Plans this summer

After three weeks in Tanzania, we will spend three nights on the island of Zanzibar, which is part of Tanzania. (Tanganika + Zanzibar = Tanzania) Zanzibar is 99% Muslim. My friends JM from The Book Club, and BE from church (and the recent Cuba trip) will travel with me.

There are so many gorgeous places in this world!

http://www.zanzibar.org/star/index.htm

So I’m batting around 800 these days.

I’ve been feeling like I haven’t been getting enough accomplished at the library lately.

I mentioned this to my daughter, A, who went on a rant about how my expectations of myself far exceed anyone’s expectations of themselves…or of me, for that matter. Then she asked me if I knew what “batting 300″ means.

Me: It’s in baseball when they hit the ball 30% of the time, right?

A: Yeah…according to boy standards, that’s excellent! Maybe you should adjust your thinking on your accomplishments.

My group in Brazil, 2005

Argentina: Dogs at Mass

An email I sent from Argentina, August 2002:

Just as I am typing this, Claudia, our sweet 26-year-old host, came over to say she had heard about Mary, and suggested I go to San Pedro´s, the local church, to light a candle. I think I will..it is a dear little church. I went to mass there yesterday — a very sociological experience. The best part was the German women who plyed the whole mass on the guitar, accompanied by a children´s choir of about eight 10-year- olds. There were two dogs circulating in the front of the church along with two toddlers. At one point a woman walks out from behind the alter with a broom and dust pan to clean up one of the dog’s offerings.

The music and loving spirit of the service will be a precious memory.The altar itself looked liked a huge red white and blue wedding cake. It was El Dia de Los Ninos Day, of the children and one age group received Bibles and there was a blessing of children of all ages.

We are in San Pedro de Atacama, population 2000, an oasis in the middle of the Atacama desert. Our hotel is wonderful. My roommate here is a teacher from Chile who was a Fulbright exchange. We are taking day trips out to various intereesting earth phenomena. The town itself is kind of like a mountaineering town, art colony with many markets fun restaurants.

Last night, high on a sand dune in the Valley of the Moon, waiting for the sun to set, I met friends of Mary Kay´s from Robbinsdale. I realized the last time I had gone to great lengths to see the sun perform was with Mary Kay, watching the sun come up over the Annapurna range.

Off to the local archeaological museum for a lecture; the director is a former Fulbrighter. There is a big connection with all Fulbrighters here.

Morocco, Fall 2007

Here is the website for the house Mary and I and AE and RE rented in Essaouira for five days after our group travel. Essaouira (Ess a wee ra) the town has a population of 60,000. The site has more photos of the house.

I was the lead organizer for our trip to Morocco. Here’s a list of travel tips I shared with the group before hand:

It appears that we have all recovered from the frustration (Erghh!) of the invoice snafu and moved on to happy anticipation of our journey to Morocco.

Here are some of my thoughts as our departure date comes racing toward us:
If you haven’t read the various packets from OAT, make a cup of coffee or tea (Moroccan mint?) and sit down with a highlighter or take notes. There is a lot in those pages. Also,read all the components that are on the trip website. I just read it over again and there is a lot of interesting information. Click on everything!

Here are some highlights that I gleaned from reading the webpage about our trip and booklets:
1. Bring a pillow case for the desert.
2. Flashlight for the desert. I am sure we can share and they might have extras.
3. Clothing: don’t stew about this too much. It looks as if 60 might be an average temperature. JG said she learned from former OAT travelers that our guide will coach us in customs and dress and will take us to a market to buy scarves for head coverings as appropriate. Light weight long Johns may be appropriate for sleeping in the desert but I am sure they will have plenty of blankets.The website has good information.
4. Swimsuit: several of the hotels have pools.
5. You might want to make a copy of the currency exchange “cheat sheet” on the OAT website. I like to print it out and glue it on a little card to put in my wallet so I have it for shopping.
Other thoughts:

6. My sister reminded me to mention that if we bring American money for tips or to use in markets, it should be fairly crisp and certainly not torn. I suggest you read what OAT has to say about money.

7. I like to line my suitcase with bubble wrap in case I find a wood carving or ceramic plate to bring home.
Any other favorite travel tips?

8. Our guide will most likely have a cell phone, so we won’t need to worry about being isolated from the rest of the world. When my sister and I were in Peru a year ago, one of our travelers got very ill with diverticulitis and had to return home to New Mexico. Corinna, our tour director, stayed in touch all the way, after he left our group, was taken to the hospital and was met by other OAT staff. It was incongruous, as we sat at the top of Machu Picchu, enjoying the blue, blue sky, the intense green of the steep mountainsidess, llamas chewing their cud at our feet and a condor circling overhead, and there sat Corrinna, talking by cell phone to OAT staff in Cuzco and Lima, monitoring our friends’ care and safe departure. It was very reassuring.

9. So much for good intentions. My reading preparation consists of some web surfing, parts of the DK Eye Witness guide book and one book about Harem life in the 50’s. It will be fun to read Moroccan tales during cold winter evenings. Perhaps we will have books among us that we can share on the trip.

10. For what it’s worth, I have read in several places that shopping is much better in Marrakech than Fez.

11. Penny sent an informative website about the Western Sahara territories south of Morocco. This is very controversial. Folks who stayed with a Moroccan family last year said they didn’t want to discuss the situation. Here’s another interesting site.

12. Remember to call your credit card company and/or bank if you plan to use an ATM. They are likely to block the use of your card in Morocco if they don’t know you are traveling there. I had it happen in the USA last summer when I bought gas in IL, Ohio and then by PA they wouldn’t let me charge any more gas, thinking I had a stolen card!

13. Copies of your drivers license, passport and credit card hidden among your belongings provide extra security.

That’s it for now! Take you vitamins and hold on to the handrails.

