Meg's Blog

Martin Luther King Jr

2007-09-25T11:17:00.000+10:00

In the relative blandness of Atlanta I found inspiration today. I left the office early and went the Martin Luther King Jr Center. What an amazing man he was, a totally inspirational and a speaker of the most powerful kind. Just listening to him in the old footage was enough to make my eyes water.

Au revoir Geneva, Hello Atlanta

2007-09-24T22:41:00.001+10:00

The bit about traveling I don’t like is never the being in a foreign city, that part I always love, but the leaving part. The longer I spend in anyone place the more I enjoy it! So, I have a confession, by my final days in Geneva I was really enjoying it and was almost disappointed to leave! This has to be our little secret, but I actually decided Geneva is a lovely place where one could have a very nice and pleasant life! Shhhh, don’t tell my boss! I had my annual performance appraisal with my boss on Friday and you know you have to come up with two personal development objectives for the year. He cheekily suggested that mine should be 1) to learn French and 2) learn to love Geneva. I have always been adamant I had no desire to ever live in Geneva, but I can see that it would be very nice. With the fun friends I was hanging out with I just kept finding lots of wonderful little sides to Geneva, like the hippy bar near my hotel, the grungy Saturday night street party celebrating a 30 year old squatter movement, the little canteen out in the middle of the lake with cheap dinners and carafes of wine, and the street fair where I spent a Saturday morning wandering among all sorts of people, selling all manner of junk, with a different kind of music playing on every corner. Geneva is not all zhi zhi UN workers and fondue after all, although admittedly there is plenty of that too. And I just love the lake, it’s nice and blue and has a lot of life happening on it and around it.

Anyway, despite all that it was however time to move on, and so at 5am this morning I schlepped my suitcase out to the airport and began the journey to Atlanta. Geneva, London, Chicago, Atlanta arriving 20 hours later. I arrived but alas my suitcase didn’t. My turn around in London was so tight I had to run the whole way from one plane to the other to make the flight, but they unfortunately didn’t do the same with my bag! Passed through Chicago very briefly. Having read at least 10 VI Warshawski novels which are all set in Chicago I wouldn’t mind one day visiting Chicago, but for today had to be satisfied with looking out the train window while changing terminals and imagining Warshawski driving around on those big roads and down to the lake. I tell you from the plane window that is one very big lake indeed, more like the ocean with the other shore nowhere in sight even from the plane window.

Finally touched down in Atlanta this evening while it was still hot and sunny, so could check the view on the way here. Strange place Atlanta, I’m really not sure what the main attraction is, I don’t actually think there is one. It kinda has the character of downtown Belconnen on a grander scale, but without the nice lake. Lots of large concrete buildings, a baseball stadium with lots of coca cola neons lights (Atlanta of course being coke headquarters), and some trees which ring the main city. When I checked into the hotel they asked if I’d like a lower down floor or a higher up one. When I said higher she gave me the 25th floor! The view from my window is a strange but nice enough. Directly outside is a big modern black glass building which appears to be the Georgia Power company, but other than that it is just a wide, flat expanse of land with lots of green trees and low buildings scattered among the greenery. Totally flat. The hotel breakfast menu offers Georgia Mountain Grits, though I’m not sure where the mountains are! On the other side of the building, the view is the complete opposite, just a concrete jungle of very tall skyscrapers, but not very glamorous ones, just tall, identical concrete. Anyway, they’re my quick observations of arrival in Atlanta. Time to sleep now and get a bit organised for my last couple of days of work meetings. 3 more days to get through!

Son in Oslo and Lake Geneva

2007-09-17T05:46:00.000+10:00

Bonjour, ca va? merci, au revoir!

2007-09-17T05:36:00.000+10:00

I’m more likely to start speaking Arabic fluently than ever speak French (ie highly unlikely) but there is something fun about bouncing around saying bonjour! Ca va? Merci, au revoir! which is what one needs to do in Geneva. Thankfully beyond that you can always revert to the universal language of hand signals which I find always work for me. There is far less English spoken in Geneva that you would think for such an international centre.

I am here for a couple of weeks this time, which is longer than I have ever stayed before. On previous visits I have come just in time for my meetings and left as soon as they are over, so never even spent a weekend here, but this time I even have two weekends hanging out here. I’m not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing!! But so far I had a very nice weekend.

I left home last Saturday, went straight to London. When I got to London I was completely shattered. My body is obviously out of traveling practice, because I never used to get so affected by jet lag! Anyway as a result of my jet lag, plane being delayed by about 5 hours and having work preparation to do I was unfortunately unable to do as much socializing I normally do and had to be satisfied with a phone conversation with Clayton and Bridie instead the normal beer, and apologies to Rachel, Dave and Danny for not even calling! I did however manage to have a lovely brunch in the sunshine with Vic and Sue which will be our last London rendezvous as they are both packing up and leaving London in the next couple of months. My visit to London was brief, and I have to confess that yet again I left London with the conclusion that it’s a nice place to visit but I have no desire to ever live there!

From London I went to Oslo. The only other time I have been in Oslo was in 1996 and I absolutely loved it, so as soon as I got off the plane I felt immediately cheered up. Only two days there, but I did get a chance to catch up with Son for a beer, and to go to Vigeland park which is the most beautiful sculpture garden. I’ve wanted to go back there for 10 years! As Ann Lehmann, who first took me there, says, Vigeland perfectly captures and powerfully all of the good, bad and the ugly of human emotion and relationships.

Then to Geneva Wednesday night. I’m staying right near the lake, there are quite a few of my team mates in town and the weather has been absolutely gorgeous so have been doing very enjoyable things like running round the lake through the parks, drinking gin and tonics at the lake side bar, going to the Ferney farmers market over the French border and buying raspberries, nougat, cheese and tapenades and today taking the boat across the lake to a little medieval village. All so very European! They do live well here. Mum, you would love it!

Anyway, that’s my travels so far, though of course I should mention in between there is non stop boring workshops and meetings! Tomorrow I have my most important meeting of the whole trip which I’m actually not looking forward to! It’s a workshop where about 20 people get to rip to shreds my entire years work… what fun that will be, not! Will definitely be in need of a soothing lakeside gin and tonic tomorrow!

More Samoa photos

2007-08-31T13:39:00.000+10:00

Hello, back in Canberra, the weather is lovely and as always its good to be home.

Here are more photos from Samoa which more or less capture everything done during the holiday...

first one is Andy and Zoe at sliding rock pools- you basically sit at the top of this waterfall and go down it like a waterslide

This is where I stayed from Tues-Fri last week, sleeping in this beach fale and lying on the beach and snorkelling every day. Its a pretty social place too so met lots of fun people.

Lalomanu sunset after the afternoon rain.

The fire dancers at Lalomanu in all their shiny-ness...
Kayaking with Manda out to Namua island

Manda and I sitting on the tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson (author of Treasure Island) after climbing Mt Vaea

More Samoa

2007-08-31T13:30:00.000+10:00

The opening ceremony of the South Pacific Games at Apia Park. Very exciting, just like being at the Olympics :)

Jimmy and Zoe discover sand at Aganoa Black Sand beach

Sunday at Aganoa black sand beach

On Carolyn's recommendation Manda and I spent my last day in Samoa at the Sinalei day spa with all the pampering, plunge pool, massage, facial etcs. This is us in the plunge pool
Last night dinner to thank Andy for all his lovely cooking at Andy's favourite Apia restaurant Bistro Tatau

Samoa!!

2007-08-20T19:26:00.000+10:00

ok, I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything here and thank you to those of you who took the time to complain about my silence! Over the last 6 months I've basically been hanging out in Canberra and surrounds, a good few weekends in Sydney, one in Melbourne and a couple at the coast. Life has been great! but seeing I wasn't spending much time in airports as I used to I thought I would let the blog go for a while. Anyway, here I am finally updating the blog from Samoa where I am visiting the poolberts (aka Amanda, Andy and Zoe). Given they are good bloggers themselves I thought I better get my standards back up.

So I arrived in Samoa last tuesday and followed the Amy Wells rule of holidaying which is to spend at least the first day entirely asleep/ in bed. Got up at 5pm just as Amanda got home from work and cracked the first gin and tonic. There have been a few daily gin and tonics since then, after all it is the tropics, one needs a bit of quinine dont they? On Wednesday ventured down to visit cousin family Adam, Carolyn and Eliza who just happened to be here holidaying and spent a nice afternoon at the beach lying around, having a swim, and shared my first Vailima (local beer) with Adam and Cal. Since then, well, have been spending more time lying on the beach, swimming and drinking gin and tonics. I'd like to tell you more but that's about it! ok thats not entirely true, poolberts have taken me to see some lovely water falls, ocean trenches and a traditional dancing evening, but the best thing so far was just spending a long weekend in some little cabins (kind of like the shack) on the most beatiful beach and yep, like I said, doing nothing but lie on the beach, swim and drink gin and tonics.

Anyways, here are the photos to prove it, and a couple of Manda, Andy and Zoe. Zoe by the way is a complete delight, very happy and fun, always smiling and squealing with joy at whatever takes her fancy, usually my glass of gin.

London, Paris, Geneva

2007-03-22T10:40:00.000+11:00

I have had it pointed out to me that I forgot to mention that I went to London, Paris and Geneva in Feb. I did. It was fun and I will tell more when I have time... right now need to do some work! Oh, and I went to Adelaide too!

It's true! I did a triathlon!

