24 October 2007
Swaziland, here I come.
I just received the final packet from Heart For Africa telling participants what to expect on our “mission”. We are going to be working at the New Hope Center located at Bethany,, Swaziland, located in the mountains of Piggs Peak, Swaziland. The center is currently the home for 36 children with a purpose “…to provide for multiple needs of children within the Swazi Nation. Children from pre-school to high school are provided and education and a “Biblical Foundation. The director’s aim is to make these children the “Godly leaders of African Nations in the years to come.
The length of stay has been changed so that now I will be leaving San Francisco on a red-eye (midnight) on October 30, flying from Dulles to Johannesburg (fifteen hours +) on the 31st, and arriving on November 1. We will be bussed four hours to our hotel, Lugo Sun, in Swaziland; telephone 011 268 416 4000, or if you are in the neighborhood, 268-416-4000.
The first four days we will be at the New Hope Center with the suggestions that we wear long sleeved shirts that will keep us cool. It sounds as though the work will be agricultural, like in the dirt and all. On the fifth day in Swaziland, we will visit the Hlane Game Park experiencing a “game drive” and a visit to a cultural village. The next two days we will back at the New Hope Center. On Friday November 9 we will catch an evening plane back to Dulles. My current plans will have me back at San Francisco sometime around 8:00 PM.
Our orientation, so far, has included a lot of don’ts and very little by way of dos. We did receive a 17 word vocabulary list in seSwati, just in case we become disconnected from our group, that we are never supposed to dod.
I now know that Swaziland has a population of 950,000 souls and dropping rapidly. The population growth rate is -4.5% with an average life expectancy of 27 years. The Swazilanders are 40% Zionist, 20% Roman Catholic, 10% Muslim and 30% other, which doesn’t leave very many Methodists.
Swaziland is almost surrounded by South Africa with a small border with Mozambique to the East. We are going to be visiting during the annual rainy season which runs from October through May, not unlike California. The country is totally land locked and about the size of New Jersey.
HIV/AIDS is rampant in the country. 42.6% of all adults have HIV/AIDS. There are 120,000 orphans due to AIDS with a new 8,000 children orphaned every month. Incidentally, one of our don’ts is to not use the word “orphan” because the English speakers use the word to denote incorrigible rascals.
The country has a king, King Mswati III. 69% of the population lives below the poverty line defined as less than $1.00 a day. The unemployment rate is 40%. Footnote: During the Great Depression in the US, unemployment peaked at 23%. Swaziland exports soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp and cotton yarn.
Despite some of the comments I have made about this trip, I am really looking forward to experiencing Swaziland, really!
Love to all future travelers.
Sala Kahle (Siswati for Good Bye and StayWell)
Grandpa Dad
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
3/October 2007
3 October 2007
Hello again from Seaside, Oregon,
I found some people who wanted to play bridge after visiting the “partner table” at the Oregon Coast Regional Duplicate Bridge Tournament. I decided that if I wanted to play some bridge I would have to take the bull by the horns and jump into the fray. I was a bit surprised to find literally dozens of people milling around the partner desk with same idea. The busy lady quickly lined me up with a man of about fifty who had just started playing competitive bridge earlier this year; Stan Roberts from Mercer Island, Washington. He had already accumulated a little over 100 master points so we were in the same ball park in terms of experience. He told me that he was a math major who worked as an actuary for a large insurance company. He was anxious to earn some “gold” points so we looked for another pair so we could enter a “knock-out” game. In this kind of game, teams are paired with similarly experienced players and play twenty-four hands with opposing pairs playing the same hands from a different direction. We found another pair from Springfield, Oregon. Jerry and Janet Walsh formerly lived in Los Angeles where Janet was an elementary school principal.
