inside, waiting for 30 minutes of complete confusion at the check in location, then off to wait for the flight. Then there was another issue of some sort, so back through the front door of the airport. This time, the crowd outside was mostly gone, except for the fight that broke out at the front door just as we approached. A quick step back avoided the punch that missed the first guy, and almost nailed me, but all is well. The punch thrower has poor aim, and missed everyone! The police officer took care of that, and we made it in quickly. Suddenly, a whole new scene – all is peaceful, everyone is standing neatly in lines, no one is yelling. We go to the location directed, only to find out that there really isn’t a problem, and we are sent back to wait.

Not sure how flight announcements are made, but all of a sudden, there was the run to the plane, across the tarmac with our bags. Quite amusing…. Security consists of someone checking the tag on your bag, and then asking you to throw it onto the plan. Then as you board, someone waves a wand around your body, and if it beeps, the person asks what it could be from. Apparently, any logical answer suffices, and everyone is allowed on board. The prop plane had 28 seats, and probably could have held three to four more rows, but the back was closed off to store cargo. Once everyone was on board, we started off. We’re asked to read the brochure about the flight, so I take a look at it. It states proudly on the front cover, that the plane has had zero accidents and only 200 emergency evacuations! What a record! I didn’t know whether to be comforted or worried.

The plane has 3 stops along the way before Goma. The first is on a dirt runway in the middle of nowhere. I believe the village is called Moba. The entire village turned out to meet us, and I think they were all trying to help unload the plane. Luckily, a few things were left on, namely our suitcases, and we took off again, this time for Kalemie. This airport was larger and had a concrete runway (what was left of it). The airstrip is at the end of Lake Tanganyika, so as you approach, it looks like you are going to land on the lake. Got me thinking about the 200 emergency evacuations. As we got lower and lower, with only water in view, I wondered if we were going to make it 201.

After discharging a few passengers, and picking up a few more, we took off again. This time, we landed in Bukavu. This is again a fairly large airstrip, with a good runway, at the other end of Lake Tanganyika. The thing you notice about this airstrip is the tanks and gun emplacements alongside the runway. Obviously, things have not always been great here.

Finally, we were off again, and landed 15 minutes later in Goma. We collected bags, and headed into clear customs again. We don’t quite get this, as we never left the country, but apparently, everyone clears every time they come to an airport. As we left the airport, the first thing you notice is the big volcano just outside of town, and all the lava rock piled up next to the streets. Mt. Nyiragongo erupted in 2002, and covered a portion of the city of Goma in lava. In other areas, it blew stone and ash, covering parts of the city. The volcano is still active, but it looks quiet now.

The hotel is very nice. It looks like it was once some type of resort area. It sits right on the shores of Lake Kivu. It is in beautiful surroundings! We’re told before all the conflict, that Goma had many tourist areas. It is surrounded by National Parks, and people once visited them on safari. Unfortunately, 20 years of conflict have looted many of the buildings here, and has destroyed large areas of the parks and much of the wildlife. It’s really sad, as this is truly a beautiful area of the country. You can easily see how it could attract thousands of tourists.

We’ve spent the last two days visiting schools, nutrition clinics, and safe places for children. More about that in a post tomorrow.

Last day in Lubumbashi

2010-09-21T13:46:00.001-07:00

Today is our last day in Lubumbashi. In the morning, we fly to Goma for a few days of meetings there. Quick update on some of our activities the last few days.

Over the last few days, we’ve visited a few sewing training centers and some maternity clinics, in addition to our office meetings. At the sewing centers, we met some amazing women. In one of them, all the women had formerly been prostitutes. Through various means, they all managed to find help through a local program, and then received some sewing machines and sewing training. They now make enough money making garments and other tailoring for the local community that they can fully support their families and send their children to school. They talked with us about the changes in their lives and their dreams for the future. Right now, they are using a room in a community training center for people with disabilities. While that has helped them get on their feet, they are currently saving to build a center of their own.

In another, we again met a group of women that had been unable to care for their families. They also received some sewing machines and some training. Over time, they have been able to save money from selling their products to build a small house in which to do their sewing. You should have seen how proud they were of this small brick building. They told us how they made the bricks and built the house all by themselves with their own hands. Their next step is to find out how to get the community leaders to bring electricity to the area so that they can use electric instead of manual sewing machines. As with other groups, we asked them many questions about their work and their lives, then at the end, we always ask if they have any questions for us. This group asked one question. They asked us to share best practices on how women in our communities at home in the US come together to help one another and their community. They wanted to learn what we do so that they could do more to help not only their own families, but their community as a whole.

Now this is a great question. And sadly, one I found hard to answer for two reasons. First, our cultures are very different, so things we may do, may not be appropriate for this group of women. But secondly, because I could not think of one thing that the women in my community do regularly and collectively to give back to our communities and to improve them. Obviously, we do things in our schools and churches. We pray together, volunteer for various organizations, etc. It’s not as if we are disinterested or as if we do nothing. But their real question was, “How do you and the women you live closest to, come together daily to support the others in your neighborhood?” And the answer is, “well, I see my neighbor occasionally, and wave, right before one of us closes our garage door.” I think we need to learn something from these women.

So how did I answer the question? Well with an example of a wonderful group of women Caregivers in Zambia that had started with sewing, and then bee-keeping, and then small vegetable farming, and were now reinvesting enough in their communities to send about 80 orphans to boarding school each year. They saw that as a challenge, and started immediately talking amongst themselves. The name of this sewing center is the “Courage Sewing Center”. I think they have the courage to set big goals like that. If I am ever able to visit them again, I think we’ll see them be a huge force in changing their entire communities.

We also have visited some maternity clinics in several of the locations we’ve been. These clinics are typically small 4 – 6 room buildings with nearly nothing inside. In the first one we visited, two doctors showed us the operating room where they do Cesareans. We had a bit of a language barrier, but if I understood right, they do 100 or so operations a month here. I saw no anesthetic equipment, no drugs, no antiseptic equipment, but the doctors were very proud of their operating room. They are definitely wonderful, caring people, but I can’t imagine working in conditions like that. We also asked about sterilization, and were assured that after we had walked in the room, it would be sterilized. The room was definitely clean, but you could see right outside the door the stains on the floor, doors and walls. Clearly, not every operation goes well.

In another clinic, we met with a wonderful nurse who runs a clinic that handles 70 to 80 births a month. On this particular day, the pharmacy was running low, so no painkillers for any mother in the clinic. There was a room for admittance, one for delivery, another for recovery, and then another ward for women to stay 3 or so days after giving birth. They had many women come this week, so they were staying two to a bed, along with their newborns. Imagine two women on a twin bed with a very thin mattress, one facing one way, and the other the opposite, their newborns right beside them. In one case, the bed was also shared by another one of the women’s children, a boy maybe 1 ½ years old. And this is probably one of the better equipped locations.

After our visits and meetings, we began the long drive back to Lubumbashi. It took about 7 ½ hours, same story as told in the prior post – lots of dust and very bad roads. On the way back, we saw several overturned trucks, really emphasizing how dangerous the travel here is. It looked like the trucks were travelling too close to the edge, and one of the wheels slipped down the soft side, turning the truck onto its side on the side of the road. We asked our host how they get assistance, and he said it basically takes a long time. There are no tow trucks, but eventually, the truck gets righted somehow, fixed, and back on it’s journey. Hard to believe, because in some cases the container on the truck had burst open. In another, the axles had separated from the trailer. I think some of these will be there for years. Luckily only one very bad one. Looked like two trucks had hit each other head on and burned on the side of the road. I was very thankful to get back to Lubumbashi that evening!

Along the drive, our host told us a little more about his family. He is one of 11 children, and all of them completed secondary school. 7 or 8 of them completed college. All on a small village school teacher’s salary. We thought that was amazing for any culture, let alone rural Africa. He then told us his father’s story. When our host’s father was young, his father (host’s grandfather) would not allow him to go to school. He did not believe it was necessary. After some years, some missionaries came to the village, and his mother asked them to take the boy to school. The story from there is a little long, but let’s just say the father was not happy, and would not send the boy to school. The mother told the boy to hide, and when the father found out, he burned the place where the boy was hiding and tried to kill him. The boy eventually escaped with the missionaries, and the father had to come to terms with this. That boy didn’t start primary school until he was 13 or 14 years old, and after 6 years, became a teacher, later married, and had 11 children, one of whom is our host. Talk about learning the value of education and pursuing at all costs! And picture the legacy that the grandmother has given by helping her son get to school. Not only was her son educated, but the importance she placed on education influenced the lives of her son’s 11 children, and now their children.

Tonight, our host invited us for dinner to meet his family. We had a wonderful dinner, and were very thankful for a home-cooked meal. During the dinner, he talked about how he and his wife have also taken in 3 of their nephews, and all three are now going to university. The grandmother’s legacy lives on. And these are not wealthy people, but hardworking, and very smart with the lessons they teach their children and the direction they put in their lives.

Enough for now. I’ll post about the Goma trip in a few days.

Church service

2010-09-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

Since the last post, we’ve traveled to Likasi and Kolwezi areas. Likasi is about 120km from Lubumbashi and Kolwezi is about 300 miles from Lubumbashi. Both towns were started by the mining industry. Unfortunately, many of the mines in DRC either reduced operations or closed completely in the last 10 to 20 years, leaving the people with no jobs. You can see how things have deteriorated in the last several years. I think Kolwezi is doing better now than Likasi, but both clearly have seen better days.

We’ve not had time to visit in the communities much, as to drive here has taken quite a while. It took about 2 ½ hours to drive the first 120km (75miles), and about 4 ½ hours to drive the next 180km (about 112 miles). The first part of the drive wasn’t too bad – mostly pavement, but the 180km drive was nearly all dirt roads. It hasn’t rained since May here, so after 4 – 5 months, you can imagine how dusty the dirt roads are. In some areas, the dust had blown and drifted a bit, resulting in about 6 or so inches of powdery dust on top of the harder packed surface. Driving in 6 inches of dust creates the same kind of slipping / sliding that you get when you drive in that much mud. A few times, I thought we were going to have to get out and push, but it all worked out fine.
The homes here are mostly made from clay bricks or cement, with metal roofs. I think I’ve seen only one or two mud huts with thatch roofs. We’re told that when the mines were operating, people were well paid, and could afford to buy land and build the homes. The larger mining towns are well-laid out, with wide streets and street lights. In Kolwezi, the lights work! Saw another variation on a round-a-bout today. This time, three roads came together, and in the middle of the intersection sat a large truck tire. This was the round-a-bout. You simply had to go around the tire, just as you would a circular grassy area in a traditional round-a-bout at home. I actually think this may be a great money saving opportunity. Perhaps we should consider this at home. Think about it, one tire instead of a few hundred thousand to build an island. And if we went to all truck-tire round-a-bouts, think of all the money we could save on stop lights, fights about red-light cameras, etc. OK, maybe not every idea is a good one….

The restaurants here are interesting too. Last night we went to one just outside of town. I was beginning to think we were lost, as our host headed outside of town, and then turned onto a dirt “road” off the side. No street lights, no house lights, nothing. We drove for a little bit, and then off to the right was the brightly lit restaurant. Literally in the middle of nowhere! We had a great meal, but you wonder why they would choose to build it so far away from everything with no signs. Can’t even see it from the road.

Then today after church, we went to another one, this one further out from the one above. This one included a hotel. Again, it was way off the road, but the owners told us that they are frequently completely full, mostly with people from the mines. During our lunch, we saw people from China, India, Pakistan, and England (guessing by language and accents). Again, just seems out of place, but fascinating to find people from so many different places in such a remote place.

Last thing for today – church service. Let’s see…. Where to start. First of all, there is nothing like an African church service. Very long, with lots of singing and dancing. Second, there was nothing like this one. The music was so loud, I think some of my internal organs actually vibrated to new places. When I got back to the hotel, I’ve sat in complete silence for about 3 hours, as I don’t think I could have heard anything anyway. They had guest groups singing and dancing, people dancing in the aisles, shouting prayers throughout the service. At one point, I think we had about 3 different songs happening all with different beats. Quite confusing, and more so because it was all in either French or Swahili (depending on who was shouting). The service actually started at 7:30 in the morning. From 7:30 to 9:00 is a prayer time. We joined at 9:00 for the formal service, and that ended at 12:30. Nothing like being shouted at in French and Swahili for 3 ½ hours! It was fascinating, but I think I’ll be glad to go home and go to a slightly quieter service.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll visit some communities, and then begin the long drive back to Lubumbashi. I’m guessing it will take 7 to 8 hours to drive the 300km (about 190 miles) back. Hopefully there won’t be too many trucks, so we can keep the windows down. There is no A/C or fan in the truck, so manual a/c it is! But when there are other trucks or cars on the road, or when the wind picks up, it turns the area into a huge dust cloud and the windows have to be closed. The dust cloud is so thick, you can hardly see. This is dangerous as there are many pedestrians and bicyclists along the road, and they don’t always watch for the cars.

More to follow tomorrow!

Ferris Wheels

2010-09-16T23:14:00.001-07:00

Thought I’d give you a quick update on our travels for the last two days. We’ve spent time meeting with government officials and learning about the customs clearance process here. They have quite an involved process, but everyone seems to be working quite well together. The officials we met were all very welcoming and very friendly.

The customs clearance area is quite amazing. Trucks everywhere! They have to stay at the agent until all the appropriate processes are completed, so drivers may need to stay two or three days with their trucks.

Yesterday, we ventured out to a community about 35km from Lubumbashi. This is really our first trip outside of about a 3 mile radius. I’ll tell you more about who we met with in the next post, but a few general observations quickly today before I lose my internet connection.

First, they seem to drive here generally according to general rules of the road. That said, I can’t figure out the placement of stop signs and stop lights. People obey them, but they seem to be placed at non-busy intersections. At busy intersections, they have either a ½ roundabout – it’s a roundabout on one side and straight on the other – very confusing. Or they have a policeman who stands on a box in the middle of the intersection directing traffic. He has a whistle, that he blows seemingly continuously, and he waves his arms a lot. The first time I saw this, the policeman seemed to be pinwheeling his arms. I thought maybe he was about to fall of his box, and he was trying to catch his balance. But in fact, he was directing traffic. Somehow everyone either knows what the pinwheeling means, or they are just ignoring him and somehow making it through the intersection.

Mining is a very big industry here, but with the financial crisis of the last few years, many of the mines have closed. This has left communities which were once doing fairly well, suffering. The community we visited yesterday is one of these. You can see evidence of well laid out streets, community parks, markets, etc., but much of that now is in disrepair. I did see one thing though that was very different. We were driving down a dirt road, when off to one side, we saw many buildings. Then we saw a diving board next to a swimming pool, basketball courts, and a ferris wheel. Can you imagine a ferris wheel and a swimming pool in the middle of what seems to be nowhere in the DRC? We asked about that, and were told the mining company wanted to make something fun for the children, so they built this entertainment complex. Although the mine is closed for now, the community has managed to keep this entertainment area open to some degree, and children can visit on the weekends.

One more thing – since I frequently post about the food we eat – lunch yesterday – antelope, goat, tilapia (comlete with head and skin), spinach, nshima, rice, and potatoes. Very good!

More later. May not have an internet connection for a few days, but will type up notes, and post when I can.

Day 2 in DRC

2010-09-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Spent today in the office on various work tasks, so not a lot to report. We did learn a bit about the country. DRC is about ¼ the size of the US, so it is a very big country. To go from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa, the capital city is over 3,000km or about 1800 miles. To go to the very northern part of the country would be even farther. The road system here outside the city is not very good. It is almost impossible to go from here to the west, east, or northern portions of the country by road. When your job is in logistics, it makes for an interesting puzzle to figure out how to get things from one area to another quickly, safely, and economically!