2007-02-06T12:26:00.000+11:00

Me, AJ, Amy and Kate (L-R)
, oh, and me being a poser...! gotta love that arm marking! maybe I should get a tatt!!

Triathlon photos

2007-02-06T12:22:00.000+11:00

Triathlon Photos

2007-02-06T11:28:00.000+11:00

Yes, it's true, I did a triathlon on the weekend!! It was in Penrith and my fellow triathletes were Kate, Amy and Ajay! It was 250m swim, 10km bike ride, 2.5km run. My official time was 52mins, 37 seconds. Here are some photos.

Tasmania!

2007-01-18T11:55:00.000+11:00

Tasmania really is a very delightful place. It's hard to say why but its just lovely. I spent more than two whole weeks there from new years til Monday doing not much at all but I wasn't bored once! Of course I had lots of good company, finally topped off with the much awaited arrival of Zoe Jemima Poole.

Gerringong with Gracie

2006-12-22T10:43:00.000+11:00

is where I will be for Christmas! This is my new little niece. Will be spending chrissy by the beach with the family in Gerringong and then heading to Tassie for the arrival of the Tadpoole. Babies everywhere! Other than that have been delighting in hanging out in Canberra! Merry Christmas!

If Christchurch was any sleepier it would be comatose

2006-11-17T09:41:00.000+11:00

I really don't have much to write about Christchurch... its a nice enough little town, but my is it sleepy. You know in Australia on a late Sunday evening in say, Autumn, when all the shops are shutting and there is hardly anyone in the street....? well its like that any time of the day any day of the week here! And this is the biggest place on the south island... my friends tell me that indeed everywhere else has been even sleepier. Thanks god I'm here only for a couple of days because this place has taken relaxation to a new level... anyway, the real reason I came here was to catch up with Gabriel, my old friend (of 10 years already!) from when I lived in Spain, and that has been very nice, wandering around the town and going out to the beach for lunch by the seaside (a bit of excitement provided by the attack seagulls nearby). Flying home this afternoon, a couple of hours in Sydney and then home late tonight... to stay! hooray! hmmm, will have to blog from Canby from now on!! maybe nearly as exciting as Christchurch!

Delightful New Zealand – the antidote?

2006-11-16T18:28:00.000+11:00

I love New Zealand. If I were to ever leave Canberra for another Australasian city, I think it might be for Auckland. I’m sure my dad might baulk at that, claiming he left that rainy place for sunshinier life for us, but rain and all, I like it. When it’s sunny it’s divinely beautiful and when it’s grey and rainy it’s kind of cosy and comforting. And then after so many years of traveling to strange and foreign lands, meeting new people all the time, it is so nice to be visiting somewhere to which I am permanently connected despite the years of absence, to have dinner in the town I was born, to drive past the house my parents built (with a little help from my uncle) and to hang out with people who have known me and loved me my entire life, since the day I was born. My four days in Auckland have been the perfect antidote to my earlier adventure travels, simple, easy, relaxing and beautiful. I went for walks, runs, lunches and dinners, afternoon naps, visited the beach and the bush and the countryside with all the sheepies and spent time with the aunties and uncles and cousins. My favourite thing was going to see my cousin playing soccer. In a life where I am lucky to work with the same team for more than 15 days before changing place and teams, I was delighted to see the same team that I played touch rugby with when I lived there as a teenager still going strong and together 15 years on, and still up for a beer after the game. There is something very appealing about that life.

Disastrous holiday….

2006-11-10T07:58:00.000+11:00

Warning. Long wingeing blog ahead….
I now remember why I don’t go in much for adventure holidays. First because there is often a little too much adventure and not enough holiday and second because it just feels a bit too much like a work trip. So my one week adventure holiday in Bolivia planned for the last week I think was fair to say was fairly disastrous. Cursed in fact one might say. I finished work on Wednesday and was due to fly to Rurrenabaque (Rurre for short) in the Amazon basin on Thursday. I then had a five day tour booked, 3 days in the savannahs (pampas), 2 days in the jungle (selva), with the plan to fly back on Wednesday and take my international flight Thursday. So, the first Thursday arrives and I am informed that my flight has been cancelled because, low and behold, its raining. The plane can’t land when its raining they tell me because the landing strip in Rurre is only dirt, no tarmac, so any rain and flights are off. They tell me to call at 8am the next day to find out when the next flight is. The travel agent says don’t worry I can still do 3 days pampas, 1 day selva. 8am the next morning I call, call back at 12 they say, at 12 its call back at 1, at 1 its call back at 2, you see how its going. Couldn’t do anything else useful with my day. At 2pm they finally say yes a flight will go, be at the airport at 3 for a 4pm flight. Hooray. Success, or so we think. The plane departs at 4.30pm and it’s a small 20 seater with single rows down each side. We fly up over the Andes, so close in our little plane you can touch them, and then we head into clouds and you can’t see anything. 40 minutes later we start a bumpy descent, still in the clouds but this time the clouds are seeping into the plane, cold mist is swirling in through the floor and the roof. The plane starts bumping up and down and we along with it, so rough our heads nearly hit the roof some times. I have a new appreciation for seat belts in planes. Suddenly we pop out of the clouds and there is a very large mountain next to the window, beautiful and green and jungle covered, but oh way too close to comfort. It’s raining a little. The pilots announce we are going to land and down we go skimming the tops of the palm trees and next thing we know we are going up again…. Up up up… until the pilots say, ladies and gentlemen it was raining on the runway, so we will be going back to La Paz! Swearing emanates from the passengers (well me at least). We arrive back in La Paz 7pm and I go out and drown my sorrows with a friend over a couple of Pisco Sours and decide whether to cut my losses and what else to do with my holiday if I abandon Rurre. By the morning however, day 3, I have some renewed determination and I figure bugger it, I’ll try again. I’ll still have 3 days pampas, but then I am advised if I want to be sure to make it back for my international flight I should return a day earlier and cut a day off the end, so now my tour is down from 5 days to 2 days…. I go anyway. Finally on Day 3 I get a flight at midday and off we go to Rurre, we arrive safely and it is nice and sunny, Rurre is a tiny little tourist town on the edge of the Amazon, surrounded by beautiful lush mountains and on the side of the River Beni. Lots of tourist and tour groups coming and going. Some of my fellow plane passengers and I went out to celebrate our arrival with some beer and pizza before setting off the next morning on the tour to the pampas. Next morning head off on the tour to the pampas, weather is good, the trip takes 3 hours by road to reach the river where we head up to a campsite. We get there at lunchtime and then the holiday part actually starts… I’ll tell you about that separately though, right now I’m indulging in my tale of woe. After just 24 hours in the pampas, the tour has to start the journey back to Rurre at midday the next day… So off I go back again to Rurre. First bad bit of the trip back is my group is changed from really nice people (who are staying for 3 days) to a group with a really annoying bunch of young catalan girls who proceed to annoy the hell of out of me the whole way back. Once we’re off the river and back on the road, the 9 of us and two tour guides get in a crappy old vehicle with no air and no suspension and drive the 3 hours back down the bumpy road to spine numbing effect. We arrive back in Rurre and its still sunny and I see the afternoon plane loading at the airport as we drive past. I think, maybe I should get off here and see if there is space on today’s plane, in case there is a problem tomorrow, but the van keeps driving and I see the plane head off overhead. I get back to Rurre and confirm my flight for the next day. 3pm they say and don’t worry, there will be sun for the next week, no problems with flights, the weather is lovely. I book a half tour jungle tour to make the best of my remaining time. That night I don’t get very much sleep. First a bunch of drunk Israelis are letting of fire crackers outside the rooms. Then at about 1am in the morning it starts….. the rain… oh my the rain, it was serious torrential rain, that heavy and continuous kind you just know is not going to stop for a week. So I lay awake most the night thinking bugger, how am I going to get back in time for my flight. I really don’t want to miss my flights and be stuck in Rurre in the rain for an underdetermined time. The next morning I get up and go to the airline office who confirm that there is no chance any planes will fly today and probably not for a week…. I run into a German girl in the rain and she too needs to get an international flight, so we agree to rent a jeep together which is the only other way back to La Paz, that or the local bus for 18 hours. The trick is the jeep is expensive ($350USD) and we need to find other people to share the cost. After an hour or two of cruising the streets in the pouring rain pouncing on anyone looking as desperate as us we have a posse of 6, me, German girl number 1, German girl number 2, an Australian couple one of whom turns out went to my high school and a French/Spanish gentleman of 62 years old and good humour which is fortunate for the two German girls cos it turns out they are pretty skint of cash so the nice Frenchman bank rolls them the way the La Paz. So, 10am we have our posse and I am keen to go as its supposed to be a 12 hour drive, and the last 3 hours is the “Death Road” which I don’t want to be doing in the middle of the night (though that seems inevitable). But first German girl number 1 has some stuffing around to do for about an hour, then at 11am German girl number 2 realises she’s lost her camera and we spend the next hour looking and trying to convince her that no its not really feasible for her to phone that remote little village on the road to the pampas to see if anyone found it…. Finally at about 12 noon we pile in the jeep, again poor suspension, little leg room or seat room and no pillows and start off on what is promised to be a 12 hour drive. After about just 2 hours we stop for lunch. The driver has been informed that there have been landslides ahead so we should eat now as we don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for the landslides to clear. It was then as I sat down in the rain in a crappy eatery with the most disgusting of toilets with a bunch of strangers to eat standard Bolivian lowlands fare of fried chicken and rice that I had flash backs to work trips and realized the irony of choosing to take a holiday which was just like a work trip… We finish lunch and go back to the car only to find the driver has the wheels off and is adjusting the breaks. Never a comforting indicator of safety… After another half hour we hit the road again, with the smell of bad breaks and black smoke in our wake. We start passing landslides. The rain has been so torrential that the rainy season has not even started properly and there are landslides all along the road. This does not bode well for later in the season disaster wise… again this is starting to feel reminiscent of work trips in which landslides feature heavily. It also does not bode well for us… but for a while most of the landslides are being cleared and we can pass. Then at about 5pm we hit the big one. A whole portion of the road has been washed away and there is no way around it whatsoever. It will be 2 days before it is mended they tell us. No way forward, only way is back. Bugger that I say. No way in hell am I going back another 5 hours to sit in Rurre to wait for the rain to clear while my flights home leave without me. We go down and inspect the gap and I see some kids playing down the bottom. Well, if they got down there we can too I say. Let’s cross on foot and find a new form of transport on the other side. Just one problem, there is another landslide about 1km down the road. Oh well, we’ll just have to cross that one too. So we unload the jeep, get our packs and start to climb down into the path of the landslide and up the other side, of course to the amusement of all the locals thinking we extranjeros are crazy of course. So off we go, we make it past the two landslides and in our one stroke of luck on the other side of the second landslide is a nice older man and his wife sitting in an empty jeep waiting to cross. Given they can’t cross for two days we make them an offer to take us to La Paz which they accept with glee and an extraordinary price and off we go. They just first have to go home and unload their fruit boxes off the roof so our luggage can go on top. Its just 40 minutes away they say…. 3 hours later we reach there house and unload their fruit boxes which means we can now have a seat each instead of on top of each other and recommence the journey to La Paz. The good thing is that our driver is an older gentleman and very safe and cautious… a good thing given we are now driving the very unsafe roads of Bolivia through the middle of the night. So onwards we go on what seems like an interminable drive across Bolivia, but thankfully without further incident. Without incident, but not without the fear of incident. At around 3am in the morning we finally hit Coroico, which marks the beginning of “The Death Road”. People who have traveled in Bolivia will know the death road because hundreds of tourist choose to cycle down it, but I suspect few choose to drive it in a car at 3am… It is called the death road because it has the highest number of fatalities each year and is completely terrifying. Its about an hour of a small, narrow road winding up the mountains, with sheer drops of an indescribable height on the side, with no barriers between you and the drop, its just the road and the abyss…. The climb is admittedly spectacular. It’s where the lowlands of Bolivia, leading from the Amazon basin dramatically climb up into these tropical mountains, lush and green and jungle covered until they then transform themselves into the snow capped and humongous Andes mountains. At 3 in the morning the view was different, dark but still spectacular. It was a full moon which lit the view for us, below the river, the valleys and crevasses were filled with mist and the mountains we black and looming above. And the in the moonlight the abyss at the edge of the road remained truly terrifying. It was one of those moments where you are at once breathless from the astounding beauty and at the same time unable to breathe from fear. I felt completely sick with my heart in my mouth the whole hour or so up that winding road but in complete awe of the experience. Finally by about 4am we made it up there and I was very grateful for our slow and cautious driver that we were at the top and not over the edge. I dozed off for about half and hour and awoke to find the car parked on the side of the road next to a huge snow covered mountain. It was freezing, 4.30am and we had about an hour to go until we reached La Paz. So close… but yet so far. The effort of the death road had taken it out of the driver and he had decided it was time for a nap, had pulled over and was out to it. No sign of waking up in a hurry. We all sat there in a dilemma… of course he needed to sleep, but we were so close and wanted to finally arrive…. Finally German Girl number one reached the point where she had only an hour and a half to make it to the airport to reach her plane and so the driver was awoken and on we went through the beautiful snow covered Andes until we descended into La Paz. I finally reached my hotel at 6am after 19 hours in the jeep. I sleep until 12, reconfirm my flights out of the country do some last minute shopping and go for dinner, more wine and lots of laughter with some friends and at 5.30 this morning hopped up and headed for the airport again, and now here I am in Santiago waiting for the plane to New Zealand. So, there was beauty and there was plenty of adventure in my holiday, but there was also a good amount of frustration and a feeling that things were just never going to go my way. There was not much of a holiday in there and ultimately in my 7 days of holiday, there was 24 hours of holiday and 6 days of just trying to get there and back… in the end probably not worth it but this is the way we learn isn’t it. So the lessons learned? I decided that perhaps it was just fate reminding me that you can’t always have things go your way, some things are just beyond your control and the only way to deal with such frustrations is to accept it and ride through it until it is finally over, survive it. Lesson No 2, never plan a trip to Rurrenabaque unless you have an unlimited amount of time to sit and wait for the sun to shine and the planes to fly!