Our first game was Monday night and we managed to out score our opponents by a slim margin. Tuesday morning we played a second round and won handsomely gaining entry to a third round Tuesday afternoon. In the third round we were knocked-out and thus were out of the competition. We were pleased later to hear that the team that defeated us went on to win first place in our category. At least it took the champs to beat us. We ended up in third place in our bracket and earned a total of 5.12 master points; 1.7 of which were gold. One needs to have 25 gold points to become a life master.
This afternoon our team entered another knock-out session but lost in the first round by a score of 59 to 60. My partner and I bid two hands poorly leading to our demise. Considering that the two of us had never played together before, we decided that we had done pretty well. Stan’s brother will be coming to town tomorrow to play with him so I think I’ll forget about anymore bridge on this trip.
This morning I attended the first of the three session in the Bridge Director’s Class. I’ve been studying the rules of bridge for the past three months but I learned an awful lot in the first three hours. Tomorrow we will continue the lessons with the final day, Friday, devoted solely to taking the qualifying test for the Bridge Director License.
I plan to be packed up with the camper and boat parked at the curb for a quick get-away after the exam. I will return via the coastal route, Hwy 101 south, to New Port and then Hwy 20 through Corvallis back to I-5. With luck, I’ll make it to the Seven Feathers Casino for dinner and a stay-over in their courtesy RV lot. If that occurs, I should be back at home Saturday night.
It has been my habit for years to check the weather page each morning as I read the daily newspaper. The OREGONIAN this past week has predicted rain each day this week, with absolute correctness, and rain each day in the announced five day forcast. When I have commented to locals about the reports, I get the quick response that, “Hey, it’s supposed to rain in Oregon, you know”. What can I say?
You know, this camper life gets to you pretty quickly. I would really like to head North instead of South. I’m enjoying my new life style and am looking forward to more time on the road with ‘lil Big Foot.
Wish you could all be enjoying this with me.
I love you all,
Grandpa Dad
Hello again from Seaside, Oregon,
I found some people who wanted to play bridge after visiting the “partner table” at the Oregon Coast Regional Duplicate Bridge Tournament. I decided that if I wanted to play some bridge I would have to take the bull by the horns and jump into the fray. I was a bit surprised to find literally dozens of people milling around the partner desk with same idea. The busy lady quickly lined me up with a man of about fifty who had just started playing competitive bridge earlier this year; Stan Roberts from Mercer Island, Washington. He had already accumulated a little over 100 master points so we were in the same ball park in terms of experience. He told me that he was a math major who worked as an actuary for a large insurance company. He was anxious to earn some “gold” points so we looked for another pair so we could enter a “knock-out” game. In this kind of game, teams are paired with similarly experienced players and play twenty-four hands with opposing pairs playing the same hands from a different direction. We found another pair from Springfield, Oregon. Jerry and Janet Walsh formerly lived in Los Angeles where Janet was an elementary school principal.
Our first game was Monday night and we managed to out score our opponents by a slim margin. Tuesday morning we played a second round and won handsomely gaining entry to a third round Tuesday afternoon. In the third round we were knocked-out and thus were out of the competition. We were pleased later to hear that the team that defeated us went on to win first place in our category. At least it took the champs to beat us. We ended up in third place in our bracket and earned a total of 5.12 master points; 1.7 of which were gold. One needs to have 25 gold points to become a life master.
This afternoon our team entered another knock-out session but lost in the first round by a score of 59 to 60. My partner and I bid two hands poorly leading to our demise. Considering that the two of us had never played together before, we decided that we had done pretty well. Stan’s brother will be coming to town tomorrow to play with him so I think I’ll forget about anymore bridge on this trip.
This morning I attended the first of the three session in the Bridge Director’s Class. I’ve been studying the rules of bridge for the past three months but I learned an awful lot in the first three hours. Tomorrow we will continue the lessons with the final day, Friday, devoted solely to taking the qualifying test for the Bridge Director License.