Other general observations – the roads here are much less crowded than other places I’ve been in Africa. People generally seem to follow the rules of the road. I actually saw people stop for traffic lights, stop signs, AND pedestrians today. That is really unusual, but definitely comforting. Some places, just riding a mile in a car on the roads can be extremely exciting, and not in a good way. We’ve only seen the area from the airport to our hotel, and then it’s only about 2 miles from here to the office, so our exposure so far has been very short. The weather here has been very cool. This morning, we spent about an hour outside in a tent for our first meeting, and I was actually wishing I’d brought my sweater! I’ve never been cold here before. We’re told the weather is unusually cold. I can only imagine if I’m chilly, what the local folks must feel!

More to follow tomorrow!

Arrival in DRC

2010-09-12T05:13:00.001-07:00

Arrived in Democratic Republic of Congo today. What a long trip! 21 or so hours of flying and 11 hours of layovers. I am glad this is supposed to be my last international trip this year. I’ve really added up the frequent flyer miles!

The arrival at DRC was interesting. Plane lands, they roll up the stairs, and you exit the plane onto the air-field. Everyone then heads towards the airport building to clear customs and collect bags. Normally, when you exit the plan outside, there are people to guide you, and they force you to stay in a single path, and to go to a specific area. Here, people just disburse all directions. Makes it a little hard to figure out what you are supposed to do.

As we walk up to the building, we immediately find a person holding a sign with our names on it. This is the customs building, so we assume he will walk with us through customs and out the door. Instead, he directs us to leave the building, and we go to a small lounge in a building next door. We meet our host, and after many questions, finally figure out that the first person is an agent they’ve had to hire to help visitors get through customs and collect their bags. We surrender our passports and bag tickets, and the agent leaves. About 1 ½ hours later, he returns with our bags and our passports and we’re allowed to leave.

We were told they started using the agent as the officials in the airport were causing problems for some foreigners. While the agent charges a fee, the entry process is much safer for us, and also much less stressful. Bottom line is we were able to enter, and there were no issues with our bags.

When you arrive, the first thing you notice is the dust. This is the end of the dry season, so there is dust everywhere. It is also very flat in this area. I’m not sure where we are in the town, but so far I’ve not seen the type of village center I’ve seen in other larger cities in Africa. I’m sure it’s just because we haven’t gone that way yet.

DRC is a French speaking country. I speak no French, so ordering a bottle of water today at the hotel was an adventure. The nice gentleman in the restaurant figured it out, and has decided I need to learn some French words. He gave me several words (bottle of water, receipt, sign), and I had to repeat back. We’ll see what I learn in 4 days. Hopefully dinner will be less of an event.

Not much else today, just sit in my room, rest, and get ready for the work week ahead. The room is nice – it has hot water, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and internet. I’m set!

Last thoughts about Mongolia

2010-03-21T01:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Seoul / Inchon airport in South Korea! Early start to today with a pickup from the hotel at 6:30 to head to the airport. I think my brain was still asleep though. Managed to leave my coat at the security check-point, and didn’t even notice for 30 to 45 minutes. Luckily, I figured it out before I boarded the flight! By that time, I had already gone through the customs exit process, and had to convince the customs and security authorities to let me back through to get it. That was quite amusing as I speak 2 words of Mongolian (hello and thank you), and they had 10 words of English, which is 5 times better than my Mongolian. It worked out though, and my coat was still there, so all is well. On the way to Mongolia, my travelling companions laughed at me a bit for bringing a gym bag just to put my coat in so that I wouldn’t leave it somewhere. Figured I’d remember a bag, and sure enough I was right! Except my coat wasn’t in it yet this morning….

In the Mongolian airport, no signs or announcements are made in English. That made figuring out the boarding process a bit difficult, as they actually have more than one gate, but none with number or letter markings. Our plane to Seoul, and a plane to Moscow were leaving at the same time. A few of us non-Mongolian speaking folks tried to board at the wrong time, but luckily, they look at our boarding passes very closely, so I am typing this from Seoul, and not from Moscow now.

A few last interesting things about Mongolia.
· The country was occupied by the Soviet Union for 50 or 60 years, and their influence is very obvious in the writing style, style of buildings, and even the sound of the language. Original Mongolian writing looks more like Arabic in it’s flow, except it flows from the top of the page to the bottom in columns (from left to right), instead of in rows from right to left. Now it uses Cyrillic characters, and we’re told that some Mongolians can no longer write or read the old script. The buildings are also very square, and you don’t see many with the more oriental flair, like is everywhere in Korea, Japan, and I imagine China. I thought the language would sound more like Chinese, or one of the other Asian languages, but it sounds very Russian. Children learn Russian in school, along with Mongolian, and English is becoming more common in some areas.
· Another interesting result from being part of the Soviet Union is the number of women in administrative and management positions. I don’t understand all the reasons for this, but we’re told that due to the communist economic system, women and men made the same salaries for the same jobs. Men tended to work in factories and outdoors. Women worked in administrative and management positions in businesses. As a result, focus on education for girls was greater than for boys. Today, more girls go to school than boys in the country, and women hold more jobs. In our office, about 80% of the staff is female. This may be the only country in the world where advocacy for education for boys is required more than for girls!

I’m sure there are dozens more things I could share. We saw so many things, and learned much about the people, culture, and history of the country, in addition to all the work stuff we learned. Mongolia is a very interesting place. The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. The countryside is beautiful, and probably is even more so in the summer time when everything is green. The history is very interesting as well. Yet it is also a harsh place. People live in incredibly harsh conditions and have limited access to work, health care, and in some places education. The herding families must send their children to live in dormitories in the nearest city or to live with relatives so that they can attend school. Health care is limited in the main city, and even more so in rural locations. The environment itself is harsh. Incredibly cold, dry winters, with temperatures as low as –50F or below. Summers in some rural areas where we’re told that it can get as high as 120F. Blowing drifting snow in winter, and blowing sand and dust in summer. All that said, people here love their country, and want to improve the industrial base, education, health care, etc. And they welcome outsiders and love to show them their way of life.
Now it’s off to Melbourne, Australia for several days of meetings. More in a few days!

Last day in Mongolia

2010-03-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

It’s my last full day in Mongolia! It’s been a great trip, but will be good to go somewhere warm. Today we went sight-seeing again. First, lunch at a small hostel called the Oasis. The owners have set up a few gers and built a small guest house that caters to people coming to Mongolia for biking, hiking, fishing, and other outdoor excursions. There were people there, even now when it is so cold.

Next, off to Bogd Khan’s Winter Palace. Bogd Khan was the emperor of Mongolia and spiritual leader of Mongolia’s Tibetan Buddhism from 1911 until 1924. The architecture of the palace reminded me a little of Japanese and Korean architecture, but not quite so ornate. Inside the various outbuildings were examples of Mongolian art including sculpting, painting, weaving, and other fabric work. Couldn’t take any pictures of the inside because they charged to be allowed to use a camera, and I was too cheap to pay what they were asking. I did get some pictures from outside the fence, and I’ll try to post those later.

Next we went to the Zaisan Memorial. This monument sits on top of a high hill on the outskirts of the city. It was built by Russia as a memorial to Russian soldiers that were killed in Mongolia fighting the Chinese during WWII. To reach the memorial, you have to climb some fairly steep stairs from the lot to the top. The climb doesn’t look that hard at first, but as you get closer to the top, your reminded that the city of UB sits about 4300ft above sea level, and your climbing several hundred feet up! Inside are paintings showing the friendship between Russia and Mongolia (from the Russian perspective). You also have a beautiful view of all of UB and the surrounding mountains. Today was a beautiful clear day. The temperature dropped last night, and the wind and snow picked up through the morning. When the snow stopped, the sun came out, and the wind had blown all the smoke away (smoke from the ger fires). What a beautiful place!

Just down the road from the monument, past the President’s palace, is the UB Ski Park. They have three runs on manufactured snow. I think our local skiers would laugh at the “black run”, but it is very popular here. We saw many families at the sight, which was surprising because people here don’t make much money, even in the city. We asked about cost, and for a middle class family, it is affordable. A family of 4 can rent skis and boots, get lift passes (a quad lift, amazingly enough), and have a meal in the restaurant for under $80USD. They also have a great sledding area, complete with a lift back to the top of the sledding hill. I thought sledding for a while would be fun, but I couldn’t convince my hosts that we should do that. Then I found out they do not rent sleds.

So, back in the car, and our host decides we should see what it is like to go off-roading in Mongolia. Now keep in mind, there is about 6 inches of snow, and much deeper drifts. He heads off, and finds a track that someone has been on before. We drive up a very big hill (more like a mountain) following this track, and end up at the Mongolian Astronomical and Geothermal Institute. We couldn’t go into any of the buildings, but it’s amazing what you can find in the mountains while off-roading.
We managed to get back down the mountain on the ice and snow, and then time to go back to the hotel to finish packing and get ready to fly out to Australia tomorrow. In my next post, I’ll share a few other observations of Mongolia (food, driving, people, etc.). Thanks for travelling with me!

Amusing observations

2010-03-17T05:10:00.001-07:00

Spent today in the office, so not much to tell about our day. Instead, I’ll share some other observations about Mongolia.

First important bit of info – pizza toppings – clearly something everyone needs to know about before travelling somewhere. They’re a little different here. Today we had pizza with mushrooms, peppers, pickles, and corn. Our other choice was pizza with lamb, bacon, peppers, and pickles, or chicken and artichokes (we think). Takes a bit of work to enjoy this, at least for me, but apparently locals enjoy these combinations.

Second important fact – telephone poles – Due to the harsh weather, wooden telephone / electricity poles rot when they are mounted in the ground. To prevent this, they have built concrete pads with a concrete pole that extends upward about six feet. The wooden pole is then banded to the concrete pole, with the base of the wood pole being about 2 feet above the ground. The wires are then strung to the wood pole, just like in the US. It works, but it does look a little funny as you’re driving to see mile after mile of concrete poles with wooden poles strapped to them.

Third key input – Rest Areas when travelling – or maybe I should say lack of rest areas. For those of you who dislike TMI, please skip to the next point. Our trip earlier this week was just under 5 hours. Along the way, we needed to make a pit stop. While there are gas stations in the middle of nowhere (got to wonder how they picked some of these spots, as there is nothing else around), there are no indoor toilets. We stopped in front of one of these stations, and were directed to a small shack about 200 meters behind the station. So off we go across the snowy field (about 6 or so inches deep, deeper in the drifts). The shack has only three sides, but luckily the open side is not facing the roadway. It’s poorly constructed, with large gaps between the boards. Inside, there are two boards balanced across an open pit. You can guess what’s in the pit. So, if you’re female, the only way to manage this, is to move inside of the three sided shack, put one foot on each board balanced over the open pit, drop the pants and hope everything comes out quick enough that you don’t get frostbite on your backside. As you’re trying to hurry, you wonder what happens if you drop the toilet paper into the pit, or your gloves, or scarf. Or, what if one of the herders decides to wander on the hillside overlooking the shack at this time. Do you wave? You wonder about the freezing point of bodily fluids (Mythbusters?). After all, it’s about –10F, plus the windchill. You have to admit this is pretty funny, even if it’s too much information.

And the last entertaining point of the day – the ski resort. Just outside of Ulaan Baatar, there is a ski resort. We were told that it actually has to make snow as there isn’t enough naturally here for skiing. Worse yet, they sometimes have trouble making the snow because it is too cold. I find that amusing too!
Thanks for letting me share my trip with you. Only 3 more full days in Mongolia, and then off to Australia! More tomorrow.

Field Trip

2010-03-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

So much to tell about the last two days! We travelled to a town about 5 hours east of here. As soon as you get about 15 minutes outside of town, you realize just how remote most of Mongolia is. Mile after mile of road, with no visible buildings, people, or animals. It’s a beautiful country in winter, and must be even more beautiful in summer when everything is green, instead of covered in snow. Along the way, you occasionally see a structure, or grazing animals (cattle, sheep, camels), and only a few other cars on the road. We did see two gentlemen on motorbikes, and decided they were the two bravest people in Mongolia. Temperature is about 0F, and there is still ice and snow on the roads!

When we reached the town, we were greeted at the entrance sign. It is a sign of welcome to greet people with milk tea at the entrance to your city. The team was waiting for us, and we all hopped out of the van, had our greeting by a person in full Mongolian dress, drank our sip of milk tea, and then returned to the van to continue into the town. After working in the office for a bit, we toured two schools. The students are all very well behaved, and very excited to meet visitors. The first school was for students 1st to 8th grade, and the second was a high school. Schools here are brightly colored and have a reasonable amount of resources for learning. Students learned all the normal subjects, and for the older students, classes in Russian, English, and German were available.

The arts are also very important here. Mongolians are very proud of their music, dance and art, and these things are taught in the schools. In both schools, students put on a presentation of what they learned. They played instruments, danced, and sang. They are all incredibly talented! One student played the traditional instrument called a matouqin or morinkohr (played with a bow on two strings). He did a wonderful job, and when he was finished, our hosts told us he is deaf. This instrument is not easy to play in tune, yet every pitch was exactly right! In each activity, whether dancing, singing or playing instruments, the music always reflects the importance of the horse in Mongolian life. From the music or dance, you get a mental picture of the Mongolians riding their horses across the open landscape. Each piece is performed in full, colorful dress as well. Students at both schools are incredibly talented!

Monday night, we stayed in a small hotel in town. Mostly cold water, no shower, but a nice bed and heat, so all was well. I do have to say that washing your face with cold water in Mongolia is a bit different than washing your face with cold water in Africa. That water here is REALLY cold!

Today we spent more time doing our office work and checks, and then we visited a herding family just outside the village. This is the family of one of our local co-workers. They live in a ger, with additional wooden structures to house their lifestock to try to protect them from the elements. This year is so cold and snowy that country-wide nearly 60% of the livestock have died. For this family alone, their herd has gone from 90 cows to 40 cows this winter. They are hoping they don’t lose any more. The weather is absolutely devastating to these people.

The herders move three times per year to allow their livestock to graze in different areas. They leave the animal structures behind, but pack up the ger and haul it to the next location. We’re told it takes about one hour to tear one down, and another hour to set it back up in its new location. The ger and household goods used to be transported by horse drawn cart, but now they are frequently transported by car or by car and trailer.

There are many customs for entering a ger. You always enter with your right foot first, then move clockwise into the ger (it’s a circular structure). You can sit on the left or right, but not at the head where the most senior member of the family sits. The stove sits in the middle of the ger. They burn many things in the stove as fuel. Today’s fuel was cow dung. I figured it would smell, but there was no odor inside the ger.

Our hosts were a woman from the office, her son and father, and her mother. Her mom was 88 years old. Mom had 12 children, all of whom are professionals. She says she has over 40 grandchildren, and doesn’t know how many great-grandchildren. The language barrier kept us from asking too many questions, but I can only imagine the stories she could tell!

For lunch we had steamed dumplings with meat (unsure what kind, but was probably either beef or horse), sour yogurt, curdled and dried milkfat, hard lard (incredibly hard), and some type of noodle dish, all washed down with milk tea. The milk-based items are made in the fall, and then kept and used all winter. They said the yogurt was made in August, and then is served until spring. I guess in such low temperatures, nothing spoils, so we ate it. For our western palates, we had to add some sugar to the yogurt, as it was a bit sour. After you finish your bowl of yogurt, it is customary to lick the inside of the bowl to clean it. I thought of all the kids at home that try this and get yelled at for bad manners. I finally found a place where it is good manners to literally lick your bowl clean!

More to share on our short field trip tomorrow!

Sunday in Mongolia

2010-03-14T16:41:00.001-07:00

Today is Sunday. We had a relaxing morning at the hotel, and then our hosts picked us up for an afternoon out. For lunch, we went to an Indian / Mexican restaurant. Never thought I’d have enchiladas in Mongolia! Then off to the cashmere factory. We weren’t able to see the factory, but did visit the store outside. They use cashmere for everything – dresses, skirts, coats, sweaters, gloves, scarves, hats. The quality varies a bit, but I would imagine a scarf they sell here for about $20 USD would be well over $150 in the US. It is made of goat or camel hair. I wish I could see the manufacturing process. I would imagine it is very interesting!