The beautiful Isla del Sol

2006-11-03T07:42:00.000+11:00

Last weekend I went to the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca for the weekend with a group of people from work. It was so much fun and such a beautiful place. I went to the Isla del Sol earlier in the year for a day trip and I thought it would be great to go back to and stay for a while, so this time we at least went and stayed overnight. It's hard to describe its beauty, because even though it is visually beautiful, its great magic is in the ambience, there is just something divine about it. We did a bit of walking around (or should say Up) the island and then at sunset went to a point at the top with a bottle of wine. There wasn't a colourful sunset because of the clouds, but instead a beautiful silver and blue evening. From the top of the hill to the east were the white snowy mountains, to the west all silver and shimmery in the sunset was Peru and ahead the beautiful colours of Copacabana. Our little hostel looked out towards the west to Peru. Once night fell there is not much to do on the island but we made ourselves cosy in the little restaurant of the hostel sitting on llama wool cushion, eating trout from the Lake and polished off a few more bottles of wine... after about 4 bottles between the 5 of us we proceeded to drive away the rest of the customers with our laughter!

Just hanging out in La Paz

2006-10-28T07:42:00.000+10:00

Hello hello. I am in Bolivia and have up til now just been hanging out in La Paz, which you all already know that I just love. So not much adventures to recount as have just been working and hanging out here, went for karaoke last night and going dancing tonight, going to Lake Titicaca for the weekend and then starting a bigger adventure end of next week at which time will have more to tell. Here is a photo of me picking up some strawberries on the way home from work.

Singapore... I have a serious problem

2006-09-13T20:19:00.000+10:00

Well before even wondering what my problem is I am sure you are first wondering what the hell am I doing in Singapore? I didn't quite look at my itinerary home very well other than the departure date and it was not until I was boarding my flight to Singapore that the confused check in clerk pointed out that I was in fact scheduled to get off a flight Bahrain-Singapore-Sydney direct only to wait 11 hours for the next flight to Sydney. With this news I realised I have never actually left the airport in Singapore and so may as well make the most of it and spent the day walking around the various sites of Singapore, from Chinatown to Little India, to lunch by the river. It was of course during this escapade that I realised how serious my little problem has become.... yes, the shopping addiction. I am ashamed to tell how much money I managed to spend in a few short transit hours. I just couldnt control myself. The saleswoman was just way too effective and it seems some part of my brain didnt care how ridiculous my purchases were. The end result...? I have a nice new piece of furniture being shipped home to Sydney... what was I thinking??? I need help... Am now recovering from the shock of my own actions by living on the free foods of the Qantas Club lounge awaiting the flight to Sydney, home in the morning and will be banned from any purchases for ever after.

Dancing and Ayman

2006-09-04T01:27:00.000+10:00

Well after my last blog and the long silence in between I figure perhaps I need to tell you some more cheery news. Hence my two topics of choice today: Dancing and Ayman.

First, on dancing: Let me let you in on a little secret. Despite, or perhaps in spite of the war, Beirut is a fabulous city. The city is stunning and the bars here are second to none, and ever since the first night of the cease fire when we cautiously ventured out into a street of bars and restaurants, where other people were also nervously coming back out on to the streets, the bars have been pumping. Any night of the week you can head down to an area full of style and glamour and fun and fantastic music and dance the night away. Now, given the demands of work I can’t confess to doing that every night… but I have indeed managed to get in a fair bit of dancing in since the cease fire came into effect and have been truly admiring this fantastic side of Beirut. It definitely is right up there in terms of happening cities of the world in every respect!

Second, on Ayman: Ayman is our driver. A colleague the other day said he is like a caricature. His face is so full of character and so is his personality. He’s a little bit crazy and a lot funny. He doesn’t speak a lot of English but is a determined teacher of Arabic, each day teaching me something new like the different between Hamam and Hamam (toilet vs pigeon). He jokes all the time and plays the music loud in the car and insists we dance to it and takes me grocery shopping and runs around helping me find things and jokes about turning me in to the military checkpoints so I can’t leave the country but instead stay. The thing I love about my trips is the wonderful people I meet and the small daily life things like going shopping with someone crazy and sharing jokes and all those simple things and good people and friendships that just start to develop when normally I am about to leave. There are lots of them here as everywhere of which Ayman is just one very amusing example.

And on that note, in true form, its time to leave… The good side of which of course is I get to come home to all the good people at home and enjoy some simple daily life pleasures in my own town. I leave here on Wednesday, spending some time in Jordan for both work and pleasure (work meetings followed by long weekend at Dead Sea Spa resort… life’s tough sometimes, but hey I earned it). Will be home around Wednesday 14th I think. Looking forward to seeing you all, especially my bro's new house. Not that he ever reads this blog...

