We arrived in Amsterdam at about 8 a.m. (11 p.m. PST, no sleep), went to our hotel (very charming), dropped off our luggage, and kept going. After breakfast we took a tour of the city via boat through the canals, of which there are many and which cross Amsterdam in a semi-grid manner. Lily fell asleep on the boat so missed quite a bit. We returned to the hotel for a 2-hour nap (in name only) and shower, then we were on our way to a wonderful Indonesian dinner. Mel and Andrea stepped into, for observational purposes only, a "Coffee Shop", not to be confused with a Koffee Shop where coffee is served. At the former, the fare is smokable rather than drinkable. There are many of these scattered throughout the city. The ladies did not inhale as the kids were waiting outside. After dinner, we toured the house where Anne Frank hid out for a few years before she was taken to the camp. It is a museum now with artifacts from the Frank family's time there and commentary. Quite moving. The evening ended with a fruitless search for an ice cream parlor. Surprisingly, there were none to be found in close proximity to the Coffee Shops.
Yesterday was spent in travel to Kampala. After a pleasant 8-hour flight to Entebbe, we were taken in a van 1 1/2 hours to Kampala, a large and relatively prosperous for Africa, city which is now hosting a meeting of the African Union. That, and the recent terrorist bombing here that killed over 70 people, has caused there to be very tight security. To get into our hotel, we had all our luggage inspected by several people, item by item, and went through metal detectors at the front gate. Then we went through the process all over again at the front door. This took quite a while and delayed our eventual cocktail hour (11 p.m.), where gin and tonics (the latter to ward off malaria) were imbibed, and dinner. It is now 5:30 a.m. and, thanks to jet lag, I am fully awake and writing this.
This morning, Spencer and I will go with Charity, a woman who runs an orphanage near the gorilla park where we are going, to purchase textbooks and writing supplies for her orphans. As things stand now, there is one textbook for the whole school of 100+ kids and they write in the dirt with sticks. John, one of our traveling companions and trip-organizer, who has already been here for a week on business, bought (or brought, I'm not sure) mosquito nets for the entire orphanage. Charity will take all this stuff back to the orphanage today. We will stop by later this week to tour it and drop off a duffle-bag full of clothes we brought from Bainbridge.
I am going to attempt to sleep again so will sign off. I hope the muslim call to prayer I am now hearing doesn't prevent my doing so. I don't know when we will next have Internet access so it could be awhile before I post again.
Dear Lucases:
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't surprise me but humbles and saddens me to think of 100 schoolchildren sharing just one textbook. To think of them writing not on paper, squandering it as so many of us do, but in the dirt.
As long as I live, I'll never get used to, let alone accept, the unfairness of life. What kind of world is this, where actors, musicians, and sports stars earn millions a year and schoolchildren lack even the basic materials for an education? Aaauuuggghhh!
I'll think of you all -- and wish you the best --while downing my next vodka tonic. We have mosquitoes here, too, you know.
Carol
P.S. Of the books I've read about Africa, the two I love most are Elspeth Huxley's The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard. They paint a portrait of an Africa long gone -- but one most of us still picture. Have you read them?