I plan to be packed up with the camper and boat parked at the curb for a quick get-away after the exam. I will return via the coastal route, Hwy 101 south, to New Port and then Hwy 20 through Corvallis back to I-5. With luck, I’ll make it to the Seven Feathers Casino for dinner and a stay-over in their courtesy RV lot. If that occurs, I should be back at home Saturday night.
It has been my habit for years to check the weather page each morning as I read the daily newspaper. The OREGONIAN this past week has predicted rain each day this week, with absolute correctness, and rain each day in the announced five day forcast. When I have commented to locals about the reports, I get the quick response that, “Hey, it’s supposed to rain in Oregon, you know”. What can I say?
You know, this camper life gets to you pretty quickly. I would really like to head North instead of South. I’m enjoying my new life style and am looking forward to more time on the road with ‘lil Big Foot.
Wish you could all be enjoying this with me.
I love you all,
Grandpa Dad
Monday, October 1, 2007
1 October 2007
Hello from Seaside Oregon,
The two hundred and fifty mile jaunt from Winchester Bay to Bend, Oregon was a beautiful drive. The trip up into the mountains on the North side of Mount Bachelor and through the tourist destination of Sisters, Oregon was a real pleasure. The previous evening the first snow fall of the season left a dusting of snow on the local peaks and along side the highway at the top of the pass. Oregon style fall colors were beginning to blossom at the higher altitudes with brilliant gold and reddish rose colored bushes gave one the feeling that it was almost like the Green Mountains of Vermont, sans the brilliant reds of the maples.
Sisters was full of day visitors, as always, seemingly anticipating the joy of the little village when snow is on the ground. The Solvang like crowds drifted from specialty shop to shop and then to cross the street at random in search of yet another shop full of the wonders of buyable handicrafts. I stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants available and then took my afternoon nap before moving on to Bend.
My new GPS took me into the Carroll’s neighborhood through several of the new subdivisions that have increased the population of Bend by nearly 500% over the past dozen years. Each of the new homes in this area is on a wonderfully large lot with lots of pine trees to keep the perspective of what Bend is all about.
I made it to Dick and Sally’s house before the UC Berkeley University of Oregon game was finished. I sat quietly enjoying Cal’s win as the Carroll’s anguished the loss right up to the last seconds of the game. Dick and Sally’s daughter earned her doctorate at UO and is a member of the school’s teaching staff (head of the department specializing in speech correction) and their granddaughter graduated UO last June. It makes sense that they were cheering for the locals and I felt badly that their team lost (kind of).
Sally served a marvelous meal, as usual, before we returned to the telly to watch USC almost get beaten by Washington State. I couldn’t help but cheer for Washington State and they almost pulled off the upset of the year. At least USC learned that they could be beaten.
Even though Dick and Sally were insistent that I use their guest room, I chose to sleep in my own bed in ‘lil Big Foot. The evening before the thermometer dropped to twenty-eight degrees and they feared for my future. As it turned out, I was snug and warm as it wasn’t nearly as cold as the preceding night. Prior to bedtime, the three of us enjoyed reminiscing about people that the Carroll’s knew in Pleasanton before they escaped to their paradise in Bend. Sally met the dawn of the new day with a marvelous breakfast that prepared me well for a day of driving to the coast.
The Carroll’s made an excellent suggestion for my drive to Seaside, directing me to HWY 26 that curves around Mount Hood and follows for a while the path the Deschutes River. The route took me across Oregon’s high desert through the agricultural town of Madras, the agricultural capital of Oregon. I was surprised to see an area that seemed to be about twenty miles square devoted to row crops; something one would expect to see around Salinas or the Coachella Valley. Then the road dropped off of the high desert plateau into the gorge carved by the Deschutes River. The road seemed to drop more than a thousand feet into the gorge and then just as quickly climbed back to a similar elevation. As the highway gained in elevation towards a pass of about 4500 feet, the fall colors began to reappear as on my previous day’s trip. It was quite beautiful.