Bastards

2006-08-13T22:18:00.000+10:00

Actually I would like start that title with a word begining with F but for the children reading I will refrain. I can't begin to tell you the outrage I feel about what is going on here, about what goes on in any war, but which for today is happening here. As the news reports that the ceasefire has been agreed, at least 20 large bombs dropped all in quick succession in the southern suburbs, the most bombs in quick sucession I have ever heard or felt within the space of about 60 seconds. How many people did that kill? how many children? A couple of days ago I met a young boy just 13 years old who's brother was killed in the bomb on a residential area about 5 days ago. I felt that bomb. He did too. He is completely ripped to shreds, to see him was so shocking, but he was the survivor. His brother was not. A 10 week old baby was not. 1000 other people are not. I am fine, but every time you feel and hear these bombs people are being killed in the most horrific way. The world should be outraged at this. Never believe the bullshit of the people who are complicit in this.

In Beirut

2006-08-04T01:18:00.000+10:00

Just ten months ago I was in Beirut for a weekend on R&R. Here I am again under very different circumstances but this time actually my hotel room is nicer and I have a nice sea view of the Mediterranean. so far all well!

Bahrain via Narooma

2006-07-25T17:43:00.000+10:00

Well about four weeks ago I was sitting in the Bahrain airport on my way to Yemen thinking thank goodness it was my last traveling for a little while…. Or so I thought. But of course after a brief 13 days at home in Canberra and here I find myself again in the Bahrain airport waiting for a flight onwards to Jordan. Who would have thought? Anyway, its true, I am going to Jordan to help with preparations for a potential assessment and response in Lebanon and Syria. Don’t know where I’ll be and for how long, but I would say 8 weeks in the region is a safe bet. Glad that I got to catch up with those of you that I did and sorry that I didn’t see those of you I didn’t while home.

While I was home, I did manage to pop down to Narooma for the weekend with Dan, Deana and Ruby. Here is a photo of Ruby which mum has specifically requested to see how big she is already. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend with lovely light sunshining on through the few clouds which were floating around. I didn’t quite go swimming though… a bit chilly for that. It was lovely and relaxing though and just what I needed before heading off again. There really are not many places in the world as beautiful as the south coast. We’re so lucky to have it and I’m looking forward to spending more time there next year!

Ok, well, will try and post next adventures from Jordan. blogging from lebanon may not be as easy... he he, just kidding mum.....

2006-07-14T00:15:00.000+10:00

ok, my friend Humberto complained that he didn't get a special mention in the Central America blog, which he did deserve given we worked together non stop the entire time I was in Central America, so here is a photo of me and Humberto at the airport in Nicaragua on our way to Honduras. Gracias Humberto por un viaje tan divertido.

Jewels, the sea and g&t's

2006-07-09T13:07:00.000+10:00

I admit there was a very brief moment when I thought perhaps flying to Egypt for the weekend was a little over indulgent….but nah! It was perfect and totally lazy! A great way to start some R&R. Stayed at Kate’s house in Cairo and had a lazy time, went to my favourite jewellery shop and spent a small fortune then went out for dinner to eat yummy middle eastern food and smoke shisha. The next day, slept in and had a late breakfast and then about lunch time we headed out to the Red Sea for an overnight stay at a resort and spa. More hard work involved of swimming at beach, going for facials and massage at the spa and lying by pool, with a few G&Ts to end the day. Was just lovely. Here’s a picture of me and Kate at dinner, and a bit of Mohammed’s arm in the foreground, though he insisted we cut him out of the picture as he reckons appearing on a blog might be bad for his image!

To Egypt!

2006-07-05T19:56:00.000+10:00

To anyone who I told i would be home on the 8th, Im sorry I lied. I am leaving yemen tonight and going to Egypt for the weekend. Will be home on the 10th instead.

Pix from Yemen

2006-07-01T22:19:00.000+10:00

Magical Yemen

2006-07-01T20:28:00.000+10:00

Well here I am in Yemen for the second time and I’m pleased to say it is every bit as magical and wonderful as I remember it to be. The streets and buildings of old Sana’a are just beautiful, as is the market filled with silver, spices, fruits, scarves and daggered men and veiled women. Having now been to Damascus, they’re actually very similar in the old cities. And also like Damascus, the people are so lovely and friendly, not jaded by too many tourists I think so there is a special kindness and openness and friendliness here. So ironic that Syria and Yemen are up at the top of the apparent ‘world evil’ list according to our stupid leaders, because their people and old cities are gentle, beautiful and delightful. (though admittedly with some cultural quirks….).

Yemen was the first ever place I traveled with CARE back in early 2002, so it’s very nice to come back again, and an extra nice treat is that my German friend Diana who I met back in 2002 is also here again, so I have had someone to go on adventures with. Yesterday we went to Wadi Dah which is the palace of the last Imam, built on top of a rock in the middle of a Wadi. On the way we stopped at a rock which is a lookout over the wadi, and it’s called the wedding rock because all of the grooms and their parties go there before the wedding as part of their celebration. Of course, wedding celebrations here involve lots of gunfire, and they don’t muck around with their guns here, they’re no old fashioned rifle, more like your AK47, which still always manages to make me jump about a mile high when it goes off near by (just before ducking of course!). The groom later gets to sit in a big chair decorated with hearts and fake flowers which go lovely with the weaponry!

My hotel room is in a guest house in the old city and I can look out my window from my bed over the old city and listen to the sounds outside. I have to confess there is one thing about Yemen I don’t like, and I apologise for the blasphemy, but the call to prayer here is just bloody awful! In most Muslim countries these days the Call to Prayer is automated, so you get a nice, standardized sound which normally I find very beautiful and love hearing at 4 or 5 in the morning… In Amman I used to get up and look out the window at the mosque and I’d find it very soothing. But here, no such luck. The Call to Prayer is still done the old fashioned way by a guy at the mosque with a loud speaker system. That may sound quaint but let me tell you its not, because can you imagine how many mosques are in the old city alone in Sana’a? about 50 I reckon, and one each side of my hotel so the sounds come right in at each hour of the day and they’re not in sync, each going with their own rhythm, including the 4am prayers, and let me tell you that these guys are not chosen for the lovely sound of their voices. What’s more, in most other countries, the call to prayer happens at the scheduled times of the day and people go off and pray and that’s it until the next scheduled prayer time. But no, not these guys, it seems they have a free reign to do with the loud speaker system whatever they want and whenever they want, so it seems they break it out any time of the day and keep going for hours…. Last night at about midnight one of them seemed to be doing a bad imitation of karaoke for about an hour just as I was trying to get to sleep…

The worst thing of course is that such an awful noise can block out the very beautiful sounds of the city, and yesterday during about a 5 minute break in the sermon from the guy next door I was given a great treat. I was in my room and from my window I could hear women singing and clapping and ululating in what must have been a wedding party. It sounded just like that scene when all the women are singing before the wedding in Monsoon Wedding (ok, admittedly different culture but you get the idea). It was fantastic.

Tonight I had yet a different cultural experience. I went with Diana to the German embassy to watch the German vs Argentina soccer game. I confess that I think this was officially the first time I have managed to sit through and pay attention to an entire soccer game! I know why I don’t though, it’s all just too emotional! Yet again my team lost… this was the tricky thing of course that I was going for Argentina but couldn’t quite admit that among 100 beer drinking cheering Germans. All of us non Germans were commenting that we’ve never seen such animation in a group of Germans before! It was very fun and nice to see the Germans so emotional after their win, but I was very sad to see Argentina out.

Well there’s lots more I could say but I better stop rambling for now… maybe I’ll write another Yemen chapter another day

Roatan

2006-06-19T13:41:00.000+10:00

The best of Central America

2006-06-19T13:30:00.000+10:00

There are some advantages to having to spend 10 hours in Los Angeles Airport waiting for a plane, one of them being that there is plenty of time to catch up on everything I have been too busy to do lately... at least in terms of virtual responsibilities. So where have I been and what have I been doing. As per my last couple of blogs, since I left Bolivia I have been in Central America doing a little tour El Salvador-Nicaragua-Honduras-El Salvador. The purpose of said tour was to work with our Central America on their preparedness systems. It was a lot of long hours of office type work, so none of the grand adventures I’m afraid that you lot like to hear about, but from an intellectual and professional point of view it was actually really interesting work for me and I have actually enjoyed it quite a lot (being the boring workaholic sod that I am when it comes down to it). There are two great things that are worth talking about on this trip. First, I know I have dished the highly north americanised cultural landscape of Central America aplenty, so I won’t do that again. But what really redeems and makes Central America is the lovely people. There are a lot of really great people I work with here who I really like and who have made my few weeks here fun and enjoyable despite not doing much other than work. So I think it is worth honouring them in this here blog.

The second thing that made this trip fantastic was my little weekend visit to Roatan, an island in the Caribbean in the Bay Islands of Honduras. The Bay Islands sit off the second biggest reef system next to our own Great Barrier Reef which comes down from Belize to Honduras. The Bay Islands in the Caribbean were once occupied by the British, the Spanish, and at one stage were occupied completely by Pirates, before finally being made part of Honduras. The result is a pretty fabulous mix I must say. English and Spanish are the two official languages and the culture is a mix of English, Latino and Caribbean which suits me just fine. Think reggae on the beach, salsa in the bars, beers in the ocean, and being able to speak which ever of my two languages I feel like at the time. Then the place itself is beautiful. Laid back, underdeveloped, drop out and relax kind of place with stunning beaches, lush green landscape and beautiful snorkeling. Paradise. Its definitely on my list of potential places to run away and drop out in… if I ever go missing you could start looking there…

So anyway, after a busy, whirly wind trip as usual, here I am on my way home to Australia. It has been 8 weeks since I left home and I have been to Italy, England, Switzerland, Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, and I have to say I have loved it and am feeling pretty good. Not my usual tired self at the end of a long assignment, though if anyone tries calling me in the next couple of days I’m sure I will be very jet lagged! I am off again on Friday for Yemen for two weeks, which I know is a bit insane, but its just the way it worked out and there are some extenuating circumstances. I’ll be back from Yemen around 10 July, and really hoping to have some quality time at home for a little bit to see you all. Until then, I’ll put some photos of Roatan up for you.