At the end of the day, we went to church. Our hosts go to a multi-national church, so the service is in English. We worshiped with people from Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, US, England, Australia, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Nepal, Cambodia, Philippines, and I’m sure other nations as well. Imagine all those accents in one place singing worship music! What a wonderful sound! The band was very good too. Female drummer AND bass player in the band! Then back to the hotel for a quiet evening.

A few other observations about Mongolia. Did I mention it’s cold here? Not as cold as I thought here in the city, but still daytime highs only in the 0 to 10F range. When the sun comes out, it probably gets up as high as 20F. The wind can be quite strong, making it feel a bit colder. There isn’t actually much snow here. I pictured feet of snow, but at least near the city, it’s more like inches, and we’re told that this is a lot of snow. It is simply too dry here to snow much.

The city is surrounded on three sides by mountains. When you go out from the city and get into the mountain area, you find that there are also very interesting rock formations where it looks like someone just dumped a huge pile of rocks in the middle of a field. Apparently, millions of years ago, this area was under water, so the rock formations probably have something to do with that. When we drove to the statue yesterday, we also went through a very sandy area – in the mountains. Seems odd, but if the area were originally under water, I guess it makes sense.

In the city, even though it is so cold, you can hear birds in the morning. Can you imagine how strong that bird must be? The animals here all have very long fur, even the horses and cows. For the people, heat is piped in from the central power plant. On the outskirts of the city, these pipes are above ground. At some point, they are buried, and heat is brought to the businesses and apartments. If you are an individual, it appears you are on your own to burn whatever you can find. Most try to bring in coal (low grade) or wood, but they’ll also burn tires, or anything else that they find. That can make the air here a bit hard to breathe sometimes.
Tomorrow, we’re going about 400km east of the city. We were told to dress warm and at one point were asked if we have sleeping bags. I’m hoping that’s not a bad sign, as we did not bring them. I’m sure they’ll outfit us with something if we really need them. No post for the next day or so, as we were told not to expect much in the way of service. So, I have my coat, my long underwear, and my bottle of water, and off we go!

Two days in the countryside

2010-03-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

On Friday, we had a good trip to visit families and schools just outside of Ulaan Bataar. The countryside is very open. Mountains, cattle, horses, sheep, and a few homes dotting the countryside. The towns are small, and a mixture of the traditional ger and brick, wood, and cement homes. The homes look well constructed, but have been poorly maintained. The family we visited lived in a ger. The woman lost her husband a few years ago to a mining accident, shortly before her second child was born. She makes about $1 per day, and barely survives on that income. Her story is apparently common, as mining is the top industry in the country (second is cashmere production). The mines are unsafe, and there are many accidents each year.

We weren’t able to take pictures inside this ger, but hopefully I’ll be able to visit another later in the visit. The ger is a circular construction of fabric, felt, and wood. They usually lay something like linoleum or wood on the floor, and decorate the walls with heavy, colorful fabric. A small stove sits in the middle of the ger, and it is used for heating and for cooking. There is a small table near the door entrance used to store dishes and cooking items, then a bed, a play or storage area, another bed, and then another storage area. Apparently, all gers are organized in about the same way. To get into the ger, there is a door that stands about 3 ½ feet high. You stoop way down, come in, and then you can stand upright.

After the family visit, we went to a school. The school is new to the town, and is using new learning styles, which are a bit more like western teaching styles. Most schools in Mongolia still use Russian teaching styles that are a bit less participative. In this school, the children were very engaged, and all seemed to love learning. The teachers are doing a great job, and the school has received recognition from many locations for the great job they are doing. These kids did not have a school at all until a few years ago. The town it is in, is very poor, and the kids had nowhere to go. Now the school gives them a place to learn and to grow. They say songs, and one even recited a short story they had learned in English. He was clearly proud of what he had learned. The story went like this: “I am a mouse. You are a cat. One, two, three, four. You can’t catch me cat!” Short but sweet. This is actually quite a hard set of sentences for the child, as it contains many sounds that are very hard for Mongolians to make. On the flip side, I can’t even say thank you right, as I can’t get my mouth to make some of the sounds that are a key part of their language!

Today, we had the day off, and our hosts took us to the countryside to see the Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex. This is about 60 minutes from the city, in the area where Ghengis Khan was born. The complex’s focal point is a 40 meter statue of Ghengis Khan riding a horse. It’s made of stainless steel and weighs about 250 tons. The base of the statue is an exhibit hall, but the complex is still very new, so there is not much to see in the museum portion. You then take an elevator, and then some very narrow stairs up into the statue, coming out at the horse’s neck. The head of the horse is actually an observation deck where you can view the surrounding countryside.

I would imagine this is a beautiful view on a clear day, but today was very cloudy. Just before we arrived at the site, it began to snow. The good news is, that when it’s snowing, it’s a bit warmer! By the time we got up to the observation deck, the clouds had descended, and you couldn’t see a lot.

We left the Chinggis Khan statue, and then went into one of the national parks for lunch. The national park has a series of family camps where people can stay year round. Amazingly, they had people staying in the one we went to for lunch. By this time, it was snowing pretty heavily, and becoming nearly a white out. Go the truck stuck on the way, but was able to push it out, and then help some other motorists who found themselves in the same predicament. Lunch was great, and we hoped the weather would clear a bit, but it was not to be. So we started back, thankful that other motorists before us had found the road, and we could follow their tire tracks through the snow. Eventually, we made it back to the “highway”, and started back to the city, stopping now and then to get the ice off the windshield wipers.
We had a great day today. Tomorrow, we’ll do a few more things in the city, but no more countryside excursions in the snow. One last thing – tried to post those videos of the cultural event, but I can’t seem to get that function to work. Just too slow! I’ll try again tomorrow and see what happens. More then!

Cultural Event

2010-03-11T15:51:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful evening at our cultural event. Several local groups put on performances of local music and dance. The first groups demonstrated several different types of native singing styles. For our western ears, some of them are a bit hard to listen to, but I can’t imagine how I could get my voice to do that! One of them was the Mongolian style of throat singing. I need to do some reading on this, but it basically uses the throat to make two different pitches at once. The gentleman that did this performed about a three minute song using this technique. It’s a very unique sound. I’ll try to post a video of it another day. They also had a musical group playing local stringed instruments and horns. They were wonderful.

Next we had the children’s group perform. This group has apparently toured to other countries and won awards. They are all very good singers, and performed wonderfully. Their songs were more modern, and they sang in both Mongolian and English. One of their selections was a Christmas medley. Never thought here Santa Claus is Coming to Town, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Jingle Bells in March in Mongolia! Tow of the boys sang solos as well, one of them an operatic piece. I doubt he was more than 10 or 12 years old, and has a huge voice for a kid so young!

The kids performed several pieces, along with the adult groups. They also had a contortionist perform. This is also a local art form. The way she could bend and contort her body made it hard to know what direction she was actually facing!

After the show, we went to a local Korean restaurant for dinner. Great food and good fellowship, getting to know all of our hosts better. The team here is made of people from all around the world. At our table, we had people from Mongolia, UK, Nepal, Nigeria, US, Australia, Cambodia, and China. Makes for very good conversation.
Next is our first trip to the countryside. Our understanding is that it is even colder there, so it’s time to pull out all the really warm things. I imagine we will have a very interesting day!

Day 1

2010-03-10T05:51:00.001-08:00

First full day in Mongolia. Lots of work meetings today, and not much time to see anything but the office and the hotel. You do notice two things immediately here. First, while it is very cold, it is not as cold here as I expected, nor is there as much snow. Later this week and early next week, we will spend some time away from the capital city, and my understanding is it is much colder there. Here in the city, the temperature is probably in the high teens. While that’s cold, not nearly as bad as I thought. Second, you notice the haze in the air from smoke. The smoke is from the ger fires. A “ger” is the house the herders live in here. To stay warm, they burn anything they can find in the ger, and that creates an incredible smoking haze in the city.

It is a bit funny though the temperature in the buildings here. The heat is through radiator coils that are set at some central point. I think my hotel room is about 90 degrees. I’m hoping they can figure out how to turn it down, or the window is going to have to open!
Tomorrow, more office things, and then we are to attend a “cultural activity”. Will tell you about it then.

Departing for Mongolia

2010-03-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

Greetings from 34,000 ft above the Pacific Ocean. We’re on the first leg of the long flight to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. I don’t normally blog about the start of the trip, but I met a fascinating lady on the journey to the airport, and thought I’d share.

On the journey here, I met Mary on the shuttle van. I’m not very good about striking up conversations, but Mary is. She asked about where I was going and what I did for work. She then said she was going to Washington DC to receive a medal. After a little prompting, she started telling us about how she was a WASP in World War II. WASP stands for Woman Airforce Service Pilot. The WASPs are receiving the Congressional Gold Medal (she thinks that’s what it’s called) on Wednesday this week. This is in recognition of this unit’s service during the war. The WASPs were disbanded near the end of the war, and most folks don’t know much about them.

She said before she joined up, she taught ground school to Army pilots. After she joined, she continued to train pilots, and she also ferried aircraft around the country to wherever the Army needed the planes. She told us stories of how pilots at the various bases would jump up onto the wing to help the pilot out, and recognize her from her ground school instruction days. She says she no longer remembers how many pilots she trained, but that there were many.
She’s 88 now, and still has her commercial pilot’s license. A few years ago, her daughter did the test for instrument flight rules, and she was allowed to fly with her as her backup pilot. She told stories of flying through the Grand Canyon with her husband and of the many countries in which she’d lived and visited. The trip to the airport flew by, and when we got there, the shuttle van driver insisted I take his picture with her, as it’s not everyday that he gets to meet a medal winner. What an amazing lady! The ceremony is Wednesday somewhere in the Capital area. She couldn’t remember exactly where, but was very excited that her children would be able to join her. I plan to check it out as soon as I can access the internet.

Final Day in Zambia

2010-01-22T23:43:00.001-08:00

Last full day in Zambia. It’s been a great trip, but I am definitely ready to come home! Today we spend the morning visiting groups around the Lusaka area. We first went to a community near downtown. This area has many small homes clustered very closely together. No running water. No electricity. No school. We visited a church building where community members have come together to operate a school in the church building. This one large room with a few wooden benches, chalkboards propped up against the wall, and about 400 children, grades 1 to 7. Each grade is located in a different corner of the room. They do have staggered start times for the younger kids so that all 400 are not in the room at once. It is incredibly loud, no books in evidence, and you wonder how the kids can learn. The kids are all well behaved, and clearly listening, but with that number of people together in one large brick and concrete room, you can imagine how loud it is.

This school has to cart water from a well some distance from the school. They have a well right outside, but it is contaminated due to people in the community building pit latrines which have now polluted the water. Many of the kids have minimal food at home, so the school has implemented a feeding program. We’re told that sometimes this is the only meal they receive each day. The teachers and Caregivers sometimes have trouble getting the kids to eat, because they feel as if they should take the food home to their younger brothers and sisters.

We wondered how well the children learn in this environment. The leaders of the school informed us that they recently took 7th grade exams. In Zambia, students must take exams at the end of 7th grade to proceed to 8th. If they do not pass, they are not accepted to the 8th grade. At this school, 25 of 28 students passed the test, and the other three were so close to the score, that the government decided to grant them admission to the 8th grade. A 100% pass rate! Then we found out that all the teachers in this school are volunteers. No one receives any pay for teaching these children! The teachers are community members that went to a small training program for two years. It was unclear whether they actually received a formal certificate, but it doesn’t matter. They care about the kids, and are obviously dedicated to their success! And the children obviously see the value in education. We met one 7th grader who is head of household. His father left the family when he found out the mother had HIV. She is now very ill, so the boy takes care of his mom and his younger sister. He still attends school each day, and then goes to a job as a gardener each afternoon. He does receive help from one of the local volunteer Caregiver’s, but can you imagine a 7th grader managing all this?
Then back to the office, and the final meetings of the day. Great visit, good suggestions, and as always, more work ahead! It’s Saturday morning now, and we’ll be leaving the hotel in about an hour. Long flight home with two long layovers in Nairobi and London. Thank you for joining on this journey. Looks like the next one may be to Mongolia! Hope you’ll join me there!

Last day in the field

2010-01-21T11:52:00.000-08:00

Today was our last field day. We are now about 450km from the capital city of Lusaka. Solwezi is a small town, but very active. There are several mines near here, run by South Africans, all mining copper. They’re all open pit mines and absolutely huge!

Our day started by visiting two schools. One trained teachers, and the other was a high school for grades 10 to 12. We didn’t meet any of the teachers in training, but did get a chance to talk to several of the high school students. They are very well spoken, and clearly enjoy school, particularly science and math studies.

We then drove out quite far from the town, and visited a rural school. Unfortunately, due to road conditions, we were late, and only had a chance to talk to one student, the “library prefect”. He is the student in charge of all the books in the library. Here they also lend books out to the community. Again, the favorite subjects were science and math, followed closely by world history. Even within the community, these were the most checked out books!

While in the library, it started raining. Huge raindrops! And lots of them! Instantly, the ground went from hard clay to huge mud puddle. We waded back to the truck. The helpful man with the umbrella didn’t really help much, but he tried! And then off to the next location.

At the next location, we were served lunch. A wonderful person who works in the community made lunch for all of us. We had chicken, beef stew (or something like it), cooked sweet potato leaves, fish head, potato salad, mushroom salad, green beans, nshima, rice and a few other things. This lady is amazing! All made in a small kitchen with no running water and solar power! It was the best food I’ve had since I’ve been here! And we have had many good meals!

Then off to a clinic, and a community gathering point where we met more Caregivers. Each of these people cares for 33 children. Some have one parent, but the parent may be very ill. They walk between locations and check on some daily, and others weekly. Can you imagine taking care of your own family, home, and fields, and then also caring for severely ill adults, and their children as well? I don’t think I could do it!

Today we drove the 8 hours back to Lusaka. What a long ride! Along the way, you see field after field of corn, soybeans, coffee, groundnuts, tomatoes, onions, and other crops. This is rainy season, so everything is wonderfully green. You also see many people walking along the side of the 2 lane “highway”. Even children as young as 4 and 5 years walk alone or with other groups of children on the way to school, or other locations.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We’ll spend most of the day in the office doing all that wrap up stuff that is required at the end of a visit. One more update, and then the long trip home!

Update from Solwezi

2010-01-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

Today, we checked out of the Plush Executive Lodge. Cold shower again this morning, but at least there was more than a trickle of water coming out of the faucet. We visited a community about an hour from the main office. The drive out was quite interesting. Once you turn off the main highway, the road is dirt, with many large holes. As it has rained a lot here recently, these holes were all filled with water. Sometimes the water was up over the wheels of the truck as we drove through. In one area, the road was impassable, so we were re-directed on a very narrow dirt track through farmer’s fields. The road was barely wide enough for the truck.

We finally arrived, and were met by about 100 people, mostly women and children. We were able to help distribute shoes to the children and some of the adults. It was humbling to be here. I brought more with me in my suitcase than many of these people have in their entire homes. Many of the children don’t have shoes at all. Others are too small, or have been worn so much that they are literally falling off their feet. Each child or family of children was called up individually, the right size shoe was found, and tried on. Then the smile! Most of them took the shoes right back off. They are saving them to wear to school later this week. The school was up on the hill behind where we did the distribution. Very small. We’re told there are over 800 children in this community, but I didn’t get how many of those were school age.

We met one little girl named Gloria. She received her shoes, but continued to wear them, because she was wearing her school uniform, so she thought it was appropriate. She is 10 years old, and about the size of a 5 year old. She was clutching a small plastic bag filled with several small pencil stubs, a ruler, and a well-used composition book. I asked her what she did with the things in her bag. She told me she carries it around because the teacher often asks her to help the other students. There’s a future teacher for you!