It started raining intermittently as I left Bend with the strength of the rain increasing as I drove West. When I finally reached the Portland area, the rain was coming down by the buckets full. I was surprised by the extent of the traffic moving in both directions along Hwy 26 through the Portland area. I guessed that the thing to do when it rains in Portland is to go visit someone. As I moved further West, I found that my westbound traffic was thinning while the eastbound traffic remained very heavy. I surmised that everyone was coming home from where I was going.
When I arrived at Seaside, I quickly got the notion that my surmise was probably on the mark. This is a place that has everything going for it. Seaside’s earliest claim to fame lies in the fact that a group from the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Expedition, stationed at Fort Clatsop, set up a “salt camp“ at the site of the current Seaside to develop a salt supply for the groups return trip. They boiled sea water for several months to gain the needed salt. This activity gained Seaside the title as the “turn-around site for the expedition. Seaside attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with its historic sites, numerous opportunities for family activities, well advertised restaurants and hotels and lots of shopping. If the usual specialty shops don’t meet
Your needs, a full blown array of “outlet shops” are available for bargain hunters. Throw in an arcade with bumper cars and the like and a locally famous aquarium with seals trained to perform in exchange for being fed by visitors. Now add seasonal classic car shows, the Miss Oregon pageant, classic beach volleyball competition and more. What can I tell you? Seaside has it all.
I checked out the Convention Center, where the Regional Duplicate Tournament is to be held beginning on Monday. I found that the first game won’t be until Monday evening so I found myself with my first “day off” maybe ever. I checked out the town, did a little grocery shopping, searched for an internet café and devoted the rest of the day to finishing another book that I brought along. One of my neighbors in the RV Park had to show me what he has done with his “$800” motor home. He found the unit with a for sale sign on it at the curb near where he lives. He bought it and spent a year restoring it to its original 1978 condition. He described how he hand rubbed and waxed the exterior making it look show room ready. Then he cleaned and polished the interior, over hauling the appliances to that too look like new. Since the rig only has 50,000 miles on the odometer, he figures he will be using it for the next ten years. We’ve all heard of guys who restore old cars. Now we have an example of what can be done with old Rvs. Pretty impressive !
I’ve developed a half a dozen ideas for what I want to do with ‘lil Big Foot to make it work for me. Give me a few months and I think I’ll be ready for some really serious fun.
Put Seaside on your list of places to go and things to do. You’ll like it!
Love to all,
Grandpa Dad
The two hundred and fifty mile jaunt from Winchester Bay to Bend, Oregon was a beautiful drive. The trip up into the mountains on the North side of Mount Bachelor and through the tourist destination of Sisters, Oregon was a real pleasure. The previous evening the first snow fall of the season left a dusting of snow on the local peaks and along side the highway at the top of the pass. Oregon style fall colors were beginning to blossom at the higher altitudes with brilliant gold and reddish rose colored bushes gave one the feeling that it was almost like the Green Mountains of Vermont, sans the brilliant reds of the maples.
Sisters was full of day visitors, as always, seemingly anticipating the joy of the little village when snow is on the ground. The Solvang like crowds drifted from specialty shop to shop and then to cross the street at random in search of yet another shop full of the wonders of buyable handicrafts. I stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants available and then took my afternoon nap before moving on to Bend.
My new GPS took me into the Carroll’s neighborhood through several of the new subdivisions that have increased the population of Bend by nearly 500% over the past dozen years. Each of the new homes in this area is on a wonderfully large lot with lots of pine trees to keep the perspective of what Bend is all about.
I made it to Dick and Sally’s house before the UC Berkeley University of Oregon game was finished. I sat quietly enjoying Cal’s win as the Carroll’s anguished the loss right up to the last seconds of the game. Dick and Sally’s daughter earned her doctorate at UO and is a member of the school’s teaching staff (head of the department specializing in speech correction) and their granddaughter graduated UO last June. It makes sense that they were cheering for the locals and I felt badly that their team lost (kind of).