Home Tuesday, Yemen Friday

2006-06-18T16:48:00.000+10:00

hi beloveds, leaving el salvador in about 7 hours, will be home early Tuesday morning. Back for 3 days then to Yemen on Friday. I may not see you all but at least you know where i am for a minute....

Pirates of the Carribean....

2006-06-14T13:28:00.000+10:00

I've been slack and not yet written of my current location (Honduras) ... what can I say but i've been busy working all week and going to tropical islands in the Carribean for the weekend. ha ha ha... will write more later!! :)

Next stop Managua of Nicaragua

2006-06-04T07:41:00.000+10:00

Left El Salvador and moved on to Nicaragua. So far have just been working so nothing interesting to report, though work is fine. I’m here until Tuesday morning and then moving straight on again to Honduras. Sadly I have loads of work to do over the weekend so it looks like I won’t get out to see much of Nicaragua (ok, writing this blog is the evidence of my procrastination!!). It seems a lot poorer here than in El Salvador, though still a healthy does of the cultural imperialism of McDonalds and Burger King. Nonetheless, the place has a good feel to it so I think I like it. It’s interesting because the entire place was destroyed in 1972 by an earthquake so pretty much all the buildings here are new, and all single level, so for a capital city there is barely any tall buildings at all in the whole city. It seems nice and sleepy and pleasant, although apparently its not really because my colleagues are very sure to lock the cars doors as soon as we’re in and are a bit nervous about getting out and walking around in certain parts of town. I’m told there are great places to go dancing but looks like won’t be a chance for that, though I’ve been promised I’ll be taken dancing in Honduras. The climate here is quite nice- bloody hot but a nice dry heat which I like, despite it being tropical its not humid for some reason, though there are regular lightning storms and in fact there is one right now outside so flashes of lightning and thunder is rolling in and the power keeps going on and off… anyway, guess I better get back to work so maybe tomorrow I can take some time off to lay by the pool at least (yeah right…).

San Salvador

2006-05-29T12:40:00.000+10:00

Now to the present... left Bolivia and am now in San Salvador. Will be here til Wednesday morning and then off to Nicaragua and Honduras, then back to El Salvador (that covers about the next three weeks). Most of you know I actually was a little disappointed with central america last time I was here, and I confess that on second glance, I'm not sure my opinion has changed. The people are really nice, and i love the tropical feel and the natural parts of the landscape are stunning, but the cultural landscape is dominated by shopping malls, big cars and fast food outlets. I went to try and get a few things from the shops today and the mall was awful- and I am generally not too anti mall, i like a bit of a shop anywhere really, but it was noisy and it was very difficult to get there by foot and i just thought, god help us if this is the way the world is going! Anyway, other than that, its not so bad to be here... the hotel is nice and the people are nice and I am looking forward to going to the office tomorrow and catching up with my friends from last time I was here.

Bolivia by Horse

2006-05-29T12:38:00.000+10:00

Next was two weeks in my beloved Bolivia. It was lovely as usual. Nothing particularly exciting to report but its just nice. Did a few fun things while there including going to a 'dance party' which involved the basement of someones house, beers and two cuban dance instructors and was basically a group dance lesson where you get to drink beer in between songs and laugh alot and be silly which was very fun. I also went horseriding one day which was beautiful.

Lake Burley Geneva

2006-05-29T12:33:00.000+10:00

Next stop was Geneva. Had four days there for work. It was nice to see my team all in one place, and also Sue Graves and Vic Wheeler were in town so got to go and catch up with them which was fun. The weather was grey and rainy until the last day I was there, when I took the opportunity to walk along the lake. It was lovely with people out drinking along the waterfront, lovely spring flowers in bloom and even people sailing. Lake Geneva has a fountain the same as Canberra’s and Sue had said she and her sister used to jokingly call it Lake Burley Geneva… so it was fitting that while I was walking along a sailing boat with an Australian flag was cruising under the fountain, just in case I was missing Canby!

London with Hot Dog and Cathy

2006-05-29T12:24:00.000+10:00

Sorry for being a terribly slack blogger this trip. Can't use work as an excuse this time, it has been busy enough but less busy than usual, but have actually managed to fit a tiny bit of having a life in too. So anyway, I will do a blog for each country to stick with tradition. Starting with London... I mentioned that I went back there and went out on the town with Hot Dog Dave and Cathy, so here is a bit of a photo of Davy to prove it...

I love Bolivia

2006-05-24T11:34:00.000+10:00

Hello from Bolivia. This is a test

Sardinia

2006-05-10T07:50:00.000+10:00

ok, photos are below. It's hard to believe there could be quite so many beautiful blue beaches! Sardinia was just lovely. The amazing coastline is relatively undeveloped which makes it really nice. We did not very much at all except lay on beaches, go on a boat trip, eat pasta, seafood, gelati and drink loads of wine (not very good for diet!). All in all a relaxing and delightful holiday. Went back to London for a few days and caught up with Hot Dog Dave- went out on the town with him and Cathy and then sneaked off to Geneva with a bit of a hangover! In Geneva now for work until Friday and then on to Bolivia.

Holiday in Sardinia, then London, now Geneva

2006-05-10T07:21:00.000+10:00

London, Cathy's House

2006-04-29T05:27:00.000+10:00

Well here I am on the road again, first stop London. Have arrived safely at Cathy's house and tomorrow early we set off for five days in Sardinia. Hooray!

Nearly home...

2006-04-10T16:18:00.000+10:00

Yes, less than 24 hours and I will be home. Yay! Am in the lounge at LAX on the stop on my New York to Sydney flight. New York was fabulous. Only problem was it was freezing and raining on Saturday just when we planned to do lots of sight seeing. We braved it for half the day and then decided the Sex and the City Tour would show us all the best things and also allow us to travel round the city on a nice heated bus. Great choice. Got to stand on Carrie's front door step, drink a cosmopolitan in Aiden and Steve's bar and all sorts of other fun things. Had a lovely time with Leslie and went out to where she lives on Long Island. Today was lovely and sunny (though still cold) so we went out to a park by the water and it was very nice and relaxing. Anyway, that's all for now. Home 10am Tuesday morning.

Goodbye Bolivia, Hello New York

2006-04-05T20:03:00.000+10:00

6 am and am at the airport waiting for my flight. Leaving Bolivia this morning and heading for four days in New York. I'm always happy to be on the way home, but I have loved Bolivia so there is a little sadness at leaving. After 7 weeks its always just when you are starting to feel settled in. And I have loved speaking spanish so I will miss having to go back to english! Anyway, New York lies ahead, hopefully will have time to tell you how it is and have some more and different adventures!

I’m sorry New Zealand….

2006-03-31T10:40:00.000+11:00

I was going to come and visit you on my way home from Bolivia, but instead…. I’m going to New York!!! Woohoooo!!! yes, I am very excited!! (thanks Jock…) I’ve of course never been to New York before. I’ll be there for 4 days- two days in a meeting on gender and emergencies, and then 2 days hanging out with my dear old New Yorker friend Leslie who I learned Spanish with in Spain ten years ago (and who I haven’t seen since!). So, I know it has been a long time since I’ve been to NZ, but I hope you’ll forgive me this time round. And yes, as promised to Jen, I will endeavour to sample a few cosmopolitans while there. I’m so excited!! Oh, yes and for my dear folk back home…. I am coming home, should be there on 11 April, in time for easter. Looking forward to seeing you all! PS. Bolivia continues to be great. Took the weekend off this weekend and went and saw some of the world’s largest dinosaur fossil tracks safely preserved (NOT!!) in the middle of a cement factory’s quarry) and going to a market in a small town of Tarabuco where they all wear funny helmets and funny hats- the story goes that this is one of the few places they defeated the conquistadores and when they did they took all their helmets- and to this day still wear them! Love this place!