After a while, we had to leave to go to our next appointment. The distribution was still going on, and most likely would continue for most of the day. We slowly headed out the road we came in on. Along the way, we bought some mangos, which will make a great snack tomorrow. There are mango trees everywhere here, and this is the rainy season, so all are heavy with fruit. We also managed to get one of the trucks stuck in one of the large holes in the road. You have to laugh at things like that! I was reminded that one of the many reasons I left the military was because I was tired of mud. Now here I am back in the mud! Except this time I had to wear a skirt instead of combat boots. It’s not appropriate for women to wear slacks in the rural areas here.

We got the truck out, so all is well. We continued on to our last location this afternoon. We are now in northwestern Zambia in a city called Solwezi. The hotel here is wonderful. TV, hot water, mosquito net, and internet! We’re so spoiled. This morning, I spent the day with people who didn’t even have shoes, and I’m complaining because I don’t have hot water. I am very thankful for what I have, but is so hard to reconcile all that I have been blessed with to the things that I have seen today, and the other times I have come to Africa. Children with no shoes wearing rags. Mud huts. Medical clinics with limited or no supplies. Malnourished children. Diseased children. People dying from AIDS. Women with 5 and 6 small children. It’s heartbreaking.
But you also see good things happening. Small farms. Community Caregivers developing a co-op to raise money to pay school fees for orphans. Small schools to train in everything from farming and bee-keeping to computer training. I’m just glad that I am able to do some small part to help the good things take off and grow.

18 January Post

2010-01-19T11:37:00.001-08:00

Well we did get dinner last night. It was chicken and chips, as requested, and wasn’t bad. We ended up switching from the outside rooms to the inside rooms in the hotel. Somehow the ones that were “booked” earlier were still empty, so they let us switch. Since there were no more mosquito nets, my friend’s window wouldn’t close, and my door wouldn’t lock, we decided it was better to be inside. I have to share a bathroom across the hall, but there is no one in the room I would share with, so that’s OK. I also have to share my room with Big Bertha. That’s the really large spider that lives in the closet. It’s too high for me to reach it to kill it, so we will co-exist peacefully. I’ve closed the closet door. She can have that room, and I’ll take the part with the bed.

One of our travelling group brought some movies, so we thought we’d gather around one of the computers last night to watch a movie. Sounded like a good idea, but out of three laptops, we couldn’t make one of them play the movie. One didn’t have a DVD player, one player wouldn’t work, and third one could play the movie, but something is wrong with the volume controls, so we couldn’t hear it. Talk about sad! So at 8:30, we all decided to give it up!

One good thing about the room, is that it has an air conditioner, sort of. It has a unit on the ceiling that blows cold air now and then. The temperature here has been relatively cool (mid to high 80’s), so it’s just enough.

Today we spent part of the day in the office learning about processes and procedures. Then we visited a couple of secondary schools and a skills training center. The first two schools were huge. One had 1700 students, the other 1200 students. The physical area doesn’t look that large, but somehow all the students fit!
Tomorrow we will be out in the community again learning about what they do for income, how they live, and about their families. Then off for another 2 – 3 hour drive to the next community area. Tonight at the hotel is looking up! There is at least one TV channel, I have a working light in my room. Big Bertha (the spider) seems to have moved on (perhaps I should be worried about that part….), and we are supposed to have rice for dinner instead of fries. It just doesn’t get better than that!

17 January Post

2010-01-18T01:23:00.001-08:00

Today we left the Sherbourne Guest House in Kitwe. This morning I woke up early to the sounds of all the birds outside my window. Trees, shrubs, flowers, and other greenery surround the hotel. The grounds are beautiful, and definitely attract many birds and small lizards. It’s so peaceful to wake up to quiet sounds like that.

We had a leisurely morning, and then departed for the town of Chingola, which is about 25 miles from Kitwe. The road between these two towns is very busy, even on Sunday. Many people live in one, and work in the other, so they are constantly travelling back and forth. Chingola is not as big as Kitwe, but has many shops and several nicer housing areas. Chingola is primarily supported by those working in the copper mining industry. As soon as you leave Kitwe, you start seeing mines. The ones between the two cities are shaft mines. They mine for the copper underground, and bring it up through the shaft. The large pile of very black dirt I referenced in an earlier post was actually a dumping ground for the dirt that came out of the mining shaft. Between the cities, the mines are open pit mines. Basically, they are huge holes in the ground. The area around the mine does everything to turn the copper into a useable form for further export.

We are staying in the Plush Executive Inn in Chingola. You reach the inn via a dirt road filled with holes. Quite a rough road! There are eight rooms in the inn, 3 inside the main house, and five outside. Registration consisted of writing our name in a book. We then were taken to our rooms. I have one of the outside rooms. We left our suitcases, and then went to find our driver. He was making plans for entertainment for the afternoon. First though, we thought we’d have lunch. Unfortunately, the hotel doesn’t have lunch. We thought to ask about dinner. We were informed they don’t have a menu, but they can make dinner. They just need to know in advance. So, we asked them to tell us what our options were. They said they didn’t have a menu, because they didn’t have a chef, but could have dinner for us. This discussion continued for a few minutes, until one of us finally asked if they could make chicken. To which they responded, they could not make dinner because they didn’t have a chef, but they could have chicken for us at dinner. Then we asked what time dinner would be ready. They told us between 7 and 9pm. At this point, we ask them to have chicken and chips (fries) available at 7pm. Then we begin to plan the rest of our afternoon.

Turns out, there isn’t much to do in Chingola, so after a few minutes of discussion, our driver announces that we should drive to the next town to have lunch, and then drive up to the Congo border to see what’s going on.

Now I guess this all registered with me, but it wasn’t until we were about half way to the next town (about 10 minutes drive), that it dawned on me that normal people don’t go to the Congo border to “see what’s going on”. But our driver hadn’t steered us wrong yet, so we continued. We stopped at the Mt. Moria Guest House in Chililabombwe for lunch. Well, actually we stopped to order lunch. Unfortunately, we repeated the same scenario that we at the other guest house about dinner. “Do you serve lunch?”, “Yes.” “What do you serve?” What do you want?” “What do you have?” “What do you want?” and the circle continues. We finally agreed on sausage and chips. Once we ordered, we then left the guest house so they could make lunch.

We got back in the car and continued on to the DRC border. As you get closer, you see many people on bicycles that are loaded down with bags of corn meal, charcoal, and other items. These are Congolese people that walk or ride their bikes across the Zambian border so that they can buy staples that are either unavailable or too costly in DRC.

About 2 miles from the border, you start to see semi-trucks parked along both sides of the road. They are parked right on top of one another all the way to the border. I did some quick math, and estimate there were about 110 trucks parked on each side of the narrow two lane road. There were maybe another 30 or so trucks parked on a secondary road that parallels the main road. These trucks are all waiting to go through customs and cross into the opposite country. Basically, they park the truck, then have to walk all the way back to the customs office to turn in their paperwork. The paperwork is reviewed, and eventually the driver is allowed to leave. It can take three or more days for the customs official to approve the paperwork. Meanwhile, the drivers sit with their trucks along the side of the road. They cook in small charcoal stoves under the trailer. Some have strung hammocks between the sides and sleep under the trailer. Others just lay on the concrete. There are no restroom facilities, no guest houses, no restaurants. There are a few street vendors selling tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables.

As you get closer to the border, the road gets narrower, and the trucks are parked even closer together. Eventually, you reach the border fence, where there is a little police station to help keep order, and a small house where I assume the paperwork is checked and approved. The crown here did not look completely friendly. I guess if I had to live under my truck for three days waiting on someone to check the paperwork, I’d be unfriendly too. We tried to take a picture of the “Welcome to Zambia” sign, but people ran to the truck waving their arms and shouting “no, no”, so we chose not to take the picture, and turned around, heading back out the same road we came in on. We think the people thought we were trying to take their pictures, and they didn’t want us to, but I didn’t want to stop to ask.

When we arrived back at the Mt. Moria Guest House, lunch still wasn’t ready. We had been gone more than 1 hour, but I guess it takes a while to cook sausage and chips. So we waited another ½ hour or so. The house has satellite TV (more channels than we get at home), and when we arrived, the TV was tuned to Nickalodeon and Jimmy Neutron was on. Don’t know why, but I find that really funny.

Finally had lunch, and then went into town to buy a wrap to wear when we go into the field tomorrow. It is not common for women to wear pants in the rural areas. We wear skirts, but it was suggested we purchase the tchechenge (don’t know if I spelled that right) fabric to use as the wrap when we go out later this week. We went to a street vendor from Congo, who at first just wanted to know if any of us could speak French. One of my companions knows about 10 words, so that seemed to make us OK. We were told that the fabric comes from the Congo, but when we pointed out the hem said “made in Cote d’ Ivoire”, he said it didn’t matter because they had been in the Congo. Can’t argue with that logic!
So then back to the Plush Executive Inn. I don’t know what “plush” means here, but let’s just say it is something less than what you might find back home. I got to my room, flipped the light switch, and nothing happened. Turns out there is no light bulb. The TV does not work, as the office forgot to pay the bill, and today is Sunday. They are certain they will pay the bill and it will work tomorrow. The shower has no shower curtain. One of my companions has a window that won’t close, and I have the only mosquito net. You’re actually reading this late, as there is no internet connection here. Didn’t check for hot water yet, but I’m not overly optimistic.So now you know why this is so long. I’m sitting in one of my companion’s rooms, as there is a light with not much else to do. It is good to type all this, as you have to admit, the whole thing is pretty funny. Or at least will be when I read this after I get home. Right now, the plastic lawn chair I’m sitting in is getting a bit uncomfortable, so it’s time to end. Only at the “Plush Executive Inn” can you sit in a plastic lawn chair in the dark, with the rain pouring down, typing about your trip to the DRC border to “see what’s going on”. Have a great rest of your day! I’ll let you know if we actually get dinner tonight in my next post.

2010-01-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

Started the morning today with what I’ve decided to call a “copper shower”. You can smell the copper in the water here as soon as you turn the water on. It is an almost overpowering metallic smell. But it was hot, so I decided that was a good trade-off for the smell.

Last night, I learned you must remember when you are sleeping under a mosquito net, you should be extra prepared. The net is suspended from the ceiling, and after you get into the bed, you tuck it under the mattress. This is fine, except once you tuck it in, you can’t get to the nightstand to reach your alarm clock, bottle of water, or to put down your book. I must have tucked and untucked the net 10 times last night. Then I forgot about it when I got up in the middle of the night. You can get untangled quickly, but when you’re half asleep, it’s a bit annoying. Then while you are annoyed, it hurts when you run into the bathroom door. I should do much better tonight, since I am now a pro with the net.

Today we visited many people in the local community. Our first meeting was with the community leaders and many Caregivers. They talked about how they take care of orphans and vulnerable children in the community, and how they care for people living with HIV and AIDS. They do amazing work! In this area, there are 42 trained community members who EACH take care of about 20 children and 6 ill adults. They are all volunteers and have families of their own to take care of as well.

After we met with the leaders, we visited a young girl and her younger brother. They are orphans living alone in the community. One of the Caregivers checks in on them daily, and the community members have come together to help her go to school. School is free from grades 1 to 7. Once you start 8th grade, the family has to pay school fees. Without the help from her community, she would not be able to attend school. She is very quiet and is going into the ninth grade. She loves science, and wants to study to be a nurse. At first, she was too shy to talk to us, but when we started asking her about school and her favorite subjects, she brightened right up! Her brother is a bit younger, and would really prefer to climb trees right now. I think having so many visitors was a bit too much for him. It was a bit hard for us to talk to him while he was up in the tree. I thought about climbing up to sit with him, but couldn’t figure out how to do that in a culturally appropriate way while wearing a skirt.

We then visited another family with five children. Their mother is a traditional birth attendant, and had been called away just before our visit to help an expectant mother at another village home. The oldest girl in this family is 16 and in the 7th grade. She likes math, and hopes to be able to do better in her studies this year so that one day she can go to the 8th grade, and later study to be a nurse. The children had been given a game, but didn’t know how to play it, so we showed them how to play. They are very excited to start playing the game this afternoon.

We then went to visit a school in another community near by. This school is very excited because they were recently given funding to put electricity into the school. The head teacher was already making plans to make a resource center, computer lab, home-ec lab, etc. He doesn’t know where he’ll get the resources, but he says if he doesn’t have a plan, then he won’t be able to start looking for the resources! He says he started the school in 2006 with just over 150 students. When school starts again this term, he will have nearly 1200 students in grades 1 to 8. He is very excited, as this is the first time he will have the ability to teach 8th grade. Until now, he only had classes through grade 7. The amazing part is, he has only 16 teachers, 10 of those are for grades 1 to 7, and the other 6 are for grade 8. And he says he is “quite comfortable” with this, as he has more teachers than other schools. On average that is 75 children per classroom. When you factor in that just over 1100 of the kids are in grades 1 to 7, and there are only 10 teachers for these grades, that’s 110 children per class. They have staggered the times a little, but as far as I can gather, there are times of the day when all the children are in attendance.

There are many dedicated people here in the communities we visited today that are doing everything they can to help the others in their community, and their work shows. Kids are in school. Homes are made of brick or clay vs. mud huts with thatched roofs. Community members find income generating activities, and have made actual business plans to figure out how to pay school fees for orphans. It is amazing what can happen when a community really comes together!

Tomorrow, we’re moving on from Kitwe, to a town called Chingola. We have a day of rest after we arrive, but will most likely spend most of that trying to catch up on all the work and report writing we have to do from our visits this week. Hard to believe we’ve been here a week! But I will definitely be ready to come home when it’s time. It is interesting to meet all these people and see the country, but it can be exhausting too!

Kitwe, Zambia

2010-01-15T10:26:00.001-08:00

Today we drove about 400km (240 miles) north of Lusaka. You take the Great North Road from Lusaka, and then just drive, until you have to take the East Road. We’re told you could take the Great North Road all the way to Cairo. I don’t think I’d want to try it.

That said, it was a pretty good road. Paved all the way, and actually had enough room on it for cars in each direction without feeling like you have to share. I’m always amazed at the number of people walking and riding bicycles along the shoulder of the highway, particularly the number of children. Some are probably as young as 4 being chaperoned by older siblings. Cars travel on this road at speeds of 60 to 70 miles an hour. It’s a bit scary when you drive at that speed by children playing.

Our drive was uneventful, except for the event at the pay toilet at the road-stop. Someone should really tell us that the nicely dressed lady at the door was collecting money to give you the priveledge to use toilet paper and flush. I thought she was just waiting in line. We got it all straightened out though, and continued on our way.

Kitwe is the second largest city in Zambia. Many people are employed here to work in the copper mines. We drove by one today. I’m going to have to do more research on this. From the road, it looks like a giant black mountain. I don’t know exactly why it looks like that. There are several mines in this area, and in fact the whole northern region is called the Copperbelt.

Our hotel is nice. Small rooms, but they have a fan, TV, and a shower. Can’t ask for more! It is a bit odd though to sit under a mosquito net watching cable TV and working on the wireless internet. Seems like one of these should not go with the other.
Tomorrow, we’ll see more of the area around Kitwe, as it is a working Saturday. More to follow then!

Odd Observations

2010-01-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Today the team spent the day at the warehouse. The team here does an amazing job keeping track of everything received and where it goes for use. It makes my job much easier when everyone does their job so well!

As we spent most of the day in the office, not much to share about the local area. Lusaka is a very busy place. The warehouse is in the Africa equivalent of an industrial park. There are small factories for many industries from tires to grain production.