Sally served a marvelous meal, as usual, before we returned to the telly to watch USC almost get beaten by Washington State. I couldn’t help but cheer for Washington State and they almost pulled off the upset of the year. At least USC learned that they could be beaten.
Even though Dick and Sally were insistent that I use their guest room, I chose to sleep in my own bed in ‘lil Big Foot. The evening before the thermometer dropped to twenty-eight degrees and they feared for my future. As it turned out, I was snug and warm as it wasn’t nearly as cold as the preceding night. Prior to bedtime, the three of us enjoyed reminiscing about people that the Carroll’s knew in Pleasanton before they escaped to their paradise in Bend. Sally met the dawn of the new day with a marvelous breakfast that prepared me well for a day of driving to the coast.
The Carroll’s made an excellent suggestion for my drive to Seaside, directing me to HWY 26 that curves around Mount Hood and follows for a while the path the Deschutes River. The route took me across Oregon’s high desert through the agricultural town of Madras, the agricultural capital of Oregon. I was surprised to see an area that seemed to be about twenty miles square devoted to row crops; something one would expect to see around Salinas or the Coachella Valley. Then the road dropped off of the high desert plateau into the gorge carved by the Deschutes River. The road seemed to drop more than a thousand feet into the gorge and then just as quickly climbed back to a similar elevation. As the highway gained in elevation towards a pass of about 4500 feet, the fall colors began to reappear as on my previous day’s trip. It was quite beautiful.
It started raining intermittently as I left Bend with the strength of the rain increasing as I drove West. When I finally reached the Portland area, the rain was coming down by the buckets full. I was surprised by the extent of the traffic moving in both directions along Hwy 26 through the Portland area. I guessed that the thing to do when it rains in Portland is to go visit someone. As I moved further West, I found that my westbound traffic was thinning while the eastbound traffic remained very heavy. I surmised that everyone was coming home from where I was going.
When I arrived at Seaside, I quickly got the notion that my surmise was probably on the mark. This is a place that has everything going for it. Seaside’s earliest claim to fame lies in the fact that a group from the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Expedition, stationed at Fort Clatsop, set up a “salt camp“ at the site of the current Seaside to develop a salt supply for the groups return trip. They boiled sea water for several months to gain the needed salt. This activity gained Seaside the title as the “turn-around site for the expedition. Seaside attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with its historic sites, numerous opportunities for family activities, well advertised restaurants and hotels and lots of shopping. If the usual specialty shops don’t meet
Your needs, a full blown array of “outlet shops” are available for bargain hunters. Throw in an arcade with bumper cars and the like and a locally famous aquarium with seals trained to perform in exchange for being fed by visitors. Now add seasonal classic car shows, the Miss Oregon pageant, classic beach volleyball competition and more. What can I tell you? Seaside has it all.
I checked out the Convention Center, where the Regional Duplicate Tournament is to be held beginning on Monday. I found that the first game won’t be until Monday evening so I found myself with my first “day off” maybe ever. I checked out the town, did a little grocery shopping, searched for an internet café and devoted the rest of the day to finishing another book that I brought along. One of my neighbors in the RV Park had to show me what he has done with his “$800” motor home. He found the unit with a for sale sign on it at the curb near where he lives. He bought it and spent a year restoring it to its original 1978 condition. He described how he hand rubbed and waxed the exterior making it look show room ready. Then he cleaned and polished the interior, over hauling the appliances to that too look like new. Since the rig only has 50,000 miles on the odometer, he figures he will be using it for the next ten years. We’ve all heard of guys who restore old cars. Now we have an example of what can be done with old Rvs. Pretty impressive !
I’ve developed a half a dozen ideas for what I want to do with ‘lil Big Foot to make it work for me. Give me a few months and I think I’ll be ready for some really serious fun.
Put Seaside on your list of places to go and things to do. You’ll like it!
Love to all,
Grandpa Dad
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