Amazon Adventure

2006-03-21T15:09:00.000+11:00

Ok, so it’s a bit late in the telling of this story, but I’ll tell it quickly and then put some photos up for you. So, about 2 weeks ago now we went to do an assessment in Pando, which is in the northern most part of Bolivia in the Amazon basin. We left from La Paz and you fly right through the middle of the Andes, with Lak Titicaca on the left and the snow capped mountain so close. Then we arrived in Pando and it is hot and tropical. The whole area is forest and rivers and is completely flooded along the rivers. To get where we needed to go we had to take an avioneta- little four seater plane. To get a better idea of the flooding we did a fly over of the flooded areas for about an hour. The landscape from above of the flooded forest and rivers looked amazing. The plane was so funny- had little pictures of Jesus and Mary on the steering wheels. When it was time to set down, we literally just landed on a little dirt street in the middle of town. No air traffic control let alone street traffic control, just pulled up and came to a stop where some locals were chatting with their bikes. From there we walked down to the river to the boats, while the pilot took off again and left us to find our way back by land and water. At the river we got into two little long boats and headed up the flooded river for about 2 hours. It was so beautiful with parrots and huge beautiful trees all the way up the river. Finally when we got to the village we were visiting, we had to take the boats in a little passage through the forest just a few metres wide to the village. In the village we did the assessment which included walking through knee deep water and mud with my colleague all the time yelling “look out for the anacondas!”. Then when we left, we had to get to the road to get a car to pick us up. To get to the road, the boats were carried a little way over the higher ground back to the roads which were flooded and we motored along in our boats over the flooded land pushing through trees and shrubs where we needed to. Then we got dropped off at the road but the car wasn’t there to pick us up so we decided to walk until either the car came or we reached the first houses. The first houses came first after about 2 hours walking in the hot sun on a road through the forest. Either side of the road was flooded and all along the way there were things to see – hundreds of butterflies all gathered to gether on the sides of the roads, a dead caiman (small crocodile), big snake tracks, what seemed like hundreds of jumping fish which flipped out of the water, birds, and then we we got to the first houses we were generously given shade and lemonade by a little old man and entertained by his grandchildren. Then the car finally arrived, a little kid got out of the car with those little baby lemurs or whatever they were turned up. We finally drove home in the moonlight and it was the end of a beautiful and adventurous day. It was everything you could imagine an Amazonian adventure would be!

Pictures of Pando

2006-03-21T14:57:00.000+11:00

So many new friends to be had!

2006-03-20T01:41:00.000+11:00

OK, I promise I will write a proper blog soon... like tonight, but in the meantime, check out this other new fella I found this week! Can you guess what it is?

A preview of the next blog

2006-03-10T13:55:00.000+11:00

before I get around to writing it.... here are some little friends I met on my adventure... Are those little faces not the very prototype of Ewoks??!

Things I love about Bolivia part II

2006-03-10T13:52:00.000+11:00

You look out the window of the office and there is the most beautiful snow covered mountain
Just like the cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Amman, the hills are alive with lights at night and twinkle away at you
You get on the plane and one minute you are above the snow capped Andes and so close you could touch them, and in an hour later you are landing at the edge of the Amazon
The first official Amazon woman I have met lived up to expectations, big, tough, wearing jeans, t shirt and thongs and riding a motorbike! Also one of the most important politicians in the Department (state).
I have a ticket to see Manu Chao on Saturday night (ok, I already said that one last time but im counting it again cos its double exciting!)
The tropical feel of the edge of the Amazon
The way the Andes are so big they make you realize just how big mountains can be, and how small our little hills are.
The way the women wear little bowler hats that don’t seem to fit but rather perch precariously on their head.
The bounce in the skirts they wear.
The fact that in the four blocks from my hotel to the office there are funky cafes and bars playing great jazz music on a Monday night.
The fact that I got off the plane in the Amazon and got dragged to a meeting of the Federation of Campesinos (small farmers). Normally I would dread such a dull meeting, but this time they talked about land titling and big companies coming in and forcing them out of their land and cutting down the rainforest, and while I’ve heard it before especially in Asia and the Pacific, somehow in the Amazon it was like, the real thing! The thing young lefties are brought up on!
Today I went to Brazil for lunch! Just a little car ride over a bridge and we in a town called Brasileira eating the best meat lovers feast ever. You sit at the table they bring you skewer after skewer of carved meat of all types and carve what you want at the table- a bit like the yum cha of roast meat! And the most delicious passionfruit juice to go with it!
The fact that yesterday I reckon I had about the best ever adventure I’ve ever had on a work day, so much so that it deserves it’s own blog, which I will write later!
That after a trip in the field I’m back in La Paz in a hotel where the people are so nice and friendly!

Bolivia

2006-03-04T13:24:00.000+11:00

I have exciting news!!!!

2006-03-04T12:59:00.000+11:00

Dumdumdum…. Wait for it, drumrolll….. Manu Chao is playing in La Paz next week!!! Hooray! And I am going to go! Now, I know not many people will actually appreciate this news (though I know A&A and Gracie will!), but it’s so exciting I feel like a teenager about to go to her first rock concert. I mean, how cool is that! Seeing Manu Chao at an open air amphitheatre in Bolivia! So cool…. Anyway, yes I promise I am working hard! Back to 16 hour days 7 days a week which is why I haven’t blogged until now (having a quiet Friday night in the hotel room to recover!) but its been great so far. ok, yes, it is a disaster and lots of people are living in shit, but the work is good this time and one has to enjoy oneself sometimes when you do disasters for a living…. So for those who don’t know what the disaster is (which would be pretty much everyone cos its not really big enough to make the news) basically lots of bad weather has flooded people out of their communities and destroyed everything in the low lands and in the highlands the bad weather has destroyed crops, water systems and swept crop lands away into the river. We are organizing camps for the displaced communities etc etc. Bolivia has the Andes in the west, lowlands in the west and the amazon basin in the north. I arrived into La Paz which has an altitude of 12,000 feet, the when east to the lowlands where the camps are, and then up to the highlands again to Potosi where the famous silver mines. Now I’m back in La Paz, and going up north to the Amazon basin on Monday for 3 days. The scenery is beautiful, the food is good, the people are very lovely and helpful. The culture is colourful and fascinating. There are so many beautiful old Spanish colonial buildings. It’s just great. Oh, it was Carnaval too so we got to go dancing in the street and in every town in the country people got drunk and danced through the streets each with their own band for four days straight, more in the countryside, and threw water bombs at each other. It was so funny. And what else is really nice is that I don’t particularly feel like a foreigner sticking out like a sore thumb here like you do elsewhere. Don’t know if it’s a language things, or a cultural thing but its nice. Anyway, that’s about it for now… I’ll try and attach some photos.

Hooray for Bolivia!

2006-03-01T14:46:00.000+11:00

Ok, sorry, really busy working but just a quick note to say I love Bolivia! It's great!! anyway, will write more when i have more time....

A Simeulue story.

2005-12-16T13:00:00.000+11:00

This place where I am right now is really a totally forgotten little backwater, very poor and where nobody ever really visited before except a few hard core surfers (and musicians- read on), with bugger all in the way of infrastructure and services, but incredibly, stunningly beautiful forests and coastline, with great surf. I am doing my fairly standard work here, and you know sometimes I get bored of my job. Other times, like today, I have just a tiny little glimpse of beauty and wonder in my day which reminds me of just how fantastic it is. The day started with all the frustration that my adventures often entail- using the awful shared bathroom at the hostel, having to get fully dressed head to toe just to leave the room to use the loo as I dash through the room full of smoking laughing Indonesian men, waiting over an hour to get a car to take us to where we need to go despite having a fleet of 17 cars (combination of lack of fuel on the island and just plain old ineffectiveness), taking half an hour to get a few kilometers down the road because of the road conditions etc etc. But then we go to our venue and things started to pick up. The venue is a big timber house built right on a divinely beautiful bay (an area which was protected from the tsunami) by about the only expat on the island prior to the tsunami. He built and runs the house as a surf lodge, but really only a few hard core types who really wanna go out of the way come here as most go to nearby Nias which is the real surfing mecca. Some of those who have visited though include Jack Johnson and Ben Harper, both of whom are rumoured to be popping by sometime soon (I wouldn’t mind catching up with Ben over a G&T on the deck...). Anyway, we ran our workshop which went off without major dramas. I was facilitating, so I always love the end of the day, another workshop over and done with! It had rained all day but by about 5pm it cleared and the sky was blue again, just in time for that soft afternoon light, perfect for a little swim in the bay. So off we went down to the bay and swam out and floated in the most perfect glassy water with small little swells to float over while looking back at the beautiful lush green tropical surrounds. And that was that precious moment when I remember how great my job is. Not many people can finish a good days work and then float away in one of the most beautiful and remotest parts of the world.

I should finish the story there, but I’ll add a little post script for your amusement (having a self deprecating sense of humour as I do). When we got back from swimming I had to shower and change as I’d been swimming in my clothes (must swim fully clothed here). I did look better than my Indonesian colleague though who swam in clothes, swimming cap and life jacket- I told he she looked like an orange shelled turtle paddling around! Anyway, I changed rooms today and was relishing in finally achieving my goal of getting the room with the private bathroom and was having my bath (bathrooms here consist of squat toilet and tradition Indonesian mande which is big trough of cold water and a plastic scoop), by torchlight because the power was off as it regularly is, when suddenly I started slipping down the floor. I thought gee this floor is slippery and tried to stop but just kept slipping for a bit, but then finally got myself firmly standing again. Once fully clothed I went outside and my colleague says “where were you! You are meant to run outside when there is an earthquake like everyone else did!”. (which I have failed to do in the three earthquakes so far this week- takes me a while to wake up!) Ah ha! So that explained my slippery floor- it was not so much slippery as shaky, just in the wet and slippery dark I didn’t register. All I could say to my colleague was count yourself lucky I didn’t run outside! I would have been starkers in Simeulue!

Simeulue, Aceh, Indonesia

2005-12-11T16:03:00.000+11:00

Back in Simeulue for a couple of weeks. This is the island i came to straight after the tsunami so it is interesting to be back here again. My mate Danny is here and some other people i know through work so its quite nice, and the island itself is incredibly beautiful, though it has been raining a lot since i got here. I'll be here until just before christmas.

Weemalah Cottage, Sydney

2005-12-11T15:52:00.000+11:00

Spent the first weekend in December catching up with the Sydney gang at a little cottage in the royal national park.