A few odd observations…. In many of the places I’ve been, I’ve noticed the doorknobs seem awfully high, and Zambia is one of those places. I measured tonight. The doorknobs for all doors in my room stand 49 inches from the ground. For someone who’s only 5’4”, that’s pretty tall. The bathtubs also seem to be made for giants. The edge of the tub stands 22” from the floor. That’s quite high! You almost need stairs to get into the shower. I’ve been trying to figure out why this is, but can’t come up with any logical reason why everything would be made for really tall people. Just one of those random things I wonder about I guess.
Tomorrow we leave for northern Zambia. Should be an interesting visit. Hopefully I will be able to connect from there. If not, I’ll post when I return to Lusaka next week!

Welcome to Zambia

2010-01-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Lusaka Zambia! We arrived yesterday after about 23 hours of flight time and 8 hours of layovers. You just can’t get here from there quickly! Good thing it was an uneventful journey.

The first thing you notice is how friendly people are. They are helpful at customs (can you believe it!). When you leave the airport, you do not have to fight the mob of taxi drivers trying to “help” you with your suitcase. If you’ve ever been somewhere where that happens, you know how unhelpful that actually is! The driver’s generally follow the rules of the road. Red means stop, green means go, and people are able to drive without constantly sounding the horn. The area is also very clean. You don’t see trash on the side of the roadways. Everything is orderly. It’s the only place I’ve been on my work trips where you just immediately feel at home, even though everything is so much different than what we’re used to!

We had a bit of time yesterday to rest and try to get over jet-lag. Our hotel is in a nice area with a small shopping mall next door. We were able to walk around for a bit and try to get over jet-lag.

Today was a day of meetings at the main office. We did have a chance to visit and have dinner at a friend’s home this evening. I originally met her in Ghana, then ran into her during my first trip to Zambia, and then ended up working with her during the Haiti trip. Isn’t it interesting how you can just “run into” people in so many different locations! We were able to meet her two wonderful daughters and spend a nice evening with her.

Now I am watching the BBC news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. Some of the pictures are of places we drove by during our visit in September. One of them is of the hotel that my friend stayed in (I was in a different one). The hotel is partially collapsed. We also spent time today thinking and praying about the family that hosted us during that visit. The host was at the office, and was able to reach his son quickly. He was unable to find his wife and two daughters until nearly 24 hours later. All were fine, but I can’t imagine how scary that must have been for all of them.

More tomorrow!

Nearing the end of the trip

2009-09-10T19:23:00.001-07:00

Just one more full day here, and then we leave for the airport and the long trip home on Saturday! It’s been a very informative and productive trip, but I’m ready to return. The last few days have been easy – just interviews and paperwork in the main office. It is a bit confining though. It isn’t safe for us to wander the city on our own, so we go from hotel to office and back by work shuttle. You don’t see much of the city that way. There are also few restaurants, so all meals are taken in the hotel. I could now work here. I have memorized the menu, and know the entire process from start to finish for the waiters. The only thing I can’t figure out is why fettucine has green peppers in it. Maybe that’s the last question on the test before you are hired.

Tomorrow is the big exit presentation to the office, then back to the hotel to pack the suitcase, and get ready to depart on Saturday morning. We go from here, to Miami, to Chicago, and finally to Seattle. That was the “best we could do” according to our travel group. Seems like a lot of take-offs and landings, but I guess as long as take-offs and landings are equal, I’m OK with it.

As always, thank you for letting me share a bit about my adventures with you. Writing helps me remember as well months or years later!

2009-09-08T21:00:00.003-07:00

This morning we awoke to the sounds of farm animals in the lot behind the hotel. The day starts early on the island of La Gonave! After a wonderful breakfast, it was back to the boat, and the ride back to the mainland. There was quite the storm last night, and there was still quite a bit of wave action this morning. While I’m quite certain we were safe the whole time, there were a few times we seemed to get quite a bit of lift over the water, or seemed to tilt quite far to the left or right. In any event, it was a safe journey on the water. Probably safer than the truck ride from the boat back to the office in Port-au-Prince. I’ve been several places, and usually the organizations drivers are not the most aggressive on the road. The gentleman today was certainly not typical!

Otherwise, just a day of interviews, process reviews, and note taking. Boy doesn’t that sound like fun! So today, I’ll include a bit of general information.

In the city, water is delivered to homes in trucks. Picture the type of trucks that bring oil to homes in the US. The water is delivered from the truck to a cistern under the floor in the home, where it is then used for washing, bathing, etc. And here’s the funny part…. The water delivery vehicles play songs, just like the ice cream truck in the US. The “theme song” for the trucks is the theme song for the movie Titanic. Now I don’t know if anyone else finds this amusing, but I really get a kick out of it!

2009-09-08T21:00:00.001-07:00

Greetings from La Gonave! La Gonave is an island off the coast of Haiti. We left the hotel at about 7:00 and experienced Port-au-Prince rush hour. People were everywhere, going ever direction on the roads. Police officers, UN troops, and other security forces were at most of the intersections directing traffic. I’m not sure if it was helping, but all those official people probably prevent something really bad from happening!

We finally got to the boat after about 2 hours of driving. As I know nothing about boats, I can’t tell you what kind, other than it was a motor boat. I ended up sitting in the front, which gets a little damp in the middle of the voyage. The waves between the coast of Haiti and the island are pretty good size. I don’t really remember the number of times I came out of my seat as we crested one wave and then crashed down, with the spray going over the front of the boat. Quite an experience.

The views from the water are beautiful, both of Haiti and of La Gonave. The water though is not as pretty. From the shore, it looks beautiful, but when you’re in the middle of it, you see all the trash and garbage that people have thrown into the water, or that has washed down from the hillsides. Cups, plates, Styrofoam containers, bottles, just about everything you can imagine if floating out there.

After arrival, we drove for over an hour over some very bumpy roads to the middle of the island. I’m not sure how many miles, but I’m guessing it was less than 15. The ride was so rough, I actually have bruises on the backs of my legs from being bounced around on the seat! There we saw a medical clinic first. The clinics on the island are staffed by intern doctors. These are people that have just graduated or are about to graduate from medical school. They serve a one year assignment here. At this point, they can’t get anyone else to serve here because it is so remote. Folks here suffer mainly from all the ailments related to unclean drinking water, plus respiratory infections, and malaria.

From there we went to a food distribution. There are several programs on the island run by aid groups to bring supplemental food (beans, corn-soybean blend, cooking oil, etc.) to families here. It is good to see, and seems to be making a big difference in malnutrition rates on the island. Then back down the bumpy road to the office to do other inventory management / supply chain work. I’m sure you would all find that incredibly exciting, but I’ll refrain from sharing all that stuff.

Now we’ve finished a wonderful dinner of cold vegetables, rice, chicken, plaintains, and fried okra, and back to the room to finish work and go to bed. While this hotel isn’t much to look at from the outside, the room has an air conditioner and a fan (bonus!), no bugs that I’ve found yet, and seems very clean. I’m not sure how much longer the A/C and fan will work though, as a storm is coming in, and the wind is picking up dramatically. Hope it’s not a really serious one, as we are right on the coast.

Tomorrow morning, back on the boat to Port-au-Prince, and then office work for the rest of our visit. While it’s very interesting to visit the more remote sites, sometimes, it’s nice to just be in one place for a few days in a row.

2009-09-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a nice weekend. Today, we went to church service. The service is very international. In our group alone, we had people from the US, Canada, Kenya, Zambia, and Ghana. The church is probably about 50% locals, and the rest made up from people around the world serving in Haiti for the UN, missionaries, churches, pilots, and other groups. There is also a large population of orphans that attend this church. As we understand the story, a couple came to the Haiti several years ago, and ended up running an orphanage for street kids. I don’t have the full story, but the end result is the street kids were scooped up, placed in this orphanage, given schooling and medical care. Many have been adopted by Haitians and other countries. Currently, they have about 120 kids in the orphanage. They load them up in the back of a box truck, with windows and the back changed to bars. The drive isn’t far, and while the situation isn’t ideal, it seems to work for the kids and for the workers.

After church, we went to a “fast food” place for lunch. They did have food, but I’m uncertain where the “fast” part comes from. Anyway, one of the things they serve is crepes. I decided to have that, but was thinking fruit. Here, they make it with ham, cheese, and onions. Not exactly what I was expecting, but it was OK.

The last two days, we’ve spent time with our host’s family. They have two daughters living with them here, one is 12 and the other is 6. The older one has lived in Haiti before, and also in Africa. I’m amazed at how well both of them adapt to everything around them. If I had been brought to Haiti or DRC to live when I was that age, I don’t think I would have handled it very well. They seem to take everything in stride, and seem to really be enjoying themselves.

A few other general observations about our time here. We’ve noticed there are many soldiers and law enforcement officers here. There is obviously the local police, plus the United Nations soldiers. There are a few other groups too with different patches. At first, I thought they were part of the UN force, but I’m not sure. This morning leaving the hotel, I counted 12 soldiers with 4 different types of uniforms, all with machine guns sitting on the wall across from the hotel. Can’t decide if I’m in the safest, or most dangerous place in town! Guess it depends on how long all those folks with the guns get along.

Transit here is also interesting. There are some busses, generally school buses or 15 passenger vans. However, the primary public transit is pickup trucks. The drivers put awnings (brightly decorated) over the back of them and benches, and then cram as many people as possible into the truck. When they run out of room, people hang from the back or ride on the top with the luggage, chickens, bananas, and other items. I tried to count the number of people in one of them today, and came up with 20. Can you picture that in the back of a small Nissan pickup truck (think early 1990’s mini-pickup, not full-size). They also have the same thing in larger deliver trucks. Picture a U-haul truck with no sides, seats, and an awning over the top. I counted at least 40 in one of those today. Needless to say, if you combine this with the way folks drive here and the condition of the roads, injuries from auto accidents is a big issue. The vehicles are also multi-purpose. Today we passed a pickup truck with the word “Ambulance” painted on the tailgate. When we pulled up along side it, the doors were painted with an advertisement for a furniture delivery service.

Overall, a great weekend, and looking forward to the boat ride to La Gonave tomorrow.

Visit to Hinche, Haiti

2009-09-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Haiti on the 2nd, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to write down any notes. What an interesting place! Just driving from the airport to the hotel and office on the first day was an experience. I’ve been several places where riding in a vehicle can be very exciting, but Haiti may take the prize. Streets are narrow in most places, barely two lanes wide. Those streets are shared by cars going both directions, motor bikes, people walking, ox drawn carts, donkeys, horses, and bicycles. You’d be amazed how many lanes you can put on a two lane road. There are no road markings, even at intersections. No stop signs; no yield signs. Basically, everyone moves into the intersection at once, and the most aggressive come out the other side first. Turn signal not required. In fact, turn signals, tail lights, and headlights appear to be optional. Now your horn on the other hand….. I think they may actually ticket you if that doesn’t work!

Our second day here, we took a small, 6 seat plan (including pilot) to an area called Hinche. This is in the Central Plateau area of Haiti. Flying over the country gives you a great appreciation for just how beautiful this country is. The scenery goes from the beach, to hills, to mountains, to this very large flat area north of Port-au-Prince. You also get an appreciation for the problems of Haiti. Years ago, the island was de-forested. From what I understand, many of the trees were cut down to provide building materials and fuel. Later, a commercial logging company came and removed the remaining commercially viable trees. Many years have now passed, and you’d think some organization would simply come in and replant. Unfortunately, too many years have gone by, and with nothing to hold the soil on the rocky slopes, all the top soil has washed away into the ocean. As you fly over, while it is green from grass and brush, you also see the soil is incredibly rocky. This is part of the reason why any tropical storm or hurricane is so devastating to the island.

Airstrips in remote parts of Haiti are a bit different than we’re used to. The landing strip in Hinche was a gravel and dirt path just off of the center of town. When not receiving planes, it’s used as a bicycle path, meeting point, and grazing area for the local animals. Air traffic control is a guy on the cell phone talking to someone back in Port-au-Prince to let them know the plane has arrived. There are two guys on bicycles that ride up the runway as the plane circles yelling at everyone to get off the strip. Apparently this works well sometimes, and not so good others. The good news is the pilots are very good at missing all wildlife and people remaining on the air strip. Even the dog that ran in front of the plane at the last minute (and the child that ran after it trying to catch it) survived just fine.

The first thing you notice about Hinche is that everyone has somewhere to go. I don’t know where they are all going, but it seems like the whole town is on the move. You generally don’t see people just sitting around. Everyone is either on the way to the well, on the way to the river to wash clothes or bathe, on the way to town to trade / sell items, or back after having done so. We saw several people with motor bikes, and many had donkeys or horses. While folks here clearly are below the poverty line, people obviously care about trying to make the most of what they have.

The hotel we stayed in was called the L’ermitage de Pandiassou, and is actually just a little outside of Hinche. This is a beautiful location, with very nice, beautiful buildings. It looks completely out of place compared to the rest of the city. The hotel is set back quite a bit from the road, and is totally quite. Electricity is provided by generator, and amazingly it has hot running water. We met the owner on Friday evening. He is a doctor in Port-au-Prince, and purchased the property in Pandiassou a little over two years ago. He and his wife thought it would be interesting to run a hotel. They built one building as the family home, and then decided to turn it into a restaurant for the hotel. While the setting is amazing, it was a bit disconcerting to share your room (and bed) with some very interesting bugs. The fans were helpful, but when the generator cuts out, it gets awfully hot in the rooms.

We also realized that speaking French would be real helpful when in remote areas, and neither of us speak a word. When we checked in, we were told we had to order dinner then (this is at 9am). We did so, but then we couldn’t get anyone to bring it to us. We finally got it figured out, but they decided only one of us ordered, so we split one meal between us. The next morning, no breakfast, because it turns out, you have to order that at dinner the night before. We got smart then, and ordered dinner, but somehow, they misplaced the order. It’s a good thing they figured that out while we were talking with the owner, or we would not have been given dinner that night either. On one hand, that’s good for the weight loss plan. On the other, you can only skip so many meals (or replace with granola bars) before you start to get a little light headed!

Overall, a great trip to Hinche, then back on the little airplane for the return to Port-au-Prince this morning. This afternoon, our hosts took us up to an area just outside of Port-au-Prince and we visited the Baptist Mission. I’m trying to translate the brochure we received, but in general, a couple from the US come here in 1943 and started this mission, providing education, medical support, and practical training to people in this area. To get to this mission, you drive basically straight up into the mountains. The roads are incredibly narrow, and built right into the side of the mountain. There is no margin for error when driving on this road, as there is no real wall between you and a straight down drop in some areas. People here build their cement homes right into the side of the cliff. I would hate to have to walk up to the main road from some of these places. Yet they do it, and are able to do it carrying heavy loads. Even the children.

Tonight, back at the Hotel Karibe. It’s great to visit the field, but I have to admit, air conditioning is really nice. I also like the fact I have no small, creeping visitors sharing the room with me. Well, there is the small lizard I saw run out of the closet and under the bed, but he seems content to sleep on the floor, so he can stay.
More tomorrow!

2009-07-15T21:37:00.001-07:00

Still in the northern part of the country today. We had a chance to drive a bit further into the mountains. It is a beautiful place! At one point, our hosts pulled over, and we walked up a short hill to a beautiful view. The view was amazing. Green as far as you can see, just one mountain after another. You can also appreciate how difficult it is to travel here off the main roads. The mountains are not tall, but are very rocky and steep. During our day, we took a dirt road over several of these mountains, and there were several times we were certain we’d need to get out and walk the rest of the way. In fact, we expected to, as our hosts told us the road is usually not drivable after about the ½ way point. We were all surprised when we were able to drive all the way to our destination. If it had rained at all this week, we would not have been able to! We had asked if we could go to another site, but found out the only way to get there was a 2 to 4 hour burro ride. Less if you could ride the whole way, more if you had to walk large parts of it. Unfortunately, time didn’t allow us to go, but my wouldn’t that have made for an interesting day!

