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Showing posts from March, 2014

39 Beverly Hills Drive......first mosquito report

  Although the similarities with zipcode 90210 are very remote, we have landed in Beverly Drive; not in Beverly Hills, CA but in Lethem, Guyana.   In a place the size of a few square miles, they have managed to find a house for us on (39) Beverly Drive….. to ensure that we do not get homesick. No; not 39 Beverly Drive.  It's the old Governor's residence in GT.  Now, the Prime Minister's home. Lethem has about 7,000 inhabitants now and has been growing rapidly over the last couple of years. It’s a border town and after the bridge to Brazil was finished four years ago (total population then 3,000) it has seen rapid, unbridled expansion and development.   Paddy fields seen from flight  Georgetown to Lethem, just out of Georgetown   The new, outer rings of the village are littered with ‘big-box’ super-stores (Savanah Inn, Chinese Superstore, Mr Chans….) where, in the weekends, Brazilians do their shopping. Brazil, officially, doesn’t sell or import Ch

Boom-boxes, Birds and Bush-masters

 Memories go back to  Tajikistan; here an Afghan trader at one of the border markets Our memories drift back to October 2010, Dushanbe, the Prospekt Medical Clinic at Rudaki Avenue, the boulevard that dissects the capital of Tajikistan......... .................As part of the VSO-CUSO in-country training programs, new arriving volunteers have to meet with the staff of an always private local hospital to understand, what living in a new environment means and what bacteria, viruses and rabid dogs are on the loose and will visit the ignorant new-comers (unfortunately with alarming frequency). In Dushanbe we meet with the (German) Herr Dr. Andreas Hencko, an interesting, quirky and fascinating character. The older volunteers, quite unceremoniously, refer to him as Dr. Death. In a mere 20 minutes he manages to scare the bejeezus out of us hardy volunteers, with stories about the use of un-boiled or untreated water (filter first, boil twice), meat bought at the local mark

Guyana, soon tomorrow......

Farewell California Your patience is now being rewarded!! We're back, with a vengeance..... the long delay has no excuses, save, we've been occupied with months of travel in India, from where we returned to California by way of Holland and Canada. So, here we are, back in what we regard as the most beautiful part of the world and our designated home (as far as we have one) - Southern California. Early March 2014, we are on our way to Guyana, South America, so there is much 'catching up' to do. Still in (Northern) California, here Bodega Bay We left you in India after our amazing trip along the West Coast of Australia.    But that was over a year ago. India left indelible memories. “You love it or hate it”, people say, and some friends and family even warned us that we would last just a few weeks.   We loved it and will return, no question about it. Such an amazing country, so many stories to tell. We suggest we do that later, when we can find the time from o