20 odd hours in Atlanta, Georgia

2005-11-10T13:08:00.000+11:00

I've just arrived in Atlanta, Georgia where I have about 20 hours for work meetings before flying onwards home. In catching the lift up to my room just now i shared the small space with some fairly well tanked yanks with classic southern accents (which i guess actually disqualifies them as yanks?). I kept quiet and didn't disclose my own accent but was enjoying listening to theirs when one of them says (about the bottlo they'd just come from) "how can they sell wine and not have Jacob's Creek!!". Good to see aussie standards setting the tone even in the deep south!

Central America

2005-11-05T15:32:00.000+11:00

Well I’ve been a very slack blogger this trip. Let’s see if I can give a quick summary. I’m back in Guatemala again now, due to return to El Salvador on Monday. At this stage I hope to be home on the morning of Saturday 12th November. Key points on Central America:

* The landscape is absolutely beautiful here. It’s lush and green with incredible mountains, forests and chains of beautiful perfect volcanoes. There are bright flowers everywhere. It’s just divine.
* The people are incredibly affectionate and lovely. Everyone from the little grandmother in the village to cute young boys come and give you kisses and hugs all the time.
* One thing I like in particular is that the women here are all sorts of funny, short, round shapes- it makes me feel at home!
* The colours are great. Finally some people who have the same taste in paint colours as me! All the houses are painted bright blues and purples and greens.
* The worst thing is the food. Tragically, most of the every day meals I can’t stand. Breakfast of frijoles (beans) and eggs every morning, the frijoles I can’t deal with much, tortillas (the real thing) have an incredibly strong flavour which doesn’t sit well with me, and I was invited to this very special family feast where they ate this traditional meal called fiambre and it was so awful! Beyond that, everyone eats McDonalds and Pizza Hut all the time… El Salvador is the saving grace because they have great seafood including a thing called cerviche (of prawns).
* The other bad thing is of course the reason I am here- the disasters… there was a Hurricane which caused hundreds of landslides all over the country, which killed nearly 2000 people (half are confirmed dead, the other half “missing” buried under the mud. In one mountainous area we went to there were so many landslides the people say it looks like a giant lion came and scratched its claws down the sides of the mountains. Then there is the volcanic eruption and tremors which kept me shaking in my bed the night before I left El Salvador last.

Pics from Guatemala

2005-10-24T03:37:00.000+10:00

Here are some pics from Guatemala. One is where their used to stand a house... but which has been washed away by the flood. I also owe a special mention to Colleen who has got her mates together and raised money for lots of goats, chickens, wells, seed kits and other goodies!

Friday night in El Salvador

2005-10-22T13:55:00.000+10:00

8pm on a Friday night. In Aus it will be Saturday morning and you will all be waking up with a hangover. I am in a car on the way from the airport to the hotel in El Salvador. I’ve just returned from Guatemala. I’m working for both country offices so sort of hopping between the two, which I must say is hard work, trying to be in two places at once. I have been up working at 5am every day this week, and not sleeping til 12 or 1 am. A little sleep deprived but it’s the only way to get everything done. El Salvador is a little less mad than Guatemala so I’m taking the opportunity of my return here to not work for one night before I get back in to El Salvador work tomorrow, though don’t know how long I will last tonight before sleeping. Have been traveling and working since 5am this morning.

Anyway, what to tell you? Got here on the 8th which makes it 13 days ago. Feels like 13 weeks. 4 days after got to El Salvador where I was supposed to work for 2 weeks, had to got to Guatemala, as the situation there turned very very bad. Hurricane Stan had a worse impact in Guatemala than the famous Hurricane Mitch many years ago, but I think it just hasn’t made the press or got the worlds attention because of having the misfortune of coinciding with the far greater tragedy in Pakistan. Arriving hotel will write more later.

El Salvador 5am

2005-10-12T21:49:00.000+10:00

Have been in El Salvador since Saturday. too busy to write. am off to Guatemala this morning. will write more later.

LAX

2005-10-08T08:17:00.000+10:00

Ok, even i admit my life is kinda surreal sometimes. One minute I am hanging out at home in the suburbs of belco quietly planning a weekend of brunches and catchups with friends in Canberra, and next thing i know I find myself sitting in the house of a dear old friend I haven't seen for nearly 8 years, in central Los Angeles. and what's more bizarre is that there is a Mr Whippy van outside playing the soundtrack.... I'm on route to El Salvador where they are having some small problems with a volcano exploding and flooding and landslides etc etc. I expect I'll be there for a few weeks. On the way i have a 12 hour stopover in LA, so its a good chance to catch up with James, who was a buddy back when i lived in Spain. He has a cute little house which he bought not so long ago and is well. He reminded me of course that back when we lived in Spain, we girls treated him as the 'wise old Tio Jaime' because he was so much older than us, but in fact he was the very age that I am now. I think he's implying I'm getting old!

Home with the fellas

2005-10-01T23:20:00.000+10:00

Am now officially home, at least for the next few weeks. Rocky was so glad to have me home he jumped right in one my "shopping" luggage bag and said don't leave again without me! Carlos doesn't care so much....

Piccies of Beirut

2005-10-01T23:13:00.000+10:00

Piccies of Syria

2005-10-01T23:07:00.000+10:00

Beirut's defence

2005-10-01T22:42:00.000+10:00

OK, having dished Beirut a little in my last blog I better tell you quickly how it redeemed itself... I gave up on the search for an ideal waterfront experience and decided instead to head for the centre of town to see what it had to offer, and my what a surprise! It was like stepping out of the Middle East and straight into France. First, it was the cleanest city centre I have ever seen in my life anywhere in the world. Second, the streets were filled with fantastic restaurants, bars and outdoor cafes. In between the shops and restaurants were beautiful churches and mosques side by side. Most fascinating of all were the buildings. Here and there as you approach the city centre you see buildings riddled with the marks of bullets and shellings still remaining from the war, along side brand new glizty constructions, but when you get to the city centre it is all these fabulous restored buildings which are clean and perfect but old, french colonial era in style. In the end Beirut did live up to its reputation of being a very liveable city.

Home time!

2005-09-29T05:01:00.000+10:00

Beirut did redeem itself! and I will tell you about it but now off to the airport to catch the plane home! Hooray! Flying Amman, Bangkok, Sydney, Canberra, arriving Canberra mid morning Friday.

The Bombs of Beirut

2005-09-29T04:58:00.000+10:00

After Syria, I jumped back in the car and drove across the mountains and into Lebanon, down to Beirut. To be honest Beirut was more of a mixed experience. It started well and ended well, but there was a shaky bit in the middle where I wasn’t sure about Beirut! When I arrived in Beirut I was full of the recommendations that Beirut was the “French Riviera of the Middle east” etc etc, and a modern, funky city. So with this in mind, I headed out to enjoy the sea. I was in a hotel right near the corniche (the esplanade along the Mediterranean), so I headed off the find the beach at the end of it. Most of the waterfront is of course not beach but rocks and rock wall, but according to the map there are were a couple of long sandy beaches at the end of the 5km Beirut Marathon route along the corniche. I decided it would be a nice walk and I would be rewarded with a swim at the beach at the end of the 5km. It was a nice walk and once again I found myself reflecting back to our beloved Gong… the cars lined up along the waterfront with young Lebanese guys gave me new insight to south beach! Anyway, I finally reached the promised beach and by this time was well ready for a swim, but I guess I made some mistaken assumptions about how modern and progressive Beirut was. It indeed was a nice long sandy beach, but there was barely a woman on it and certainly not any swimming, bar two women in full hijab in the shallows with their kids. Needless to say I realized the thought of ducking in for a swim was clearly a bit silly, so I decided to go back to the hotel “beach club” (aka swimming pool near the water). I got a taxi back and got a crazy taxi driver who when we got near our hotel pointed out oops that there behind that yellow tape on the corner is the bomb site where the former prime minister was recently blown up. Always reassuring to be reminded you picked a holiday spot where there have been a few too many car bombs lately. About this stage he starts yelling “Beirut no good! Very dangerous! You finish your business and GO! You understand me!? Finish your business and go!!”. He then proceeded to rip me off so I suspect he was the main danger…Anyway, never one to be deterred by a crazy taxi driver, headed off the beachclub anyway. Of course, it turns out also to be right at the bombsite, cos when I ask directions, they say just go around the police tape and under the bombed bit… which I do. Then I get in and they do have a lovely pool just behind the bombed area which appears unaffected, so I go in, but they don’t let me in because I don’t have the right voucher. I ask if they can just phone back to the hotel to confirm I am staying there, to which they respond “sorry, there are no phones down here. All the phones were destroyed by the assassination car bomb…” At this point I decided maybe it was a bit much for an R&R swim, so I retreated to the indoor swimming pool at the hotel proper before being brave enough to venture out again. Out of time, more on Beirut’s redemption later….

Down the highway in a big yellow valiant…. To Damascus!!

2005-09-29T04:54:00.000+10:00

Actually, I wasn’t in a big yellow valiant, but I was jealous of the people who were, and the cars weren’t exactly valiants but they looked like them! I drove to Damascus on Sunday from Amman- it is less than 3 hours from Amman. All the Damascus-Amman taxis are these hilarious yellow beasts of cars which looks like big old valiants or something like that (not being a car person can’t be more specific, but think, big, wide and yellow).The road from Amman to the border is essentially desert (as is most of Jordan) but once you hit Syria it seems to get more fertile and the road fills up of all these trucks laden with fantastic looking veges (we had to dodge a few apples and capsicums coming off the back). I spent two nights in Damascus, near the old city. I am pleased to say that Damascus completely lived up to expectations in terms of being a fascinating and what you imagine an old Arab city to be. I spent most of my time wandering through the old city and the souks, which I think you could just do endlessly and still find more fascinating and beautiful things. The nicest thing about Syria was how lovely and gentle the people where. In one walk of about 2 hours I counted about 10 people who I met and who did something nice for me, from the woman who helped me ask for apple juice in Arabic (tufah) and then walked me the few blocks to the place I wanted to go, and then turns out she spent 30 years living in Bankstown and then returned to her beloved Syria once her children were grown up), to the young artist who gave me directions, then showed me his little gallery and then directed me to a lovely hidden little café where I could find some nice lunch. With everyone I met there just seemed to be this unique gentleness.