We learned a lot about the health programs here. We’ve met several doctors on this trip, and I’m amazed at how young they all are. In Nicaragua, after a doctor completes medical school, they have to do 2 years of “social service”. Basically, each is assigned through lottery to the various rural and urban health clinics throughout the country. They then work there for 2 years, and are then allowed to move onto a specialty, private practice, or another government health job. The doctors we met were in their mid to late twenties, and all are living basically by themselves in some very remote outposts. The good news is their facilities are reasonably equipped, but they still have much to deal with. The one we visited today only recently had a latrine built on the property, and still does not have access to clean water. The doctor must bring the water in from the next nearest town.

We also had the opportunity to visit a school within the community where they do many arts programs. Singing, dancing, drama, and painting are just some of the areas taught at this school. The kids put on a great performance for us, showing off their skills. We also each received a canvas painting done by some of the older kids in the drawing program. The paintings are amazing!

A few other interesting things from this evening. The town is having a Star Trek convention this weekend. Gotta love that! I also learned that sherbet can be made out of about every type of fruit there is. Our hosts took us to an ice cream store that hand makes sherbet from many of the different types of fruit grown here. Can you believe there were 20 different types to choose from? I chose watermelon, and it even had seeds in it.
Tomorrow we will work again in the area around this small town, and then back to Managua for our last full day here.

Visits to hospitals

2009-07-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

We spent all day yesterday in the office learning about processes and procedures. The team here is doing a wonderful job, and we learned a lot. Today, we drove about 2 hours to Esteli. The drive here was beautiful. Everything is very green. As you drive north out of Managua, you enter the mountains. Just like Managua, everything here is very green, with many fruit trees. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many mango trees!

We spent most of our day with the staff at a district hospital. They shared a lot with us about how they use products we send, and about other places where items come from. I can’t compare this to other hospitals in Central American Countries, but compared to those I’ve seen in Africa, this hospital is much larger, and much better supplied. That said, it is still nothing like hospitals in the US. They can still do only basic surgeries, and treat basic illnesses. The team here is very dedicated and very interested in helping the people in this community.

We also learned a lot about illnesses in this region. While children here are not malnourished, there are still many who are undernourished. From what I understood, things are getting better all the time, but they still have a ways to go. We did learn about several wonderful nutrition programs that are helping to address this issue.

And now for a little fun. We went to a Cuban restaurant for dinner. Much different from Nicaraguan food. Then back to the hotel. The hotel is very basic, and I’m very glad that the temperature outside is cooling down a bit. The small fan in the room wasn’t helping much earlier. Now, I’m entertained by a 12 inch TV (but it gets something like 100 channels), and the bugs crawling on the wall. They look harmless enough, so all is well. The hotel is inexpensive ($13), and you get everything you pay for, and not one thing more……
Tomorrow we will spend some time working with one of the communities, so that should be fun to talk with people and learn how we can assist them better. More then….

Sightseeing in Managua

2009-07-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

We arrived safely last night in Managua. Today, we had time to do a little sightseeing before beginning work tomorrow. It’s winter here in Nicaragua, so the temperature was only in the upper 80’s today. It wasn’t hot though as there was a wonderful breeze blowing constantly!

Our host took us several places today. First we went to Tiscapa Lagoon, which includes a small museum and memorial to Augusto Sandino. He was a revolutionary in the 1930’s, and is much celebrated here. We saw many references to him around Managua. This area has several volcanoes, so the lagoons are actually the craters of old volcanoes.

We also drove around old Managua. In 1972, there was a major earthquake here that completely destroyed the city. When they rebuilt, they did not build on the original city, but instead on surrounding area. The old city is still there, but people have moved into the old buildings, most of which look like they are about to fall down. One building that is still mostly standing is the old cathedral. This was a beautiful cathedral, but was never rebuilt. You can still see the huge cracks in the walls from the earthquake. Looks like large pieces fall off regularly, as the building is roped off, and we saw large pieces of concrete even outside the roped off areas.

Our host took us to Masaya for lunch. This is a beautiful area south of Managua. The city sits on a hill overlooking another lagoon. Beyond the lagoon, you can see Lake Managua. While they call it a hill or a mountain, what you are really sitting on is the rim of the volcano crater, overlooking the lake that now fills the crater. For those of you in Washington, it actually looks a lot like the Crater Lake area, but without the evergreen trees. We’re told that people swim here all the time, but it seemed a bit cold today to do so.

Tonight for dinner, we walked to a restaurant not far from the hotel. Dinner was wonderful, but I think the waiter may have misunderstood part of the order. We tried to order something we translated as a “sample platter”, but apparently, the 20 words of Spanish we collectively speak led us a bit astray. We’re not completely sure what we had, but did eventually figure out that at least part of the plate included beef heart. We are hoping that was all that was on there. It tasted fine, but we are thinking maybe we should ask a few more questions next time.
Tomorrow is mostly at the local office, working with the team here to understand how we can organize and ship products to them so that they can be more effective and efficient in what they do. This trip will focus on health related items, so lots of time in rural clinics and hospitals. I’m quite certain I’ll learn more than I actually teach!

Zimbabwe

2008-11-16T13:55:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Our trip is nearly at an end. Hard to believe we’ve been in country for 10 days already. On one hand, the time has flown by. On the other, feels like we’ve been here forever. It’ll be good to start home tomorrow. Another 23 hours on airplanes!

We survived this morning’s flight on Air Zimbabwe from Bulawayo back to Harare. This flight was much less eventful than the last. Boring is always good when on an aircraft. Flying over the country is disheartening. The land is brown in most areas, and in others, black due to grass fires. You see little green, just a few trees here and there. There are many streams and river beds throughout the country, but all appear to be completely dry – just dirt and clay. You can see dozens of large areas that have been cleared for planting at some time. Unfortunately, the land has not been prepared. There is no fuel for tractors to plow the fields, no seeds to plant, no fertilizer, no water for irrigation. We’re told this used to be the bread-basket of Africa, but for multiple reasons, little will be grown this year, contributing to the food crisis here. During the day, we visited one of the two public hospitals in Harare. This one is the largest hospital in all of Zimbabwe, and people are referred to it from all over the country. The hospital covers a huge area, and has over 1000 beds and in normal times a staff of over 3000 people. Today, this hospital closed its doors. It is accepting zero patients – no admissions, no quick consultations for minor illnesses, no trauma patients, no child vaccinations, no women in labor, none of the growing number of cholera cases. Nothing. They still have some patients in the wards, and they are caring for those folks the best they can until they can discharge them. The hospital closed because it has minimal to zero drugs and medical supplies. It’s staff can’t get to work because the cost of transport exceeds the amount the can withdraw daily from the bank. In order to get the money, they have to stand in line all day. In some instances, the amount of round-trip transport exceeds their monthly wage. This includes staff at all levels, from the janitor to doctors at the hospital. The few folks they have live near and can walk to work. The doctors are leaving as they are tired of being unable to treat people and seeing them die. During the discussion, the staff also talked about how people die and no one comes to claim their body. Families don’t have money to pay for funeral arrangements. The family "disappears" if the patient dies. The hospital announces names of the deceased on the radio for 3 weeks straight to try to get the family to come and claim the body, but if they don’t then the hospital has to arrange burial. Apparently, this can happen in hundreds of instances in a month. The hospital can’t deal with this either. They also talked of babies (sometimes older children) that are simply abandoned at the hospital. The staff then needs to treat the child if it’s ill, and then try to find a home for him or her. This adds one more depressing burden to the staff here.

Sorry for all the depressing stuff today, but can you imagine if the largest hospital in your city decided today to not open? No advance warning, just stop operating, and turn people who show up at its doors away, regardless of the severity of the issue? That’s what happened today. Worse, we drove by the other large referral hospital in the city, and it was dark and had an empty parking lot too. We didn’t stop and check, but we believe they are closed as well.

Time to go finish packing the suitcase and putting a few things together for our final day tomorrow. More general observations then!

Zimbabwe trip

2008-11-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Today, I’ll share just some general observations about the country. In anearlier post, I mentioned that the inflation rate was a quadrillion percent. I think that was accurate last week, but this week, the paper says the inflation rate is a quintillion percent. Per the paper a quintillion has 18 zeros. One of the hardest parts of operating here is understanding what that means. People who are paid in Zim dollars, basically lose money within hours of receiving it. If it goes to the bank, it becomes basically worthless, as you can only withdraw 100,000 Zim dollars at a time. By the time you get your money out, the time value of money has completely worked against you. Even figuring out exchange rates is difficult. For instance, this morning at the hotel, we were told a small bottle of water was $5 US dollars. This was at both the front desk, and at one of the two hotel restaurants. Tonight, I asked to buy a bottle, but went into the bar vs. the restaurant. In the bar, a bottle of water was $1 US Dollar. All of these places are within the same small space. In fact, you can stand in the lobby and within 20 steps be in the door of any of the three. Even more amusing, the gentleman who wanted to take my $5 dollars at the restaurant walked me into the bar, and filled out the receipt to charge me $1 there. Now picture this for every commodity at every shop in every location in Zimbabwe. Many businesses will no longer accept Zim dollars. These are businesses both licensed to accept foreign currency, and those that are not. There are signs in the hotels that state Zimbabwe law requires foreigners to settle their hotel bill in foreign currency. Imagine passing a law that says if you visit our country, we will only allow you to pay in a currency other than ours. Checks are no longer accepted, nor are credit cards. It’s too great a risk for the business due to the inflation rate. Plus, the business couldn’t cash the check, as they can only withdraw a small amount per day. As close as I can figure now, $1 is equivalent to 1,000,000 Zim dollars. A business can only withdraw 1,000,000 Zim dollars per day. And to do that, they must wait in huge lines outside the bank to try to get in and withdraw the money.

Some businesses like hotels or airlines are now requiring payment up front and in foreign currency. In some instances, the payment is required at the time of reservation. We were talking with a gentleman in the airport on the way here that told us he had reserved a rental car, and had been called the night before and told the rental agency had cancelled his reservation. Their reasoning was that even though he had paid in advance (full amount), the payment was in Zim dollars, and therefore inadequate. They would reinstate the reservation only if he would pay up front in foreign currency. At the time of our discussion, the man did not know if they
company would refund the Zim dollars he had already paid, and he was trying to figure out what options he had. I don’t believe he’ll get that cash back, as it would take weeks for the rental agency to withdraw from their bank accounts enough cash to repay him when they can only withdraw small quantities of Zim dollars a day.

Imagine how depressing this is for people here. They may be paid, but can’t access their money. Businesses can’t pay employees because they can’t access foreign currency or enough Zim dollars to pay their employees. We’ve passed dozens of industrial sites, all closed due to economic
conditions. We complain about our economy and the cost of items, and even though we are paying more for items in the US than we were a year ago, we have a huge advantage. We at least know what the item costs and the cost doesn’t change hourly. We also have some understanding of the reasons behind price increases, and have an economic system that is comprehensible.
Not all of us agree with the increases, or like the current system, but it gives us a measure of stability regardless of our opinion. That stability is completely absent here and is driving people to go to extreme measuresto support their families.

More general comments tomorrow about life in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe, Part IV

2008-11-12T21:25:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Well…. Another day with no internet connection. I’m hoping to be able to log on at the office tomorrow to send the notes from the last few days so they can be posted from home. Just finished killing all the bugs in the hotel room and brushing the dirt off the sheets, and reconciling myself to the fact the room is about 100 degrees in room temperature. The A/C has issues, and while there is a wonderful breeze outside, I can’t open the windows, or I’ll have many more small crawling friends sharing my room, some of which bite and can leave diseases I’d rather not be a part of. So now that I’m done complaining, it’s time to sit down, type this note to you, and then get some work done. I’m told by our host that this was once a very nice hotel, but even he is surprised by the changes in just a few months.

We visited the field again today, and met with a team at a hospital, a nursing school, and several home based Caregivers. Again, we were welcomed warmly by all, and were shown around their facilities. Their facilities were very clean, but again lacked many basic supplies. The team there is doing great work with what they have, but are impacted greatly by the lack of basic medicines. It is very draining to have people travel 10 or more kilometers to be seen by a doctor, only to be sent home with no medicines as the hospital has limited to no items. During our meeting with the Caregivers, I was again amazed by their dedication and the level of support they provide the community. Key health workers in the community help train them, and they provide essential care to those that are ill, generally those with HIV or AIDS. Here they run the home based care program a bit differently. They work in community teams, treating all patients within a given area. Each team may have up to 30 patients. Travel is hard as they must travel sometimes as much as 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) by foot to care for a patient or to check in at the rural health clinic or district hospital to get supplies.

Today was our last day in the field. Tomorrow we have more meetings in the office, then back to Harare for a final day and a half of meetings. More to follow about general comments about the visit. Hope everyone is doing well!

Zimbabwe, Part III

2008-11-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 10, 2008
Greetings from Bulawayo! Flying Air Zimbabwe is an experience that could make one of our US air carriers look good! We arrived at the airport at 6am for a 7:30 flight, only to find out they’d decided they’d rather fly at 9:00. Apparently this is common. If you call in advance, you may be told a later time, only to arrive and find out they decided to leave as planned. We saw that happen to one couple while we were there. I’ve never flown a Chinese made airplane before, but I’ve decided now that I should never again complain about how loud an airplane can be. And don’t even get me started on the turbulence and landing!

Anyway, we made it here safely, and had an opportunity to visit with a hospital in the area. Again, it is a difficult situation, as there is few medical supplies or pharmaceuticals. We also noticed how young the doctors are in this hospital and the others we’ve been to. I didn’t mention yesterday, but in the afternoon we had a chance to meet with two local doctors that have formed their own local non-profit and have enlisted the help of many doctors and nurses in the area. They go out to rural areas 2 times per month and treat people in those areas. This is done in coordination with the appropriate people in the Ministry of Health. Those two doctors were very young as well. We were told that the country is also suffering from "brain-drain". Doctors know they can earn more money to support their families if they work in another country, so they leave Zimbabwe. They also leave because they get tired of trying to treat patients with no supplies. Basically, they get tired of seeing people die from easily preventable and / or treatable illnesses. We also saw a food distribution today. This is a time when aid agencies deliver food to a specific area of a district and then organize the people living in that area to come and pick up food (cooking oil and grain). The amount they pick up lasts 1 month, and is based on the size of their
families. Our understanding is this is the first food assistance this particular area has seen for some time due to various circumstances. People here are hungry. They can farm their land, but again, have no seed or fertilizer. It’s a hard situation.

One amusing story from today. As you drive along the "highways" here, you go through various police checkpoints. They can ask for a variety of things, but today, the checkpoint was checking for valid driver’s licenses and safe vehicles. As we pulled up and our host asked what they needed, the police officer responded with "I am doing a check for defective drivers and vehicles." Now I realize it’s probably not a good idea to laugh at a police check point in a foreign country, but the idea of searching for "defective drivers" humored me greatly. I think I’ll use this phrase when I return home. It is so much more amusing than just calling all those bad drivers back home "stupid". Anyway, we passed the inspection, allowed the police officer to have a bit of a laugh as well, and went along our way. Only 4 more days to go! Then back to the airport for the long trip home!

Zimbabwe, Part II

2008-11-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

Friday, November 6, 2008
Today we traveled to a region south of Harare. The area here is different than to the north. It is a much drier region, so less farming and more ranching. The area is beautiful, but incredibly dry as the rains have not started here yet. As we drove, we went over several bridges, but there was no water in the river and stream beds. The beds were totally dry, not even any mud. Just sand and rocks. We saw many head of cattle and goat, but there is nothing for them to eat, so they are incredibly thin. You can see their bones through their skin.

The people are hungry as well. We talked to a nurse today who runs a nursing school in the area we were in. The school is very nice, and very well run. They graduate multiple classes a year, teaching key nursing skills to people who then go and run all the rural health clinics. Unfortunately, she stated she may have to close the school and send everyone home as there is no food for the students or their families. If the students go home, there is no food there either. She doesn’t know what to do, as everyone is hungry and even if they had money, there is no food to buy.