Home Safely from Cuba

Trying to check-in with commitments here and take to time to summarize the trip and write down things we want to remember for the next groups and promises we made to friends in Cuba.

The president of the seminary we have a partnership with has a keychain with a photo of Bush and an electronic countdown of his days in office. Everywhere we went we heard, “We love Americans. Viva Americanos.”

There is such a contrast between this year and last. Much more open desperation, much more talk of hope, open, but till very cautious talk against the revolution.

Much to process! Love to you all!

Thailand Post #4

Email sent to A. from Thailand, November 27, 2006:

It is very hard to think the holidays are around the corner at home. No Christmas music here. It is also in the 90’s. We are greeted at each arrival back at the hotel with cold lemony cloths. Each time we get back on the bus we are given a bottle of cold water and an face and hand cloth. the hotels are super luxurious…old ones from the 1900’s that have been restored, staff falling all over us, terrific breakfasts with dim sum every morning and a huge asortment of fruit and French pastries, left from French occupation of Cambodia and Vietnam.

Going to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh city this afternoon. Took a boat ride on a large lake to visit a fishing village, alligator farm and more. A very National Geographic morning.

We are following the footsteps of Somerset Maugham as he traveled from Thailand to Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam. Lots to learn, questions. The arrangements are seamless.

Remember to check your auto insurance policy.

So excited that you are going to see the Roches.

See you next Wednesday early afternoon.

Heaps of love, my darling girl!

Thailand, post #3

An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:

Today we are going off in three different groups to the hill country outside of Chaing Mai, staying over night in a camp..ha! Think fancy safari tents tucked in and around beautiful green hillsides. BD and I are in a group that includes a dugout canoe ride, elephant ride, visit to an orchid farm, market tour where I hope to see Hmong and Karens people,and a bicycle ride tomorrow. We will be back here for guaranteed internet and Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t feel sorry for us. We won’t even miss the cranberry sauce.

There is much to tell, say and wonder about. So many questions have formed in my mind.

The former ambassador’s wife is Chinese. She is given the menu for our dinner each day and adds, deletes, to make sure we get to taste everything and that the menu is not American-Chinese  food. They lived in Thailand, Burma and Indonesia with the State department.

I need to share the machine, no time to edit…Love to you all.

Thailand, post #2

An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:

Back to the Burmese students. There were 19 students and we were to offer encouragement as they send off their early decision apps, answer questions about college life in the US, etc. My student, Mai, is applying to a school in North Carolina. When I get home I can heartily write a letter of support to the admissions office, as well as contact an old friend on the faculty. The parents of a student currently attending my alma mater were at a potluck the students hosted for us. Each student took us on a walking/taxi trip in Rangoon to a place we wouldn’t ordinarily see. Mai took me to the Mercury Tea House, which is described in the current book, finding George Orwell in Burma. What I didn’t know is that this is the one place is the city where artists, writers and poets gathered on Fridays, from 11:00-12: 00. One man gave me a book of poems he had translated into English and the group had self-published. One of the artists gave me a flyer about an art exhibit they hoped we could attend. The interpreter was an amazing young man, age 26. He later joined us at lunch, which the other professor had set up buffet style at a hotel, so we wouldn’t have servers listening in our conversations, and the students could speak freely. It reminded me of the visit Mary and I had in 1961 to some students’ home in Moscow.

I don’t know the man’s name, but he is both a sports writer and music writer and expressed his great frustration about the state of journalism in Burma. The government does not allow writers to write anything negative or interview athletes or musicians. Musicians are extremely tormented by limitations imposed by the government. I had a lot of opportunity to assess his strengths and talked to him about the Fulbright program. When I got to the embassy, I told several folks I thought this young man would be a perfect candidate. When I got back to Rangoon, several days later, I met an educational leader of some sort who had been at the tea house with us. He said he had heard of my recommendation about the Fulbright and would encourage the young man to apply for next year.

Thailand, post #1

An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:

I’m sitting in an open air Thai pavilion, with beautiful teak furniture, bouquets and incredibly creative arrangements of flowers everywhere, surrounded by lush gardens at the Yaang Come Village Hotel.
There are magnificent cloth lanterns in white silk hanging from the trees, Thai spirit houses and various temple-type things on the grounds. There are also many handsome young people in traditional clothing, willing to help us at every turn.

We have been traveling a week now and all are in good spirits. The group of travelers (40 and 5 leaders) are simply wonderful. We range in age from about 38-76. All are cooperative, and generous of spirit. All are very well traveled. We have been to Bangkok for several days and then spent four nights in Burma: Rangoon, Mandalay and Bagan. We staying in the elegantly restored hotels made famous by writers (Somerset Maugham, George Orwell) over the years. It is such a treat. There are butlers hovering outside our doors, fresh fruit always and fresh flowers on the pillows, elegant and simple flower arrangements everywhere we go. The flowers in Thailand, especially, are magnificent.

The highlight has been meeting with Burmese students who are being educated in a clandestine educational program to prepare them for US colleges. The hope is that they will return to Burma, equipped to counteract the repressive and stupid regime. (For example, the government just moved the capitol way out in the boon docks, far from Yangon (Rangoon) and are ordering people to move there. They base it on auspicious numbers, dates, etc, but they haven’t built any buildings or housing. The embassies and consulates are refusing to move. In the meantime the Burmese government is selling the gov buildings in Rangoon to the Chinese, most likely to build the new buildings as well as line their own pockets.)

Any way, we have many lively discussions and briefings. One of the professors with us was an American Ambassador to Burma. He and his wife had a lot of fun visiting the home they had lived in when he was Ambassador. We also had a briefing with the US ambassador to Thailand at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, the day of our arrival. He was deep into preparation for the Current Occupant’s visit to Vietnam.