The Jabals of Amman

2005-09-29T04:52:00.000+10:00

After Jerusalem, I have a week’s R&R, so I decided to spend two nights in Amman for old times sake. I’ve realized that something I love about Amman, and also to a large degree Jerusalem is the way they are built all over these hills (Jabals) so when you drive around at night, or sit in a bar or a restaurant or at someone’s house on the side of a hill you are surrounded by these lovely sparkles. It’s quite lovely. Anyway, in Amman I stayed at the Amra, where I have always stayed in Amman and enjoyed a bit of time round the swimming pool but was disappointed to hear that my favourite waiter and the shoe shine man with whom I used to have daily chats have both moved on since I was last here. Then I went out to dinner with Bec Reynolds, who some of my friends will remember which was lovely. She is living here for the time being. The next day I visited may favourite shops and spent the afternoon at the Hamam Al Pasha, which is one of the best things anywhere. After that it was a catch up with Alia, followed by beer with Harriet, the new head of office here. The next day was spent divided between the pool and the Syrian embassy for my visa, with a quick visit to the office. The old office (where I worked in 2003) is in the middle of receiving a fresh coat of paint in bright red and orange tones and looks fabulous, compared to the awful plain white it used to be. Then I got my visa and headed off to Syria….

Whirly Winds across the Jordan Valley

2005-09-25T09:14:00.000+10:00

With the usual mad rush and hurried goodbyes I dashed out of Jerusalem on Friday and down across the Jordan Valley, past the Dead Sea and into Jordan. End of the line for me in Jerusalem. Its always a bit sad to leave especially when you like the people you work with, and I very much did in this case. As we drove across the Jordan Valley there were all these little dusty whirly winds swirling all over the valley. Somehow it seemed quite appropriate. To mark the occasion of my departure, after two months of relative calm in Gaza (remembering the reason I was there was in case it wasn’t calm), over 25 rockets and a couple of air strikes were launched the very day I left. I guess they just didn’t really want me to leave and this is their way of inviting me back again ;)

At home in Jerusalem

2005-09-18T04:54:00.000+10:00

This weekend I have to limit my adventures. It’s my last weekend here so I have lots of work to do. I stayed in all day except when I walked down to the corner to buy some bread. A couple of hours later I was sitting at my desk when I heard a lot of noise. Some small explosions followed by some screams. Not too much, just a little. Anyway, so sure enough I look out the window down to the corner right where the bread man's cart is and there are a whole bunch of soldiers pulling people out of a car and seeming to be hitting something, though I didn’t have my glasses on so who knows what was really happening. There were more bangs, some bright flashes, screams, people running and a few shots, but all ‘low level’ nothing that sounded too bad. Eventually my friend rang me and filled me in on the story. Apparently the soldiers believed they identified a suspicious pack and they bought in the robot to blow it up. That must have been just past the corner as I didn't see the robot myself (though I confess I am kinda interested to see one...). Tonight I’m still at my desk working (ok so this is a little break) and instead there is great loud Arabic music playing from a wedding going on nearby and the loud bangs in the air are celebratory fireworks floating up to the full moon.

Fun and sun in Wollongong… oops, I mean Tel Aviv!

2005-09-12T21:17:00.000+10:00

This weekend I went to Tel Aviv for the weekend. Can’t come all this way and not go to Tel Aviv. Yet again, it is radically different to Jerusalem even though it is only an hour away. My colleague described it to me as just a big beach town, and when I got there it very much reminded me of Wollongong only much bigger. Then I remembered that Jo, the ultimate Wollongong expert and one time Tel Aviv resident had also said it reminded her of the Gong. Anyway, I got myself a room on the beach (note the view from the room as per the photo!) and indulged in a little in secular sun loving and swimming, listened to the sounds of old Israelis named Shaul and Shlomo, ate fish at a Yemenite restaurant and visited the old Arab port city of Jaffa, where there are some of the very limited reminders of the Arab city and villages that were forced out of here when Israel moved in back in 1948.

a Tale of Two Cities

2005-09-06T00:02:00.000+10:00

So far I have been living and working in East Jerusalem, which is the Palestinian side of Jerusalem. It feels like a typical Arabic city, very similar in fact at least physically/visually to Amman. On Sunday we went for a spot of shopping in West Jerusalem, which was my first time on ‘the other side’. In fact the other side was just a short walk from our house across a main road, but it was like arriving in another country. The difference between the East and the West was really just completely extraordinary. Suddenly I felt like I was in Europe in a developed and sophisticated city with little streets and allies full of funky shops and cafes, though of course there are armed guards outside to search your bag for bombs before you go in, young off duty soldiers wander round with their weapons in their shopping baskets, and the ultra orthodox Jews among the shoppers make you feel like you are in a different time altogether. Every weekend another little layer of this totally fascinating place is revealed… I think I finally might be understanding how so many of my friends are obsessed with it.

Jericho and the Mount of Temptation

2005-09-05T23:58:00.000+10:00

On Saturday I took a trip down to the famed city of Jericho, where the walls have well and truly fallen down. It is a small place with not much to do but spectacular scenery and a giant hotel casino sticking up out of the desert (which happens to have a nice swimming pool and hence Jericho is a popular weekend away from Jerusalem). The main attraction in Jericho is the Mount of Temptation. You can take a cable car up to see the view from the top and visit a little old monastery built into the side of the mountain- in the picture.

When I am coming home?

2005-09-01T16:37:00.000+10:00

For those who are wondering, I will be back in Canberra on 30 Sep at about 11am. I will be making only a brief appearance in Canberra before heading off again for other parts on 11 October.

Party in Ramallah

2005-08-31T00:18:00.000+10:00

In keeping with sharing my tour of the middle east with you, the latest stop was Ramallah. We had a bit of a work party there with staff coming from Jenin, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem to join up with the staff in Ramallah at a great outdoor restaurant on the side of a hill overlooking a valley. It was quite beautiful. To get there we drove past Yasser Arafat's compound and the place where he is buried. It was a lovely festive party with people singing and dancing, which was so nice. In most places I have been in the last few years here in this region the vibrant arabic culture has been weighed down with the heaviness of war and oppression. Last night's journey, despite the checkpoints along the way was finally happy and hopeful.

Saturday at the Western Wall

2005-08-28T20:40:00.000+10:00

This weekend I stayed in Jerusalem and explored the old city a bit more. First I went down to the Western Wall (aka the wailing wall- as seen in the picture) and sat around and comtemplated it a bit- the women's prayer section is much smaller than the men's section but I sat there for a while and watched as people prayed to this treasured and holy stone wall of so many thousands of years, putting their written prayers on little bits of paper into the cracks of the wall. I was tempted to put in a prayer that they stop killing people in the name of it... but decided that might be a bit blasphemous. After that I meandered back through the Arab quarter. El Wad street was a lot quieter this time than last time I was there when I had accidently stumbled into an area where a rally of green flags was going on you could barely move. I had gotten out of there pretty quickly then, but this weekend it was nice and quiet and relaxed. I made my way up some streets (not really knowing where I was going) and suddenly among all the tourist shops was a group of Orthodox Jews praying. By the signs it appears this was the place where a young jewish student was killed last week. The end of this street brought me out at Jaffa Gate, and then I wandered back down through the very quiet streets of the Christian quarter until I came out again at the bustling, happy marketplace at Damascus Gate with loads of noise and colour and music. All in all a fascinating little journey for a Saturday afternoon walk.

Trip to Jenin

2005-08-26T21:29:00.000+10:00

Went to Jenin yesterday to visit our office there. Didn't get a chance to take any photos except this one. The drive was very interesting. We went up through Israel and crossed into the West Bank at the very north. We drove along the "wall" which has been landscaped over on the Israeli side so it looks nice, but on the other side is just massive slabs of concrete. On the way back we drove down through the Jordan Valley. The way down is between beautiful dry folding hills, until you get into the valley with date palms, past Jericho and the dead sea, and then climb back up the hills to Jerusalem.

Weekend in Bethlehem

2005-08-23T23:17:00.000+10:00

Hello, all is reasonably quiet here so I went to Bethlehem for the weekend, mostly for the swimming pool at the Intercontinental there.... but while in town I also popped down the church of the Nativity to touch the place where Jesus was born (as seen in the picture- marked by the star). Can now tick that off (having already ticked off the place where he died and walked the stations of the cross, now just have to go to the place he ascended to heaven, multiplied the loaves and fishes etc etc. Oh so much to do here in the Holy Land). Will be in Jerusalem for about another month, ciao for now, megs.

2005-08-17T15:54:00.000+10:00

Megs in Jerusalem

2005-08-16T23:10:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,

Here I am in Jerusalem. The picture above shows the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. I am here working until about late September. For the time being I will be based here rather than in Gaza as was originally planned.

It is very very hot, but other than that all is quiet!

bye for now,
Megs