Food is the largest problem here. The community is very forward thinking, very resourceful, and very interested in learning and improving their situation. They have big plans for growing, and the community is involved. It’s the first place I’ve been where the community has presented an entire plan for where they want to go and what they want to accomplish. It was really exciting!The food issues and economic challenges here are the issue, not the direction. We also visited a school, saw some wonderful dancing and heard some great speeches from the kids. At the end, the parents and community Caregivers told us they had pulled their food and made us a meal. This is food they do not have to spare, as they are missing meals most of the time. It is very rude to turn down a meal prepared for visitors, but we did not feel we could eat the food that they so desperately need. We finally convinced them that we were incredibly thankful and very honored, but needed them to use that food to feed their families today. Have a big party in our honor if that makes you feel better, but eat the food. We were allowed to leave with no hard feelings. I’m glad. That would have been a hard lunch to eat.

On our way home, we asked our host about the number of vehicles traveling southbound on the highway. He told us that many of the vehicles were traveling to South Africa to buy food. If someone can get enough money, they still can’t buy food in Zimbabwe, so they have to apply for a visa, travel south (or west to Botswana), buy enough food until they can travel south again, and return to their home. Traffic is heaviest tonight (Friday) going southbound, and then again Sunday morning going northbound as everyone returns. Can you imagine driving 6 or so hours just to get food?

We also learned how frightening it can be to travel at night here. The highway is a two lane road with only a small gravel shoulder. Speed limit is about 100 km an hour. It’s dangerous enough in the daylight, but at night, it’s incredibly worse. People, bicycles, and ox-carts still occupy the shoulder. There are no street lights, and fast moving traffic is trying to travel on the narrow roadway. Now imagine huge numbers of people trying to travel on this road to and from South Africa to buy food over a weekend. You can see evidence of many accidents on this road. When passing, people use their right turn signals (you drive on the left side of the road here), in order to help show oncoming traffic where your car is on the roadway. I’m glad I wasn’t driving!

Saturday, November 08, 2008
Today is a free day. Our hosts picked us up at the hotel and walked around the city of Harare with us. It’s a very strange experience. On one hand, there are hundreds of people walking the streets with a purpose. They appear to have places to go and people to see. In many ways, it looks just like a downtown shopping area. But if you go into a shop, there are no people, and few items. We went into a clothing / shoe store. There were about 50 pair of shoes total in the store, and most looked like they had already been worn.

We asked what everyone was doing if they were not going to work on Saturday and not shopping. We were told that people are walking to the bank and /or were looking for people to exchange money from US dollars or South America Rahn to Zimbabwe dollars. You see long lines outside the banks where people are waiting to get cash. On Wednesday this week, the government increased the amount a person can withdraw at any one time from 10,000 Zim Dollars to 50,000 Zim dollars. Now that may sound like a lot, but as close as I can figure, today the exchange rate is something like 100,000 Zim dollars to $1 USD. I say today, as it appears the exchange rate changes hourly. The inflation rate here is over 1 quadrillion percent (per the official paper, so it may be higher). I don’t know about you, but I don’t even know how many zeros are in a quadrillion, let alone figure out how to do an exchange rate. Many people are paid in US or South African currency, but then have to either use it in stores that are licensed to sell in those currencies, or find a way to exchange it to Zim dollars. People here spend much of their available time either trying to figure out how to get money (and these are people that actually have money), or trying to figure out how to buy basic food staples. We went to a grocery store that was licensed to sell in foreign currency. There were many items on the shelves, but prices were incredibly expensive. Cans of vegetables were $2.50 each. Peaches were nearly $3 per kilogram. We’re told for food items the inflation rate here for the US dollar is almost 100%. I believe it for food items, although we didn’t see that for other items. So enough about the economy… After our walk around town, our hosts took us to the Woodlands Reserve. This is a small game park just outside of the city. We sat at an overlook and saw giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, etc. It was incredibly peaceful! We were told that we could do a walking safari through the park, but it was a bit expensive, so we chose not to. As we were sitting in the overlook, one of the park employees was telling us about all the snakes (cobras, pythons, and black mambas) and jackals in the park. I got to thinking about that, and wondered about the wisdom of the walking safari concept. I guess it’s environmentally friendly, but sounds like it could be a bit hazardous to your health!

We also went to a park of balancing rocks. At this park, you could get up close and take pictures of rocks balancing on top of one another. We’ve seen these rock formations as we traveled both north and south of Harare. No one seems to have any idea how they formed, so I’ll have to look it up when I can finally get on the internet. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to where they are. You’ll drive through reasonably flat areas, and then suddenly see some of these formations, and then they’ll end, and you’ll be back to flat areas.

So now, back at the hotel, and an afternoon of working and trying to do laundry in the sink. How exciting (not!)! We would go walk around some more, but it’ll start raining soon, and you sure don’t want to be caught outside in a rainstorm here. More tomorrow!

Sunday, November 09, 2008
Went to church with our hosts this morning. It was a very nice service, although considerable calmer than the other church service I’ve been to in Africa. As is customary, when you visit a church here, you are called out, asked to introduce yourself to the congregation during the service, and then required to wear a nametag that says "visitor" for the rest of the service. I think I probably stuck out as a visitor without benefit of the nametag, but wore it anyway.

This church has 4 services each Sunday. They had to go to 4, and considered more, but we noticed there were many open seats. We were told that many people could no longer come to church as they were unable to get fuel to travel to church. I can’t imagine what that must be like for folks here. Church activities and fellowship are a huge part of who they are, so being unable to attend must feel very isolating. Spent most of the rest of the day working. One nice thing about being unable to access the internet is that you can’t get any new work. I am currently believing that I am totally caught up on e-mails. Yes, I realize I am living in an alternate reality, but it seems everyone here operates that way, so I thought I’d participate!

Early tomorrow morning we fly to Bulawayo, which is in the eastern part of the country. Maybe I’ll be able to connect there and not feel quite so isolated!

Zimbabwe

2008-11-07T22:03:00.000-08:00

4 November 2008
Greetings from Zimbabwe! Boy, does it take a while to get here! 23 hours of flying time and 9 hours of layovers, but arrived here smoothly and am now trying to stay up long enough to get adjusted to the time zone. We arrived a few hours ago, and went straight from the airport to the hotel. Don’t have much to share with you today, other than Harare seems to be a bustling city, lots of people and activity. Right now, I’m listening to the US elections on BBC news. You’ll be glad to know that all the way here (Heathrow, Johannesburg, and Harare), the election was front and center on every newspaper, and it appears to be the only thing happening in the entire world on the major news networks (CNN and BBC). Very different perspective when you hear about it from outside the US.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Harare is a very interesting city. It’s very western in terms of architecture. The hotel is in the downtown area, and there is lots of activity here from early morning until late night. You see many people walking and driving to work, shopping, etc. However, you hear on the local radio about water issues, and a cholera outbreak outside the city. This is in one of the areas we’ll be going in the next two days.

The folks here are very friendly. They have a huge faith in God and are very resilient and resourceful. Everyone we met is looking to the future and to times when they will get through the issues currently facing the country, and into better times. They are an amazing group of people! Not much more to share today as we spent most of the day in the office. Tomorrow, we’ll be outside the city, and I can share more about our travels there. Just a few other interesting facts –

· you can go to a good Chinese restaurant anywhere, even in Zimbabwe

· internet service is difficult to impossible (the reason why you are getting this well after the fact!)

· Everyone here is very interested in the US elections and are all very excited that our election has confirmed President-elect Obama. We even saw t-shirts reflecting this today! They see it as a great thing for not only the US, but many other countries as well. One quoted a saying "When America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold", and then said we had just been given a dose of cold medicine to keep the US from sneezing. Now that’s a whole new way of looking at it!

More tomorrow!

Thursday, November 06, 2008
Today was spent in a location a few hours north of Harare. You get a very different perspective of Zimbabwe when you travel outside the city. You see evidence that at one time, there were many farms, small houses made of brick, stone, or concrete. You see small town areas with banks(called investment centers) a general store, a butcher shop, and maybe a few other businesses. Today, these areas are like ghost towns. Most of the farm areas are not prepared. We’re told there is no seed or fertilizer for the fields, nor fuel for the tractors, so only small garden areas are prepared if anything at all. In the small towns, the shops appear to be vacant. Some of the buildings are now suffering disrepair. We stopped in one small area, and walked into the grocery. Only a handful of items were on the shelf, where we’re told at one point, the shelves were stocked full. None of the items were key food items (corn, flour, other staples).

We traveled out to meet people in a school and clinic in the area. The people amazed us! They are resilient, hardworking, caring, and smiling! I don’t know if I could smile if I lived as they are currently living. All look forward to a time when things will improve, and they believe that time will be soon. It’s hard to believe when you see schools with few to no books, libraries with only a handful of books. But the children at the school put on a performance for us, and they clearly showed they are learning incredibly well. They are smart, articulate, and ready to learn more to help their country.

The clinic was more difficult to see than the school. Very knowledgeable, competent nurses run the clinic. However, they have no tools to treat their patients. There were few drugs at the clinic we saw today, and they see up to 200 patients in a day, serving an area of maybe 7000 people total. They have no electricity, no communication, and the nearest water source is 2 km away. If they have a patient that has to go to the district hospital many kilometers away, they would have to walk, or be transported by ox drawn cart. The clinic cannot call the hospital, and cannot evacuate emergency cases. They simply treat the patient as well as they can, and pray for the best.

In the last few days, the area we were in has seen an outbreak of cholera. There have already been many cases, and they are afraid there will be many more. There are no drugs to treat the illness on hand. We were all cautioned to not shake hands with people. This was difficult for the people here, as properly welcoming visitors requires handshakes, smiles, and greetings, often followed by welcoming songs. A greeting without a handshake feels like no greeting at all! But after a few forgetful moments, and gentle reminders from the district ministry of health official traveling with us, people remembered to either touch fists or elbows as a sign of greeting.

On our way home, we took a slight detour and our host took us to see where some of the business people in the area live. What a difference! Many of these homes are 2 – 3 times the size of our homes in the US (maybe more!). The disparity between even middle class and the very wealthy in Zimbabwe is amazing, and when you compare it to the area we were at today, it’s even harder to comprehend.

I haven’t talked about the hotel we are in yet. It is rated as one of the best hotels in the world, according to all the signs in the lobby. It’s been here since 1915. Everyone is very nice, but technology seems to be a bit beyond the team here. So far, no access to the internet, which is why you all are reading a bunch of these notes all at once. Hopefully, I’ll be able to log on and post them soon.

Final Day in Zambia

2008-03-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today was it! The final full day of this amazing trip before the long flight home. Just for fun (or for torture, depending on how you look at it), I added up the amount of time it’ll take to get back. I leave tomorrow about noon, and get home mid-afternoon Sunday. With layovers and flights, I’ve got almost 36 hours of travel time. How exciting….

We had another great day today. Many office meetings, but also two short road trips. The first was to visit a hospice facility. Initially, the clinic functioned totally as hospice care for those dying of AIDS. Now, many of the folks they admit initially are actually able to leave the clinic after starting the ARV therapy! The medicines by a government group, but all other items for the hospital are provided through monetary and product gifts. The facility is well maintained, and has beautiful grounds. It also has a positive message, as many people are now seen provided medicines, and then able to go home and live full, productive lives while taking the drugs. However, there were still several people in the hospice center that were dying.

We were taken to each and every one of the rooms to see the patients. Today, there were about 20 people in care. Only one had family present with them. Family visits are encouraged, but there is still a stigma attached to AIDS, plus some of these people come from very far away, so family visits are impossible. The disease, plus the difficult lifestyle takes a serious toll on their bodies. We’ve visited with people who are living in poverty, where life is so hard, they may not know if they will eat today. With each of these people though, life still sparkled in their eyes. Sometimes, it was pained, but life was there. This is the first place we’ve visited where people had no life in their eyes.

We then went to a community center. The center had a variety of services from sewing classes for women, to farming, to a small school, to a recreation room. The center started through a grant from a local group, and after several years, has now become self-sufficient. Even this is a struggle though. A month ago, floods covered the center grounds, and killed all the chickens they were raising for sale (total of 450 chickens), and now the center is working to find other income to support themselves. The team is resourceful, and I think they make it, but their story shows just how tenuous the balance is here.

Well…. We’ve come to the end of the journey. I obviously still have the flight home, but I don’t intend for that to be interesting enough to write about. I

Thank you all for traveling with me through Amsterdam, Dubai, Nairobi, and Zambia. In the last 19 days, we’ve been to one of Europe’s oldest cities and one of the world’s newest cities. We’ve been to one of the world’s richest countries, and one of the world’s poorest. We’ve seen areas of incredible beauty, and areas devastated by floods, poverty, and sickness. We’ve been to very permissive countries, to very restrictive countries. We’ve been to places moved by recent violence, and incredibly peaceful places. It’s a bit hard to process all that has happened on this trip, but sharing it with you will certainly help me remember all that I’ve seen.

Let me know how the blog concept works for you, as this is very new to me. I’m always happy to go back to e-mails! I can’t imagine I’d have anything to share unless (until) I travel again, so this site will probably be inactive for a bit, unless one of you can come up with something to write about. So send me an e-mail and let me know if you want to be on the list for future updates if I have the opportunity to travel again.

Can’t wait to see where we go next!

Changing the Community

2008-03-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

One more full day in Zambia, and I begin the trip home. On one hand, it’s hard to believe the trip is nearing its end. I still feel as if I have a lot to learn here. On the other hand, it’s been a long trip, and I’m definitely ready to come home and see my family!

Since I’ve brought you some sobering messages the last few days, I thought I’d change the tone a bit today. Most of our day was spent in the offices in meetings with national and regional staff, but we did have an opportunity to go visit a small community near town. In this community, a woman has started an amazing project to help widows, orphans, and vulnerable children. The group purchased some property in the local area that had functioned as a bar and brothel for some time. They’ve cleaned it up, and created a school for 1st through 5th graders, a kitchen where they make soy milk and other items for the children, and also sell to the local community, and a small business for many of the local women.

Let me take a quick detour to help you understand what we saw today. We’ve had a chance to visit two other schools here. In both cases, the children had no books and few supplies. I don’t think a single one of them had shoes on, maybe a few with flip flop type sandals. The library consisted of a small cabinet with a few books. The science lab was an old scale and a partial skeleton sitting on a cart. The buildings were in poor repair. All that said, the teachers were extremely dedicated. They would make their own lesson, or copy sections of textbooks to the chalkboard for the children to memorize. The children had made small examination booklets that they used for all their lessons. All of them had to show us what they were learning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many children in one place with such neat handwriting! It was obvious that despite the conditions, the teacher and the students were committed to education. (Don’t you wish you could bottle a bit of the dedication and take it back to the US???)

Now let’s fast forward to today. Like the other school, most of the children in this school have lost at least one parent. Many have lost both, and are currently living in child headed households. Just like the other school, the children have no shoes. These kids have been through more at a very young age than some of us will go through in a lifetime. The difference is this school has received some money from a variety of donors. That money has been used to clean up the buildings, acquire a few books and a few tools. With a fairly small amount of assistance, and some dedicated focus, this school looks and feels completely different. Walls are painted bright colors. Children are playing games in the courtyard. Smiles abound everywhere. The difference is amazing. While you could see learning happening in the other schools, the learning is alive at this school.

Then it gets better! Many of the women in the area are widows with little ability to provide income for their families. Here, these women have come together and started their own business. They take plastic bags of all different colors (like the kind you get in the grocery store), cut them into strips, tie the strips together, and then crochet purses, hats, and handbags with the material. The group sells the bags in the markets, and then profits are shared within the group. I didn’t catch the exact breakdown, but some of the money goes to the group to help pay for the area, some of the money goes into a community account, and the rest (and it’s most of the total) is retained by the person who made the bag. While I don’t think this is self-supporting yet, I think it has every opportunity to be, and the women are able to care for their families, as well as contribute to the local community.

Just like the Caregivers you met yesterday, these women are community supporters. They are making change in their own communities by emphasizing education, good nutrition, health, and business. With a little focused support, these women are now doing it themselves. Isn’t it amazing what a little community can do?

The Caregivers

2008-03-05T13:26:00.001-08:00

Today we were able to spend another day in the field visiting Caregivers. These people are truly amazing. As we arrived in the village today, about 150 Caregivers had gathered under a huge tree at the edge of the main village area. This is a large part of the Caregivers that serve a community of about 15,000 people. Again, we were met with many smiles and handshakes, as well as singing and dancing. It’s a bit overwhelming to be welcomed in such a way. After all the introductions, the group wanted to hear a speech from us, their guests, and unfortunately, I was sitting in the wrong seat. As you all know, I am not the most eloquent person in the world, and words of wisdom were apparently required. I did my best, and while they weren’t words of wisdom, and can at least hope that they did nothing to negatively reflect on the amazing work they do. At least I remembered not to use “you all” in a sentence. Can’t imagine that translates well to the local language.

The Caregivers did skits showing what they do, and how they care for people. They were both funny, and very sad. They then shared about their needs, their challenges, and answered many questions from us about their roles. I could probably go on for pages about this meeting, and none of my words could adequately describe the overwhelming sense of compassion, dedication, and enthusiasm these people have for their work and their community.

Rather than use my words, let me use theirs. When answering the question, “What do you enjoy most about being a Caregiver?” one gentleman responded with the following: “I like my work. I often think of all the suffering and problems we have. I think about my children, and think that one day they will become orphans. I wonder who will care for them. I have ideas in my head about how to have community transformation, so that everyone knows we can all potentially be orphans. One day, I will need someone to care for me, and for my children. I am a Caregiver, because one day, I will need someone to care for me.” In both today’s meetings, and yesterday’s, we asked the groups how long they planned to be Caregivers. Without exception, the groups looked at us like we had asked the world’s dumbest question. One woman today responded, “Why would we stop being Caregivers? Our communities need us. I will never stop.”

Imagine sitting under a large tree on a wooden bench, hearing these words from people. The same people who just greeted you as if you were a dignitary, and from whom they wanted to hear great words of greeting and wisdom. Imagine them occasionally breaking into songs, made up on the spot, about how excited they are to have you come, and their excitement for the tools that you send them to carry on their work.

For those of you who have attended Caregiver Kit builds at your churches or schools, these are the people you are supporting. You know what goes in the kits – a few cotton balls, some notebooks, washcloths, medicines, flashlight, a prayer or encouragement card, etc. These are the tools these courageous people use to transform their communities. The prayer / encouragement card is carried around and read over and over again, until it falls apart. It is their link to you, and they value it immensely. You probably didn’t think about it when you filled out your card, but your words are treasured and made powerful through the work done here.

I don’t really remember what I said to them (speaking with no preparation in front of a rather large group can do that to you), other than at some point, I said I hoped to be able to capture everything they would share in a way that would allow me to effectively share their compassion, dedication, and enthusiasm to everyone from my home. I hope in the last two postings, I’ve been able to do just that. The next time you attend a Caregiver Kit build and enclose a prayer card in the kit, think about 150 smiling faces, under a large shade tree, singing and dancing in the face of adversity, with only a small kit and possibly a bicycle as weapons in the fight. These are the people who are educating the world about HIV / AIDS, caring for the disease’s victims, and caring for their children.

After our meeting, we had a quick tour of the local clinic (small clinic serving 15,000 people with the nearest district hospital 43km away), and were then served lunch. The clinic was in poor repair and had nearly nothing. I can’t imagine being treated there.

Lunch was prepared by the local community. We ate in one of their buildings made of mud / clay with a thatched roof. The food was very good. I’ve never had pumpkin leaves, nshima (a grain based food eaten with everything here), and goat, among other things. All washed down with Coca Cola. Even in the middle of Africa, Coke Is It (is that their tag line?)

Some pictures of Amsterdam

2008-03-04T09:13:00.001-08:00

A few pictures of Amsterdam. The internet connection is a little slow, so this is all for today.

Canal in Amsterdam. The buildings on either side were built in the 1600's.

Dutch Reform Church we went to in Amsterdam.

Courtyard around the Church

Entrance to the courtyard and church from the street.

Visit to an African Village

2008-03-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

Today we had an opportunity to visit a village and meet with a group of people that have been specially trained as Caregivers for those in their community. These people are volunteers, and provide education, care, and assistance primarily to people in their community suffering from HIV / AIDS. The people they assist may have the disease, or may be working with community members who have taken in children orphaned by the disease.

The Caregivers are amazing people. They are members of the community who give up their time to travel around by foot or bicycle to care for others. They all have families of their own, with the normal chores and responsibilities that come with caring for your family, your home, and your farm. One woman we spoke with has 10 children of her own, but still takes time each day / week to care for the rest of her community.

When they meet with their patients, they do anything from chop firewood, to wash blankets, find / provide food, help them bathe, and give them medicines. If the patient is severely ill, the Caregiver may transport them to the local clinic on their bicycle, or may go to the clinic after noting all symptoms in a notebook, to receive some medications to help treat the sickness. In the community we were in, all the Caregivers have bicycles donated to them through an organization we partner with. In many communities in Zambia and elsewhere in the world, the Caregiver is on foot as they cannot afford a bicycle, and none have been donated to that area.

Yesterday I commented that none of us can change the world, but we need to focus on the role we can play, changing the world one neighbor at a time. In Zambia, the Caregiver network is doing just that. After meeting with the Caregiver team, we were taken to visit a local family and their Caregiver. The family has three children, and the father is sick. The Caregiver visits them weekly, but will do so more frequently if his health deteriorates. This family receives a variety of help from the Caregiver, but it was clear that the Caregiver was making a serious difference in the family’s quality of life. We sat on small stools in front of their mud house, surrounded by chickens and pigs and listened as they shared their story. It is amazing what something so simple can do for a person.

Our role in this is to get the resources to people like the Caregivers we met with today. We can’t change the world from our homes in the United States (and a few of you are elsewhere around the world), but we can certainly work with others to find resources to send to people like our Caregivers. They are the ones that will ultimately make the difference, but can’t do it without their neighbors around the world.

On the funny side today, shortly after meeting with this family, we were provided lunch. It was from Subway. One moment sitting on a stool by a small house, the next, fast food just like home. We also had an opportunity to visit a school today and visit with some of the children. The funniest moment though was when we provided the head teacher with some Frisbees. Turns out, they don’t play much Frisbee in Africa, so we had to show them what to do with those strange plastic disks. I had a great time playing Frisbee with the head teacher and the other teacher on staff. Unfortunately, we were a bit disruptive to the kids who were supposed to be studying. I don’t think they get to see the teachers play much. And for those of you who have seen my incredible Frisbee throwing and catching ability, you’ll be happy to know that every pass was straight, and I caught every one thrown to me, even those that were a bit off the mark. OK, it’s not on film, but it’s true!

Tomorrow we visit another community. I’ll also be posting pictures in a few minutes. Hopefully you all can see them OK.

A Clinic in Zambia

2008-03-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

OK everyone. The vacation is over, and it’s back to some real work. But before we talk about today, go back to yesterday's posts. I figured out how to post pictures, so there's a couple from Victoria Falls and the safari at the beginning of the post now. I'll try to do more later, but the internet is a bit slow for pictures here.

On to today's activities.....

We started with a 2-hour drive to an area of Zambia where our office has programs. Several months ago, we were able to provide many medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to a hospital that was about to be closed due to lack of adequate items to care for the community. This is the only hospital for about 200 kilometers, so it is very important to the community. That donation helped get them through, and the clinic has been able to stay open.

First, we met the District Commissioner. He is something like the Governor of the district, and reports directly to the President of Zambia. We talked about the partnership of his district with our organization. It is a very exciting opportunity for both, and he is very concerned with ensuring we start by working with communities in the poorest areas of his region. He gave his formal permission to visit the local hospital.

A hospital in Zambia is nothing like a hospital in the US. This one is made up of several buildings that were once a farmhouse and grounds buildings owned by a British farmer. The buildings were made to a clinic in the 1950’s. There are very few medical supplies, or pharmaceuticals. Here, a simple pair of latex gloves can mean the difference between further spreading disease, or helping someone recover. It is hard to describe the scene. The first thing that hits you when you enter is the smell. In a US hospital, that smell is frequently antiseptic. Here, the smell is old. Then you begin to walk through the wards. The dental ward consists of a chair, and some old instruments. They do both basic work, and dental “surgery” which is mainly pulling teeth. This room is actually fairly bright. The next area is the maternity ward. There are two wards, the basic ward, and the “high cost” ward. The basic ward consists of a small room with 3 beds that have what looks something like an old gym mat on them. There are no instruments, just a few buckets on the floor. The beds are separated by shower curtains. The “high cost” ward looks much the same, except there is a small mattress on the bed covered in a sheet, and fabric curtains separate the beds. Next to this room is a small neo-natal unit with two non-functional incubators, and an old metal crib. Then you have the recovery room. This consists of about 10 beds in a small room with several women who have just given birth. They will all be discharged within 6 hours and sent home with their newborns. From this room, you can see the morgue, and hear the wailing. Someone died today at this hospital.

From there go out and see what’s probably best described as the out-patient clinic. There are about 20 people waiting to see the doctor or nurse inside. We were not able to go into this area. We also saw the surgical wards for children, men, and women (separate wards). Each was packed with beds, and was very dark. Luckily today, many beds were empty. However, it’s rained a lot, so the malaria cases will fill them soon.

It’s not really possible to describe this hospital. As someone in my group put it today, you can see all the pictures, and hear all the stories, but you don’t really get the full impact until you get the sights, sounds, and smells all in one. And then you begin to wonder how the work we do can actually make an impact on something that seems so big. Remember, this is just one hospital, in one district, in one country, on one continent. In my job, my role is to serve similar communities in countries world-wide. It’s almost unfathomable. How do you allocate finite resources across so many countries, when the decision on that allocation can literally mean life or death? Then you meet the people on the ground, and realize that the only way to do this is to work with one person at a time. I think we all need to remember that when we think about change. We want to change the world single-handedly, but that’s not what we’ve been called to do. Our roles are to change the world, one neighbor at a time through whatever gifts, talents, abilities, and resources we’ve been given. I guess this doesn’t diminish the enormity of the problem, but it certainly puts it into a perspective that we humans can get our minds around.

So now that I’ve thoroughly depressed all of you, it’s time for me to go to bed. Tomorrow is another day of community visits, this time to visit Caregivers, schools, orphanages, and local clinics. I’m sure I’ll have more to give you to think about tomorrow. Guess the vacation is over for you readers as well!

Victoria Falls and Safari

2008-03-02T19:56:00.001-08:00

Today was our tourist day. We started with a trip to Victoria Falls. This is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Dr. Livingstone gave the falls the current name, but the locals call it the Mist That Thunders.

The Falls are on the Zambezi River, which separates Zambia from Zimbabwe at this point. It’s the rainy season right now, so the falls were very full. As you enter the park and get to the first observation point, it’s amazing how you can see the falls, the river, the spray, rainbows, and the blue sky that seems to go on forever. There are several points to view the falls and many walking trails. I took pictures where I could, but in some of the areas, you couldn’t even see the falls due to the amount of spray from the water hitting the bottom of the falls. As you get closer, you get wet from just a mist, but as you continue walking, you get absolutely drenched! At one point, you come to a bridge where you can cross the river to get a look at the Falls from the other side. The spray was so heavy at this point, you couldn’t see the falls at all, and it was like standing in a shower with incredibly hard water pressure. In fact, I think I’d have been drier if I had simply climbed in the shower with my clothes on!

After viewing from the falls side, we were able to cross around, and view the river before it goes over the Falls. This was beautiful as well. This time of year the river is incredibly wide. We asked some questions about how it looks in the dry season. We were told that there is basically only a few trickles that go over the falls in that time of year. In fact, people can walk most of the way across the top of the falls on the rocks. One gentleman told us that a hotel right on the river’s edge on the Zimbabwe side actually puts tables and chairs out on the rocks and serves dinner! If you look at the pictures, you’ll find this hard to believe that the water level could be that different.

After the visit to the falls, we went on a safari to a national park. Turns out the park entrance is about 500 meters from our hotel, and part of the boundary runs directly behind the hotel. We saw several baboons right at the entrance, so figure the distance from where I’m typing this to where they, and many of the other animals could be roaming is probably between 250 and 500 meters. Kind of amazing!

I don’t think I’ll ever look at the zoo the same way again. We had a wonderful driver who took time to tell us a lot about all the animals, their habits, and a bit of Zambia history. During our 2 ½ hours, we saw giraffes, zebras, impalas, monkeys, baboons, wildebeasts, and several different types of birds and butterflies. Unfortunately, no hippos, rhinos or elephants today. There is only one rhino in the park, and he was in an area where the truck couldn’t go. The river was also moving too fast to see the hippos. We probably drove right by several, but the water was too turbulent to see them from the road. We were told the elephants don’t like the mud (??) and tended to not be in areas where we could see them this time of the year.

Overall, it was an amazing, and relaxing day. Spent the rest of the day just sitting outside listening to music and reading. Kind of nice after 11 days of traveling.

Travel to Livingstone, Zambia

2008-03-01T12:35:00.001-08:00

Today was a mix of work and fun. We went to a market this morning where they sold many things made locally. It was quite interesting to see all the different types of baskets, bowls, jewelry, and cloth for sale. This particular market was held in an open field near town, and only occurs one weekend per month. The quality of the products sold was great!

We then started the 6-hour drive to Livingstone. It’s about 500 km from Lusaka, on the Zambia / Zimbabwe / Botswana border. Along the way, we stopped in a small village near one of our area offices to meet with some of the office representatives, and a family from the local village. One of the members of this family had been disabled for many years, and had to either drag himself along the ground, or have someone carry him. We brought him a wheelchair that had been received in a recent shipment of product from the US. We pulled the chair out of the truck, put it together, and then helped him get situated. One of the area managers who could speak the local dialect talked him through how to use it, and even in the soft sand, he was able to quickly move around. It’s hard to know what to do when you watch a person receive so much happiness from something so simple.

After our stop, we continued on to Livingstone. We arrived too late in the day to see the falls, but will do so tomorrow. Livingstone is a tourist destination. The hotel in which we are staying is more like a serious of bungalows, with open-air patios, pools, and fountains. As the hotel is still partially under constructions, it is currently one of the least expensive places in town. When it is completed, my guess is this will become a very expensive resort type area. As I sit here and type this, it’s hard to believe that I am currently sitting in one of the poorest countries in the world, and that we spent part of the afternoon changing a family’s life, just by delivering a simple wheelchair. It’s hard to get your mind around. As I type this, I can hear the constant waterfall at the pool right outside my door.

Tomorrow is a fun day. We’ll go see Victoria Falls, and then do something else in the afternoon. And I promise to figure out how to do the picture thing soon!

Arrival in Zambia

2008-02-29T10:57:00.001-08:00

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.

Why is it important to put fuel in the taxi?

2008-02-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Changes in Nairobi

2008-02-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

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!

From Dubai to Nairobi

2008-02-26T10:14:00.001-08:00

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!

Our Day in Dubai

2008-02-25T06:30:00.001-08:00

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!

The Anne Frank House

2008-02-25T06:10:00.000-08:00

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!

Touring Amsterdam

2008-02-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

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!

Amsterdam – Days 1 and 2

2008-02-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

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

The story behind the title

2008-02-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

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!

I've Arrived!

2008-02-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

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.